Wine estate buyers

I am helping a friend’s parent’s liquidate a wine collection. They are getting older, moving closer to the kids so they can get help when needed. They don’t want to move the old collection. Heaps of Napa and other california wines, as well as an assortment of french and italian wines.

Any suggestions on a good way to move an entire lot?

Thanks!

Depends on what they have, but auction would be your best route overall. PM me for my work details.

Auction could be a good route depending on the level of wines but there are also plenty of great operations out there who can assist you in selling the wines via retail only, auction only, or a combination of -

Your/their first step would be to do an inventory or have one done.

Also questions like how was the wine stored, general conditions, etc…

Talk to Ian.

Best,

Kenney

Your friend does not have parent’s. I don’t have parent’s. You don’t have parent’s.
But we all do have parents. Or did.

Phil Jones

Either auction or consignment. Benchmark Wines buys collections as do some large wine stores. Ian who posted above works for Heritage Wine Auctions which is a very reputable auction house and a good choice. Winebid is a popular choice for many.

A lot will depend on how they’ve been stored of course.

I’d start with Ian and also shop around
where is the wine?
How has it been stored?

If it is on the west coast I’d call www.bpwine.com for retail and probably K&L for auctions
If it is midwest I’d go www.flickingerwines.com for retail and Hart Davis for auctions
East coast www.cellaraiders.com for retail and zachys for auctions

when selling anything you can either maximize price or time. Max price takes a while to achieve, quick sale you concede price. All depends on what is important to you.

good luck and be careful

Benchmark moves a lot of cellars as well. I get tons of email from them moving cellars, particularly with older Cali Cab.

Ben at CellaRaiders gave me the best prices out of Benchmark, Hart Davis Hart, and K&L - plus he sent me the check so it was done in one move. Hart Davis Hart will consign your whole cellar, but they charge 28% commission, a $5 intake fee per case, and some other cost I forget off hand. After you deduct all that, their nice fat offer ends up being down around everyone else’s and on top of it you have to wait for the wines to sell. In all fairness, most were pretty close.

Prices you receive are directly related to the size and desirability of the collection you sell. Bigger collections ($100k+) will be bid on by the larger players more aggressively. It’s purely ruled by economies of scale - the process of appraising a collection, shipping, inspecting, pricing to market, etc. is incredibly labor intensive. Efficiency is gained with volume - or with a small number of highly valuable bottles.

If the collection is worth under $25k, the smaller guys will likely be more competitive because they are often starved for product.

If you go auction, absolutely spot check your collection on The Wine Market Journal. Not all houses are created equal - which will be obvious when you see the differences between recent trades at different houses. If the wines you have aren’t being traded regularly (producer, not specific vintage), I’d look closely at buyout options.

Depends on the time frame, how quick do they want to move the wines. Maybe sell some outright, others at auction.

As suggested, Ben at Cellaraiders is a good start. He’s a buyer, not auction. Ben is not a high priced re-seller, he looks for fast turnover. As an example, he offers to buy 1988 Lynch Bages at $125 per 750ml bottle, and is offering to sell at $179, which is among the best prices out there. So while he pays well you can do better, depends on the wines and the circumstances if you want some fast money. But he is reliable and recommended. I have dealt with him multiple times.

Sokolin will buy top flight Bordeaux with good provenance. My brother sold a case of 1990 Lynch Bages w/OWC plus 1 bottle and received an excellent price. They did want photographs. They took care of shipping.

Try Chicago Wine Company too, they have solid auctions and I dealt with them successfully w/two cases of 2000 Pavie, plus a few other lots, though the wines were stored in Chicago and they picked them up, saving shipping. Contact Pete Duffy, tell him that I recommended them: pete@tcwc.com

Depends on the size-but I might have some friend that would buy to drink.Where is it located ?
PM me if you’re interested.

There are also some full service solutions that will inventory/pack/cull/negotiate for you if you don’t want to (or can’t) do it yourself. Maureen Downey’s firm Chai Consulting helped us when we were moving houses.