Notes
Practical notes, set down plainly.
Guidance for collectors, families, estates and the advisors who serve them: how fine wine is valued, kept, moved, bought and sold, and how it reaches collectors in North America.
For families and advisorsWhat to do with an inherited wine cellar
A cellar in an estate is valuable, perishable and easy to mishandle in the first weeks. What to protect, record and decide, in roughly the order it needs to happen.
For collectors and advisorsHow a wine collection is valued, and when you need a formal appraisal
A cellar has no single value. What it is worth depends on why you are asking, and the evidence behind the figure matters as much as the figure itself.
For collectorsProvenance: what to check before buying at auction
The catalog tells you a great deal, but not everything. How to read a lot, what to ask before you bid and what the auction house stands behind.
For collectors, families and advisorsSelling a wine collection: auction, private sale or merchant
The right route depends on the wines, the timetable and the rules where the wine is kept. How each route works, and how to prepare a cellar so it sells well.
For collectorsMoving a wine cellar across the country or abroad
Wine travels well when the move is planned around it and badly when it is packed like furniture. Conditions, movers, paperwork and the rules at each border.
For producersReaching North American collectors, alongside your importer
In the United States and Canada, wine reaches private collectors only through licensed partners. Understanding that structure is what lets an estate build collector relationships without unsettling the trade.