UNDER THE RADAR Denis Hartnett, Vintagewineinvestments.com
Kerry native Denis Hartnett has established a new business to cash in on our fondness for wine, although it will be dealing with something a bit classier than the €7 bottle of plonk from the local service station.
Vintagewineinvestments.com is offering customers with a bit of spare cash an extensive service in the areas of fine wine sales, investment, consultancy and cellar construction.
"I had worked in the wine industry for several years working for Berry Brothers and Rudd based off Grafton Street," says Hartnett. "I saw a niche opening for a company that would specifically just advise on both investment portfolios and also portfolios that would comprise wines for drinking."
He deals with two specific types of customer - the one who knows and enjoys good wine and is looking for something a bit upmarket or different, and the hardcore investor.
"They don't drink wine," he says. "They are not really interested in anything to do with the pleasures of it. They are just looking to flip it in about five years." For these clients, Hartnett acts as a kind of wine stockbroker, picking and choosing depending on the type of portfolio his clients want to build.
"The best comparison I have to make is to that of a stockbroker," he says. "You can pick a very large portfolio, a very diverse one with potential superstar wines on the way up, or you can have proven provenance or pedigrees."
A standard portfolio is about €50,000, he says, and, like stocks and shares portfolios, wine also has its blue-chip members.
"Blue-chip wines are ones that give solid guaranteed returns, you're looking at 10-20 per cent return each year on this wine."
Hartnett says the economic downturn, particularly poor returns from the stock market and property, is making people look elsewhere and wine is an area attracting increasing attention as a commodity increasing in value.
"Take Chateau Margaux - it is one of the most famous wines in the world. Take a very good vintage, 2000, there are variables there - a good vintage, a limited number of bottles produced and, as this wine is being consumed, what happens the remaining bottles is that the rarity value also kicks in."
He warns that a lot of care and attention is necessary to look after a wine investment and this is where his consultancy comes in.
"The hardcore investors don't see their wines," he says. "They don't store it at home. It is kept in a bonded warehouse, usually in the UK, and these are temperature- controlled warehouses."
Vintagewineinvestments was set up in 2007 with an initial €10,000 investment, a large proportion of which went on setting up a website. The company has offices in Killarney and Dublin and this year Hartnett is expecting to turn over about €350,000. "It is nearly outperforming everything bar oil at the moment," he says.
ON THE RECORD
Name:Denis Hartnett
Age:32
Background:Studied microbiology, specialising in fermentation in UCC. Recently completed an MBA from the Michael Smurfit School of Business in UCD.
Admires: Owen Killian, chief executive of IAWS, whom he describes as "a fantastic businessman and very grounded".
