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Fine wine collection

Bottles of fine wine insured at market value, with requirements on temperature, traceability and proof of authenticity.

Definition

Rudy Kurniawan, arrested in 2012, was convicted in New York in December 2013, then sentenced to ten years in 2014, for blending fake Romanée-Conti and Pétrus in his kitchen. Since then the trade knows a collectible bottle is worth its history first. Cellar policies cover the bottle at market value on the day of loss, based on auction results, and require an up-to-date inventory with each lot's provenance. Temperature is a bigger risk than theft. A twenty-four-hour air-conditioning failure in summer damages bottles with no visible sign. Depreciation without breakage drives most disputes. Cover differs between the home cellar and the bonded warehouse, where cases stay in sealed wood. Fraud, a counterfeit bottle bought and resold, is excluded like any authenticity risk. A leaking cork or cork taint is inherent vice and is not paid.

Its 6 cross-references, woven across the glossary's 18 categories
Fine wine collection: Special risks glossary illustration, AlgoPolis
Example

Textbook case: a cellar of 1,200 bottles, inventoried at 850,000 euros, suffers a three-day air-conditioning failure in August. An expert measures 31 degrees in the room and downgrades 300 bottles to half their auction value. The indemnity comes to 106,250 euros after inventory and invoices are checked.

Read next
Special risksPrivate collection insurancePolicy for an individual holding works at home and across several residences, based on an inventory and agreed values, outside home insurance.Read the entry →Special risksConservation conditions and humidityTemperature and humidity in a storage or display space. A prolonged drift damages works with no dated event, which is where cover gets argued.Read the entry →Special risksAuthenticity risk (artworks)The risk that an artwork proves fake or wrongly attributed, which wipes out its value; it is excluded from fine art policies and is handled through due diligence, sellers' contractual guarantees and sometimes specific insurance.Read the entry →
Related terms
Also known as

wine collection insurance, fine wine cover, wine cellar insurance, bonded wine storage

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