Instructions to your heirs on how to sell your wines?

[Howard_Cooper]

@Neal.Mollen

Howard, I think zachys/HDH might be the best option locally at the moment I think, but I have not called the other local possibilities to inquire. I know Schneiders buys cellars as does Wide World, but I am not sure whether they would be interested in mine.

Thanks, Neal. I have played golf with one of the owners of Schneider’s. He is a member of the same club as me and a nice guy.

[Howard_Cooper]

@Robert Grenley

I just think it would be helpful for the family left behind, assuming that they drink wine and are not as wine savvy as you are and probably won’t really know which bottles are for easy drinking and which are very valuable and perhaps worth more to them as cash and less as an upper level drinking experience, to be offered some guidance in that department. If they do not drink wine, they will just sell the whole lot. If they are very knowledgeable wine drinkers, they may already know. Just as you would probably let someone know that the glass bowl on the cabinet is a $30,000 Chihuly and not just a bowl to give to Goodwill.

Good advice. My wife and daughter know some producers and wines but a number of my wines would not have meaning to them. The ones with the most meaning to my wife would be wines from producers we have visited and she has met, but I am not sure whether she would appreciate the difference in value between say a village Burgundy and a grand cru even though she would clearly know producers like Truchot, Mugneret-Gibourg and Domaine Dublere. Simiarly, she clearly knows Ridge and possibly even Monte Bello, but would she know say Klein Vinyard.

[David_Glasser]

We have instructions with a link to CellarTracker and advice to get auction terms and estimates from HDH and Heritage.

[TBurklow]

My father-in-law would have all my Liger Belair in a cheap plastic wine cup with ice cubes in no time…

[CFu]

@TBurklow

My father-in-law would have all my Liger Belair in a cheap plastic wine cup with ice cubes in no time…

Leave it to be. I’ll make sure the kids get the money. At least 2x cost.

[R_Gilbane]

Gift it to them? Are you nuts? The only instruction they shall receive is to pour out all remaining bottles upon my funeral pyre as a tribute to the old gods. I need all the help I can get.

[TBurklow]

@c fu

@TBurklow

My father-in-law would have all my Liger Belair in a cheap plastic wine cup with ice cubes in no time…

Leave it to be. I’ll make sure the kids get the money. At least 2x cost.

Will is updated. All wine goes to Fu.

Thank you, Charlie!

[Dan_Kravitz]

I have left instructions that I am to be buried with my bottle of Thunderbird.

Fortunately I have enough good friends and people I trust so that of the less valuable wines, some will get consumed by people who will appreciate them and some will be sold for the benefit of my heirs.

Dan Kravitz

[Victor_Hong]

@D@vid Bu3ker

…

I have one bottle of Wine for Dummies Cabernet Sauvignon. I’ll set it aside for you.

What? I have first dibs. In fact, you told me that it has my own name on it.

[Dale_Williams]

I have on back of my will a sheet with
CT username and PW
Username and PW for my offsite
Contact reminders for 3 ITB friends who Betsy knows and can be trusted to steer her correctly.
My wife enjoys wine, but is in no way a geek. My stepson always likes to try birthyesr wines. My note says I hope he gets my '88s, she keeps 100 good but not expensive bottles, she sells all of the wines that will fetch a decent price, and gives my local wine friends the wines not worth sending to auction.
I’d much rther her sell my few bottles of Cheval, Rousseau, MArtha’s etc than drink without really knowing what she is having. SHe can have sone nice vacations, cars, etc that mean more to her.

[Rob_Weaver]

I’m thinking about going a different route. I have a fantastic wine group that generally gets together once a week. This group is principally responsible for vastly expanding my appreciation of wine and has substantively refactored my cellar make up, much to the chagrin of my wife who was perfectly happy with big Napa cabs.

I’m thinking about just leaving the wines to the group’s leader and let him bring bottles to the Tastings as he sees fit. That way I know they will get appreciated. My kids and wife have never shown that much interest anyway.

All 2000 bottles or so are stored offsite, so just turn over the key and CellarTracker info.

Yes the fam gets cheated out of a bit of coin, but they also get spared the hassle.

[Patrick_Duffy]

@Philip N. Jones

I am an estate lawyer. I have yet to handle an estate with a wine collection. I suspect the family usually drinks it up without telling me.
Phil Jones

Hard to believe you haven’t had a client with a wine collection yet!

My kids forced the issue over New Years this year, since we were all together. They had a detailed discussion of how to fairly split up the wine cellar. Both daughters are into wine and one already has her own good sized collection. Our son could be the next big time wine critic, based on his comments when we’ve been out tasting together, but he’s more interested in Scotch. But, then, I expect that all of them will be drawing social security before I move upstairs. WineBerserkers - Wine discussion forum and online community

[ToddFrench]

Sell on Commerce Corner or

[Bdklein]

@Rob Weaver

I’m thinking about going a different route. I have a fantastic wine group that generally gets together once a week. This group is principally responsible for vastly expanding my appreciation of wine and has substantively refactored my cellar make up, much to the chagrin of my wife who was perfectly happy with big Napa cabs.

I’m thinking about just leaving the wines to the group’s leader and let him bring bottles to the Tastings as he sees fit. That way I know they will get appreciated. My kids and wife have never shown that much interest anyway.

All 2000 bottles or so are stored offsite, so just turn over the key and CellarTracker info.

Yes the fam gets cheated out of a bit of coin, but they also get spared the hassle.

So first you redirect your buys/collection away from the wines your wife likes, and then after your demise you don’t let her reap the rewards . Life can be cruel.

But your tasting group sure will be happy!!

[Ken_V]

I am in a local tasting group. My wife knows most of the members. She says she would just ask one of them. The only problem is that I am currently the youngest member. But I’m recruiting younger people. Also, my wife knows a wine merchant that I am good friends with. I have told her it would be better to contact him and just let him take care of it. She doesn’t listen to me while I’m alive. Do you think she’ll start after I’m dead?

A related question for Eric or an estate lawyer: Assuming my wife can’t hack my computer to figure out my CT password, what would be required for Eric to give my CT password to my widow or other heirs?

One day, on impulse, I bought a 3L bottle of 2001 Bruno Giacosa Rocche Riserva. Once it was delivered, I looked at it thought I would have to live to 120 to drink it at its peak. So, I’ve ask my wife to serve it at my funeral. That way, at least a few of you bastards will show up!

[cjsavino]

@Ken V

One day, on impulse, I bought a 3L bottle of 2001 Bruno Giacosa Rocche Riserva. Once it was delivered, I looked at it thought I would have to live to 120 to drink it at its peak. So, I’ve ask my wife to serve it at my funeral. That way, at least a few of you bastards will show up!

Should this be move to the Offline Planner thread?

[Chris_Seiber]

@Rob Weaver

I’m thinking about going a different route. I have a fantastic wine group that generally gets together once a week. This group is principally responsible for vastly expanding my appreciation of wine and has substantively refactored my cellar make up, much to the chagrin of my wife who was perfectly happy with big Napa cabs.

I’m thinking about just leaving the wines to the group’s leader and let him bring bottles to the Tastings as he sees fit. That way I know they will get appreciated. My kids and wife have never shown that much interest anyway.

All 2000 bottles or so are stored offsite, so just turn over the key and CellarTracker info.

Yes the fam gets cheated out of a bit of coin, but they also get spared the hassle.

You never want to incentivize people around you to hasten your demise, though!

[Mattstolz]

I guess im curious mostly because I don’t have a huge collection and also will live forever obviously but for people who have big collections and know your kids don’t love wine, why not get the process started for them if you know your collection has way more than you can drink and they don’t want it anyways? my guess is if they don’t love wine already theyre not gonna love dealing with auctioning it or looking through cellartracker either.

[David_Glasser]

Matt, I sold about a third of my collection last year when we downsized. It sort of got the process started. But it’s unlikely that I’ll drink my last bottle on my dying day, and I don’t want to run out of wine or be too pessimistic about how long I have left, so the odds are good that there will still be wine in the cellar when the day comes. Whether it’s 50 bottles or 500, the heirs will still have to deal with it.

Doesn’t matter to me whether they drink it or sell it, but I want them to know what they’ve got. And make it as easy as possible for them if they do decide to sell by recommending a couple of auction houses.

[K_John_Joseph]

Pretty sure my dad’s instructions will read: And my wine to my son.

I’ll have two sets of instructions.

1. Open whatever you want at my wake and don’t worry about price. I’d want my friends and family to enjoy one last drink with me, and I’d hope they open the good stuff because I can’t think of a better reason to open wines than in celebration of a life well lived. Or of the death of an old bastard. Either way these next years play out, there should be SOME reason to work the cellar hard.

2. My wife has dibs on whatever she wants. Then my 3 sons may have the rest, divvied up using a fantasy football draft setup with initial draft order established by random number generator.

If they want to sell after inheritance, it’s their problem.