Selling Wine

I have asked people on another board however I think I am sending people nuts there asking silly questions.
I know nothing about wine,rather all I know is if you drink a lot of it you fall over.
I am from CT but I am in Europe at the moment as is the wine.
We were given 2 cases of Petrus as a wedding gift,one was a 1985 the other is a 1982.
I was asking for advice on another board and the latest offer from a British man is 1350 pounds a bottle for the 1982 and 650 pounds a bottle for the 1985.
Some people say I can get more than that,however somebody else tells me Petrus prices have gone down.
is 1350 and 650 a decent price,he said he will take all 24 bottles.
Sorry if I am asking silly questions,any advice would be gratefully received.
Best,Linda

You got the wine for free, someone is offering you $31.2K for it and you’re concerned about getting cheated [scratch.gif]

When were you given this wine? How is it being stored ?

If cellared properly, you should get at least $36k for the 82 Petrus, $18k for the 85. There are a lot of London grey market merchants who would pay that or more.

You will get the same advice here you got on WS. Since you are an unknown seller, if you can find someone who will buy it, you probably won’t get top dollar for it. People who are seriously interested will want to know when your uncle bought it and from whom. IF he got it on release and stored it properly, that’s good. If he bought from someone else who had bought from another, that’s not good because you can’t say anything about provenance.

So then people will want to see the bottles and some will imagine that they can tell a lot by looking. They can tell about the condition of the bottles, but not much about the wine inside unless the bottles are damaged in some way, in which case the storage conditions might be called into question.

You don’t say how long you have been storing it, nor what a normal cellar is. My cousin who lived in Bath stored his wine in the unused fireplace. It got pretty hot in the summer.

As far as paying taxes if you bring it back into the US, as a consumer, you can bring in two cases of wine with no problem. I have done it many times, as have others. It’s a gift, so you have no idea of the real value, and that is what I would declare. Customs isn’t going to research the possible value and as mentioned, since you haven’t owned the wine from day one, it may be of no value if it hasn’t been stored properly.

I hope it’s not bad luck to sell your wedding gifts.

Send them to an auction house

Storage would be my first question.

Considering that 82 Petrus could sell for 50K and 85 should reach 25K, yes, it is reasonable to give it thought. That is if the story is even believable that a non-wine person would receive cases of Petrus as a gift.

Are these the prices the wines would sell for if you went to buy them or the prices she could expect to receive? Obviously, if she goes through an auction house like Christies or something similar in Europe, she will not net full retail price, and, if she tries to sell them on her own, she is highly unlikely to be able to find the broad customer base for such wines (she has no real contacts) and is again likely to net less than full retail price.

[popcorn.gif]

Problem I see here is that the wines may have not been stored properly. No information was given on the provenance of these wines. Properly stored from the beginning(the year they were gifted wasn’t mentioned either), the value of these at auction the 1982 is going for but not sold at $3000 per bottle, the 1985 right around $2500 per bottle retail. No auction prices for the 1985 seen. I’m sure Acker would sell these without much provenance.

Why don’t folks in this scenario allow for x% of the wines to be popped and poured to provide additional information regarding provenance?

Did they pass through Thomas Jefferson’s cellar?

This…not knowing a history and the “gifting” of such wines leads me to think this is the best choice for you. You will know that the wine was sold at auction and fetched the best price possible.

You’re not drinking any to see if you really do fall over?

Wow - did he really eat with his mouth open like that? Gross.

Why don’t folks in this scenario allow for x% of the wines to be popped and poured to provide additional information regarding provenance?

It might. But as mentioned though - IF the story is believable anyway.

Linda Johnson
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2018 4:17 am

[rofl.gif]

Okay, which one of you created an account to pull the troll?

[rofl.gif]

Was starting to wonder the same thing - one post, plenty of replies, none from ‘Linda’

At least they weren’t in a self-storage locker. Amiright?