How 3 Sommeliers Risked Millions to Buy—and Sell—a Once-in-a-Lifetime Wine Collection

WINE TALK
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This is quite a story in The Robb Report. (Maybe a little breathless, but still a fun read.) A story of borrowing millions of dollars at usurious terms in order to buy a private cellar and flip it at auction, only to have the cargo ship depart just as COVID-19 was heating up and borders were shutting down.

Here’s an excerpt:

The wine arrived in Sonoma as scheduled, where it was stored for 72 hours before being taken to Oakland and put on a container ship headed to Hong Kong, due to dock just before Christmas.

It was late November 2019 and the juice was running. The loan would reset every 30 days, the principal growing each month alongside the compounding interest in a convoluted death trap of penalties, fees, and clawbacks. Time was not on their side.

Shortly after the wine arrived, the news began reporting an unknown respiratory illness killing people in China. The country would lock down a few weeks later. Callahan, Leverenz, and O’Brien had just borrowed $12.5 million to buy a store of wine that now might as well be on the moon.

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Fun read! They did a good job dramatizing what is basically a hold/flip.

Ironically also what caused luxury goods market to drop in the last couple of years, too many people holding onto items they couldn’t afford to hold on to because they were holding to flip.

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This is the Big Short just in reverse

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Shortened US version of Stalin’s Wine Cellar except that it actually works out!

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Article was written in a way to test out the screen play/movie potential with the gimmicky names “the plumber” etc.