As Wall Street continues to disappoint you may find yourself seeking alternative money-making strategies as opposed to stocks and bonds. While wine is obviously fine for enjoyment it can also act as a unique investment option. It's important to note that putting your money on fine wine does not incur a capital gains tax since it is considered a 'wasting asset' only expected to last fifty years. Your best bet is a first growth from the Bordeaux region and Vanquish Wine, a bespoke wine service for private clients, suggests these top five:

Worries over potential wine fraud have started to hit the auction houses prompting the pulling of a pricey Bordeaux bottle. An Imperial of 1961 Chateau Petrus was expected to be auctioned off on Saturday by Edward Roberts International in Chicago. The single bottle was expected to bring in around $150,000. The auction house decided to withdraw the bottle from the auction in order to doublecheck the authenticity. The auction house has said they will put the bottle back on the block once all the documentation is in order. As more and more people see wine as an investment with possible big returns the stakes have been raised. Potential lawsuits such as the one filed by billionaire collector Wiliiam Koch may also be behind the increased scrutiny and the need to document the provenance of the investment bottles.

When it comes to the upper tiers of wine auctions there are wines you buy basically for the old bottles (the Jefferson wines fall solidly in this category) and then there are wines you open no matter how much they cost. The imperial bottle of French Grand Cru First Growth Château Pétrus, 1961 being auctioned off by Edward Roberts International at their October 28 auction falls into this category. The imperial (the size of eight standard bottles) of Bordeaux is expected to sell for up to $150,000.

The auction also includes 1921, 1947 and 1961 Chateau Petrus en Magnums and several prized vintages of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild including the 1945. California cults wines are also represented with selections from Screaming Eagle, Harlan and Scarecrow available. But the most visually striking selection from the auction has to be the Courvoissier Cognac Erte decanter collection shown above. You can bid online or in person at the auction at the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago.

[via Blogging Stocks]

Vintage wines that were collected by French president Jacques Chirac, while he was the mayor of Paris  will be auctioned off this fall. The 5,000 bottles include several 1990 Château Pétrus and 191 bottles of 1976 Krug Champagne. The sale is expected to bring in over $630,000. The bottles are kept in the  Hôtel de Ville  and government auditors decided that keeping the expensive wine was a liability because of the price and the possibility that the bottles could be damaged by a flood. Also, the current regime just isn't drinking the way Chirac's crowd used to. Both the amount of wine consumed and the amount of money allocated to the wine budget have been drastically reduced.  It's a pretty strong statement regarding the French attitude toward wine in light of the recent years of plummeting French interest in wine and resulting poor sales.

A recent Sotheby’s Fine & Rare Wines auction at New Bond Street, London ended yesterday. A particular sale that caught my eye was Lot 12, Chateau Petrus 1982. Hammer price was at about 23,036 US dollars. An ultimate collectors wine, Petrus comes from a small 28.4 acre vineyard named in honor of St. Peter. It is the only site where topsoil and subsoil are composed almost entirely of heavy clay rich in iron. Ironically clay is typically unsuitable for high-quality wines, as it tends to get water logged. Fermented in cement vats, the wine is aged in completely new oak barrels for 22 to 28 months, and right before bottling it is clarified with five fresh egg whites per barrel (they don’t filter). Sotheby’s notes of developed color with great character in the nose of prunes and spices. Licorice with sweet gummy definition and some sweet aniseed. Pruney finish with mocha as it lingers on the palate. At 10 bottles in the lot, average cost per bottle is $2,304.