Vintage Wine Estates Inc. (NASDAQ:VWE) dropped 40% last week after a law office announced an investigation of the firm on behalf of investors. As recently as early August, Citigroup analysts had resumed a “buy” rating on the stock with a price target of $10 to $9. The lawyer’s investigation seemed serious enough that selling took the price down from Tuesday’s $5.50 to $3.31 by the close of trading Wednesday.

That publicly traded company may be dealing with legal issues but it doesn’t mean that wine as an investment opportunity is to be avoided completely. On the contrary, certain non-exchange traded wine firms have decent stories and offer shares in the private market.

For example, Vint offered its California Collection of wines at $46 per share with just 1,000 shares offered for a total investment of $46,000. According to its website, the company exited the collection at $53,472 (net of fees and taxes.) Vint offers other wine collections at what some call this democratized way of allowing initial investors in at relatively reasonable prices.

The company’s most recent collections can be viewed on the platform, keeping in mind that there is no trading platform for these types of investments. The notice of qualification under Regulation A is here on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) EDGAR website.

Liv-ex.com tracks the prices of fine wines around the world and finds that its Fine Wine 50 Index is up this year by 4.10%, and the past five-year record shows a gain of 15.8%. Its Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 increased so far this year by 6.10% with a past five-year growth rate of 35%.

As an alternative investment offering diversity and global value, the wine market may offer investors a taste of value.

Not investment advice. For educational purposes only.