Wine Basics
Wine Investing
Apr 24, 2025
The Importance of Wine Storage (2024)
Investing in fine wine entails more than just buying and selling; it requires careful storage to safeguard its intrinsic value.
When you store wine at home, a future buyer has no idea what condition it has been stored in. At WineFi, we recognise the critical role of proper storage in ensuring the longevity and appreciation of your wine assets. Our advocacy for storing investment-grade wine “in bond” aligns with industry best practices, and we’ve partnered with esteemed establishments to deliver premium storage solutions.
Understanding In-Bond Storage
Storing wine “in bond” refers to its placement within a third-party UK government-approved bonded warehouse. These facilities meticulously regulate environmental factors to optimise wine preservation. Key advantages include:
Environmental Precision: Bonded warehouses adhere to stringent standards, maintaining ideal conditions of temperature, light, and humidity. Such controlled environments mitigate the risk of premature aging or deterioration, ensuring the wine retains its value over time.
Tax Benefits: Opting for in-bond storage offers fiscal benefits, as VAT and Duty remain suspended while the wine resides within these facilities. This preserves the wine’s duty unpaid status and minimises financial liabilities.
Coterie Vaults
At WineFi, all of our client assets are stored with Coterie Vaults, a purpose-built storage facility situated in Suffolk, UK. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coterie Holdings, Coterie Vaults exemplifies excellence in wine preservation, characterized by:
Cost-Efficient Management: Through our partnership, we’ve secured preferential rates for storage and insurance at Coterie Vaults. This competitive pricing enables us to extend cost savings directly to our clients, enhancing the value proposition of their wine investments.
Transparency and Accountability: Upon acquisition through WineFi, clients receive meticulously labeled sub-accounts, affording them comprehensive oversight and control over their portfolios. Our commitment to transparency extends to facilitating asset inspection and audit at the client’s discretion, ensuring confidence and trust in their investment.
Comprehensive Protection: Recognising the inherent value of wine assets, we prioritize comprehensive insurance coverage at full replacement value. This safeguard offers peace of mind, shielding investments against unforeseen risks or contingencies.
Coterie Vaults in Ipswich, UK
Elevating Storage Standards
At WineFi, we uphold rigorous standards to safeguard the re-sale value of our clients’ investments. Our storage partners adhere to stringent guidelines, including:
Temperature Regulation: Maintaining a consistent temperature range of 11 to 14°C, our facilities ensure optimal conditions for wine maturation, mitigating the risk of temperature fluctuations.
Humidity Management: With humidity levels maintained between 75% – 85%, our facilities preserve cork integrity, preventing moisture loss and oxidation that could compromise wine quality.
Light and Vibration Control: Recognising the effects of light exposure and vibrations on wine quality, our partners employ advanced measures such as LED lights on sensors and specialised handling vehicles. These initiatives minimise external disturbances, allowing wines to age gracefully without interference.
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When is the Best Time to Invest in Fine Wine?
The fine wine market has always been a blend of passion and performance. For some, the allure lies in the artistry of the vineyard; for others, it’s the steady, tangible returns that make fine wine a compelling alternative asset.
But here’s the perennial question for investors: when is the right time to invest?
In our latest analysis at WineFi, we examined one of the most sought-after segments of the market—red Burgundy—to see how timing influences returns. We compared all red Burgundy wines in our investment universe to the Liv-ex Burgundy 150 index, the sector’s benchmark, and looked for patterns that could guide smarter entry and exit strategies.
The Findings at a Glance
Our data paints a clear picture of how red Burgundy performs at different stages of its lifecycle:
🚫 Don’t buy on release – On average, red Burgundy underperforms its benchmark in the first few years after release. That means paying top prices straight out of the gate often isn’t the best move for returns-focused investors.
🎯 Sweet spot: Year 6 – Performance begins to accelerate around the sixth year—coinciding with the median start of the wine’s drinking window. From here, returns tend to outpace the benchmark.
📈 Outperformance window: Years 6–25 – During this period, red Burgundy has historically delivered impressive relative gains. By year 25, the mean return in our dataset was 1.8x higher than the benchmark.
⚠️ After year 25: A trickier game – Performance tends to plateau, and volatility increases. As bottles become rarer and more valuable, prices can swing sharply in either direction. This aligns with the median end of red Burgundy’s drinking window, when investment and consumption dynamics shift.
Why This Matters for Investors
Fine wine, unlike many asset classes, is both finite and consumable. Every bottle opened reduces supply, creating scarcity—but also introducing unpredictability as remaining stock becomes fragmented across cellars worldwide.
By aligning purchases with a wine’s drinking window, investors can:
Maximise potential upside by entering when market demand is strengthening.
Reduce downside risk by avoiding the softer performance often seen in the early years.
Plan exits strategically before volatility overtakes predictable growth.
The Limits (and Power) of the Data
While this study looks at the mean performance of all red Burgundy wines in our universe, individual results will vary significantly by producer, vintage, and even format (bottle size). Legendary producers like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti may defy these trends altogether, while lesser-known estates might follow them more closely.
Still, using drinking windows as a timing tool offers a practical framework for making better-informed decisions—especially for investors building diversified portfolios across regions and styles.
Final Pour
The data tells us that patience pays in fine wine investment—particularly in Burgundy. If you can resist the urge to buy on release and instead enter around year six, history suggests you’ll be swimming with the current rather than against it.
In fine wine, as in life, timing is everything. And for Burgundy lovers, that sixth-year mark might just be the moment when the stars—and the corks—align.
