The Bryan Johnson Of Wines
Château d’Yquem 2015
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Hello wine lovers,
Who’s Bryan Johnson?, you may ask, And, What does Bryan Johnson have to do with wine?
In case you don’t know who Bryan Johnson is, he's the madman striving for eternal life, encapsulated by his motto, "Don't Die." Aged 45, a magnate in the realm of software entrepreneurship (having sold his payment company, Braintree Venmo, to PayPal for $800 million), has assembled a squad comprising over 30 medical specialists and health experts. This dedicated ensemble, steered by the 29-year-old regenerative medicine luminary, Dr. Oliver Zolman, has collectively pledged their expertise to embark on a remarkable quest: the reversal of the ageing process within every facet of Johnson's bodily apparatus. He compiles a protocol or blueprint to slow the ageing effect — and he shares it for free online.
I've read it all, and trust me, wine isn’t included in this protocol.
So Bryan Johnson doesn’t have anything to do with wine, but a fine wine, Château d’Yquem, has lots to do with ageing gracefully. Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW wrote an article on Château d’Yquem, titled Elixir Immortal and she said:
One of the most common questions asked of wine experts is, “How long can this bottle of wine last?” The importance of this consideration cannot be underestimated. […] Much of the estimation involves understanding the grape variety, site, style, and winemaking. But it’s easy to underestimate the wine’s stamina by a decade or two when it comes to botrytized sweet wines like Sauternes. And for Château d’Yquem, that misjudgment window can be half a century or more. Yquem is the only wine I’ve tasted many times and never had to conclude, "This bottle is dead."
As you may remember, when assessing whether a wine is investment-worthy, its longevity is key.
And so, what Perrotti-Brown mentions caused me to investigate if any of the wines mentioned could be an interesting buy. As reported by Liv-ex, The Wine Independent scored 3 vintages 100 points: 2001, 2009 and 2015.
From the chart above, it’s clear that the 2015 is trading at a marked discount from the 2001 and the 2009 vintages. Once we account for the yearly costs of storage etc, which you may remember comes at 1.2% annually, the 2015 vintage still trades at a 24% and 14% discount from the 2001 and 2009 respectively.
Château d’Yquem 2015 should therefore be on your buying list, despite wine not being on the anti-ageing protocol. After all, who wants to live forever?
P.S.: This type of valuation, in finance, is referred to as Comparables. This method is often used in real estate to find the fair value of a home and allows one to determine the value of an asset. It’s not very useful in transition periods where market sentiment shifts, such as the one we experienced earlier in the year, but nonetheless is possibly the only methodology currently available to establish the fair value of fine wine and to identify overvalued or undervalued assets.
Thanks for tuning in, a short one this week! This newsletter is free for all readers and the best way to keep it free is to subscribe, re-share it with your wine-lover friends, and follow me on Instagram.
👋 Sara Danese
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Disclaimer
My investment thesis, risk appetite, and time frames are strictly my own and are significantly different from that of my readership. As such, the investments covered in this publication and in this article are not to be considered investment advice nor do they represent an offer to buy or sell securities or services, and should be regarded as information only.