The launch of the Oracle Paradis Wine Fund is certainly opportune, coming at a time when HNW investors have been ramping up their investments into fine wines: investment into fine wine increased by 10 per cent globally last year, with Asia showing an even more impressive uptick of 40 per cent, according to Knight Frank. Rare vintages have also had a strong start to the year as the prices paid for fine wines - mainly the top French houses - rose by 7.3 per cent between the start of 2013 and the end of March, slightly less than major developed global equity markets, but still far superior to equity returns over the past five years (Source: Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index).

Oracle’s new wine fund primarily invests in Bordeaux and Burgundy vintages and rare collectors' wines, but also cognac from the 18^th and 19^th centuries and pre-1940 whiskies. It has already made some notable acquisitions, such as bottles of Cognac Clos de Griffier 1789 from the cellars of the famous La Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris.

The rationale behind including rare, old spirits is that Oracle believes they are currently undervalued compared to fine wines and that having been historically overlooked prices are set to boom in the next five to ten years. The fund’s managers will be actively trading the rare spirits part of the portfolio in particular, with the aim of still generating profits when the wine market is flat or waning.

David Nathan-Maister, a former wine producer and expert on spirits, serves as director of the fund (he is known as an author and historian on spirits). Its investment advisory team also includes some well-known names from the European wine industry, such as Pierre Beuchet, the founder of the wine distribution business DIVA Group.

The minimum investment in the Oracle Paradis Wine Fund is $100,000.