Two years ago in November, I was invited to be part of a panel discussing wine investment at the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair. I felt a bit lonely as a consumer wine journalist because the other panelists representing various wine trade interests were setting out their stalls. There was a broker, an auctioneer, a wine merchant, a wine fund manager and a wine cellar adviser. All of them extolled the virtues of investing in wine.

There is nothing in the green heart of the English countryside near Bath to suggest that the gentle climb up the hill at Eastlays takes you to the biggest fine wine cellar in the world. ‘It’s like Fort Knox, cameras everywhere’, says the taxi driver. Sure enough, as we drive into a depot car park surrounded by steel railings, a battery of cameras autofocuses on every twitch of the nose and flutter of the eyelash. This is Corsham Cellars, bought in 1989 by Nigel Jagger when he founded Octavian. Built into the hill, it contains around 7.5 million bottles of fine wine worth over £1 billion.