Whether we like it or not our daily lives are all heavily influenced by the success or failure of the world banking and financial systems. I’m sure that most people would argue that they have a lot to answer for. More or less every industry is impacted, including the wine industry, whether this be caused directly, by a drop in consumption, or perhaps less obviously, by investment in wine futures or properties.

A few months ago we read dramatic headlines concerning a world shortage of wine – demand for wine had actually outstripped the supply, or so we were lead to believe. It transpires however, that upon closer investigation we may have been misled….. by the Australian research division of an investment bank…… with a vested interest in the wine industry!!!! All the news reports were apparently based on a single study carried out by Morgan Stanley, and closer inspection revealed that the report was actually promoting an Australian wine company as a top stock pick to buy.

It is said that one of the most effective ways of persuasion in investment banking is to come up with a thesis which might, in turn, create big attention-grabbing headlines such as ‘There’s a world shortage of wine’. Inevitably such a dramatic claim will attract lots of press coverage, and in the short term at least, grab the attention of the world. It seems however, that the “research” may have been flawed and based on some slightly distorted, or perhaps even manipulated information, in order to achieve the desired effect. In reality there were probably very few (in the wine industry) who believed it, and perhaps the number of failing wine businesses in France and Spain might go some way to supporting this opinion. 

Whether we like it or not our daily lives are all heavily influenced by the success or failure of the world banking and financial systems. I’m sure that most people would argue that they have a lot to answer for. More or less every industry is impacted, including the wine industry, whether this be caused directly, by a drop in consumption, or perhaps less obviously, by investment in wine futures or properties.

A few months ago we read dramatic headlines concerning a world shortage of wine – demand for wine had actually outstripped the supply, or so we were lead to believe. It transpires however, that upon closer investigation we may have been misled….. by the Australian research division of an investment bank…… with a vested interest in the wine industry!!!! All the news reports were apparently based on a single study carried out by Morgan Stanley, and closer inspection revealed that the report was actually promoting an Australian wine company as a top stock pick to buy.

It is said that one of the most effective ways of persuasion in investment banking is to come up with a thesis which might, in turn, create big attention-grabbing headlines such as ‘There’s a world shortage of wine’. Inevitably such a dramatic claim will attract lots of press coverage, and in the short term at least, grab the attention of the world. It seems however, that the “research” may have been flawed and based on some slightly distorted, or perhaps even manipulated information, in order to achieve the desired effect. In reality there were probably very few (in the wine industry) who believed it, and perhaps the number of failing wine businesses in France and Spain might go some way to supporting this opinion.