Investment in Wine: Bordeaux: cyclical history

The first great boom in Bordeaux resulted from a period of prosperity which coincided with shortages caused by powdery mildew, or oidium, in the 1850s. The canny merchant Hermann cruse had struck the first speculative blow already, when, in 1848, he had bought up vast quantities of the 1847 vintage, only to release his hoard at undisclosed prices following Napoleon III’s imperial accession. British Chancellor of the Exchequer (later to be Prime Minister) Gladstone’s reduction of duty on French wine following the 1860 Anglo-French Commercial Treaty and the Single Bottle Act of 1861 (which paved the way for the off-licence, and thus a retail trade in alcoholic drinks) further fuelled demand for red bordeaux.