My Favorite Investments Part I

Originally posted August 1, 2014.

In my monthly Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report (IR), I cover all my portfolio top picks, including regular intelligence on precious metals. I concentrate not only on personal finances but also on personal security issues. As such, I regularly discuss my favorites in the personal security area. In this series, I want to deal with some favorites that I do not have the space to deal with in depth in my monthly IR.

As I have been writing here, Debbie and I spend an increasing amount of time in France each year studying a number of specific fronts, the least of which is certainly not the traction Front National continues to make on the French political landscape.

On the investment front, many areas of France offer excellent potential for those interested in a second home or investment or outright retirement. Many Americans are not aware of the excellent American Hospital in Paris, a wonderful resource for American ex-pats or simply for Americans on the road.

France has much to offer on a number of fronts, but it is French wine and specifically French red Burgundy that I am going to cover in my multi-part investment series.

Why Burgundy and not Bordeaux? The B-or-B debate is certainly the top rung on the ladder of French wine discussion. In The Wine Questionnaire, Daniel Johnnes, wine director for Daniel Boulud’s Dinex Group, succinctly sums up the discussion: “Ask anyone in the world of wine and they will laugh at the question. BURGUNDY.”

In my strongly advised Secrets of the Sommeliers, Rajat Parr devotes a full 27 pages to Burgundy and but 250 mostly unpleasant words to Bordeaux. I categorically agree with Daniel and Rajat, but certainly recognize that the opposing view has tremendous support around the world, a view that is most often a topic of discussion for Wall Street hedge-fund types.

In part two of this series, I will get started in Burgundy and will enliven the series with on-the-ground intelligence from our upcoming stay in Beaune (the wine capital of Burgundy) and Gevrey-Chambertin (boasts the Cote d Or’s greatest number of old vines).