I purchased wine futures in the year of birth of each grandchild to gift them at age 21. Due to different valuations I'd refer to sell five bottles of each but believe that will be difficult. The wine is Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse De LaLandr Grand Cru Classe Pauillac yrs 1990;1993;1996;1997;2000. The wine was delivered and has been stored in my wine cellar. Is the value so low that I should not bother pursuing a sale?
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
If I understand the situation, you would ideally like to sell a vertical assortment consisting of 5 bottles of each vintage, a total of 25 bottles. Do you have 12 bottles of each vintage? I am assuming that you no longer wish to keep all the wine for your grandchildren (or your son/daughter). You are asking if the value is "so low" that it is not worth doing so, even if you could find a way. Clearly, this package certainly has "value" - which you can roughly estimate from the prevailing average prices of these vintages. Is your concern that you will not be able to recover what you see as the fair worth (original futures price + carrying cost + a margin)? The challenge, as you already realize, is that you have a mixed bag of vintages: 2000 and 1996 are the stars; 1997 is of average stature, as is the fully mature 1993; and 1990 is a controversial vintage. Your best option might be to drink the 1997, 1993 and1990 at family gatherings and sell the 1996 and 2000 through a legitimate auction house. It could help if you offered a full dozen of each in the original wood cases, if you have more than one case of each vintage.
