02/07/05 Monday question - Wine futures

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran and, on today's program we are answering questions from our email. Recently, a listener wrote to ask, "What does it mean to buy wine futures?" Buying wine futures means, you pay now, for wine that will be produced at some point in the future. Obviously, this is not something that you would enter into blindly. You should be familiar with the track record of, the winery and winemakers, and vineyards that the grapes are coming from. Based upon some assurances from that information, you will then hope that Mother Nature cooperates, and the harvest is a good one. Allowing the winemakers to use their skills and produce wines of quality. Most likely a winery that offers futures is one that has a good reputation and often a limited production of the wine being offered. If you are collecting wine and it is important to you to have a special wine  often this may be the only way for you to get the wine. Chances are it won't be available in any other way and if you do find it it will be considerably more expensive. The upside is that if the vintage turns out to be an exceptional one, you will have paid less than the market price, when the wine is released for retail sale. The downside is that there are no guarantees that the wine will live up to your expectations. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's vine to wine.