Invest In The Wine World's Leading Power Brand: Armand Rousseau

Power brand #1

The British wine exchange Liv-ex has, in collaboration with The Drinks Business, just published the 14th edition of the Liv-ex Power 100 which announces the biggest wine brand of the year and Domaine Armand Rousseau takes first place in front of both Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Domaine Leroy. The ranking is made on the basis of four criteria: year-on-year price performance, trading activity at Liv-ex (both by value and volume), the number of wines and vintages and the average bottle price at each producer.

That Domaine Armand Rousseau belongs in the absolute top is a matter of course, but the inclusion of first place on the list of 2019's power brands seriously shows how great global interest is in the domain's attractive wines.

An Iconic Institution In Burgundy

Since its foundation in the early 1900s, the domain has been on a constant rise to the top and today stands as an iconic Burgundy institution and is even referred to as the King of Gevrey-Chambertin - a distinguished title considering Gevrey-Chambertin's status as one of the most prestigious communes in the region.

Domaine Armand Rousseau produces no less than 11 different wines with a total of seven being classified as Grand Cru. Although all seven are interesting from an investment perspective, the domain's absolute top wines, Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, has been defining the domain's way to the absolute top.

The wines of Domaine Rousseau are highly sought after, including among Asian wine lovers, and the demand is answered only by a very limited annual production of less than 10,000 bottles of Chambertin and as little as 6,000 bottles of Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. This attractive combination of the very limited supply of Armand Rousseau's top wine and international demand has resulted in price increases, pleased investors and may continue to do so.

Strong Returns Are No Surprise

Armand Rousseau and the top wines Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze almost equal strong returns, which, however, can hardly be a surprise, given the above. The returns are seen in the medium as well as slightly shorter time perspective, but also have the capacity to be among the strongest investments in the long run - in fact to such an extent that Rousseau's Chambertin found its way to the top-3 in our retrospective on the past decade in which the 2002 vintage has delivered an average annual return of 22.3% through the past 10 years!

Read more about the 10 wild wine investments from the decade that has turned in our New Year's article: A Decade Has Passed: 10 Wild Wine Investments

If we will look back in 10 years and once again enjoy the wine from Domaine Armand Rousseau as being among the top investments of the decade, one can only guess, but one thing is certain: Domaine Armand Rousseau has the capacity and the domain's top wines has undoubtedly the format.

Dive into the average return across the 2001-2016 vintages of Domaine Armand Rousseau's Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze in the table below:

High Quality Builds Strong Brands

High popularity and high demand do not come naturally through branding in the world of wine and the product usually has to defend both price and domain reputation. However, high quality in the wines usually contributes to an increase in demand and by sustained high quality builds a strong wine brand almost itself. From here, the brand and the high quality of the wine, if it can be maintained, become the pillars of the domain and ensures the sustained interest of wine connoisseurs, which is attractive to the wine investor.

Although the current scores on Domaine Armand Rousseau's Chambertin and Chambertin Clos de Bèze are dominated by so-called barrel scores *, it is clear that the wines are of high quality. The potential fluctuations that may occur can be attributed, for example, to weaker vintages where comparable producers in the same area have probably experienced similar dives. Unchallenged by this is Domaine Armand Rousseau's status as a top wine producer manifested and has shown an ability to retain the interest of wine connoisseurs worldwide. See the critics' assessment of the wines for sale in this investment tip:

* barrel score is the term for a score given on the basis of a taste directly from the dish, which only gives the critic indications about the quality and character of the wine which is why points are given in intervals.

Rare Wine Invest’s Opinion

We recommend an overweight of Burgundy wine in the portfolio and in this the wines from Domaine Armand Rousseau will be very attractive. The Grand Cru wines Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze are, in their simplicity, the absolute top wines from one of Burgundy's most iconic producers and exactly that, combined with an extremely limited production that far from meets demand, provides solid investment potential. A potential that is now also backed by Domaine Armand Rousseau's ranking as the wine world's # 1 power brand in 2019.

The investment potential is also historically confirmed and whether looking at the long or short run, both Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Bèze have delivered excellent returns.

The reason for the historical return can, of course, be the very limited production and the very limited quantities available on the world's wine markets are clearly illustrated in the quantities we can now offer for investment. Even the best Michelin restaurants with formidable contacts have to settle with tiny allocations.

By investing in the top wines from Armand Rousseau, attractive wines can be secured which in the future can be just the perfectly mature wines everyone wants, but extremely few can obtain.

Do you want to learn more?

Read more about why investing in wine is the perfect investment and get wiser on what mechanisms make investing in wine especially attractive right here: Why invest in wine?

If you are not yet a wine investor, you can also benefit from reading more about how to invest right here: How to Invest

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