Investment

Starting comes down to three decisions: how much you want to invest, over what period, and what kind of portfolio you want. No two answers are the same, so it starts with a conversation. If you are already a client, speak to your Account Manager or your Bordeaux Index representative. If you are new to Bordeaux Index, we recommend registering on the website first, then using our contact form to reach a member of the team who can assist and advise. 

No merchant has more experience in fine wine and spirits investment than Bordeaux Index. We have been trading since 1997, and our investment team is drawn from economics, finance and trading as well as wine. We advise across the full range, from building a drinking cellar with an eye on future value through to managing multi-million-pound portfolios on a fully discretionary basis, and we are now the leading investment manager in the whisky sector.

That experience is backed with our own capital. On LiveTrade - our trading platform, named Trading Platform of the Year at The Drinks Business Awards seven years running, with over £60m of stock listed - we make firm bid and offer prices on thousands of wines and whiskies, 24 hours a day.

Your collection is then tracked in My Portfolio, our free cellar management tool, in the LiveTrade app and on the website. It holds everything you own, whether it is stored with us or elsewhere, and values each wine automatically using our proprietary valuation algorithm, which draws on a wide range of proprietary and public data. For every wine you see both the market price and its net value - what you could expect to receive on sale - alongside its price history, critics’ tasting notes and the current best bids and offers on LiveTrade.

Wines stored with us are kept at the Colerne Reserve, operated by Octavian, the world’s leading long-term fine wine storage provider. Every case is checked in, logged and barcoded on arrival, condition reports with photography are available, and all wine in your client reserves is insured to full replacement value. Held in bond, your stock carries no UK duty or VAT until it leaves, and keeps the traceable storage history that resale value depends on. The wine belongs to you outright, held in your name.

We would strongly advise against it. Wine and whisky kept at home cannot be traded on LiveTrade, and few domestic cellars meet the conditions that investment-grade stock needs over a long hold. Anything you intend to sell should be held in bonded, professional storage.

Wines stored with us are kept at the Colerne Reserve, operated by Octavian, the world’s leading long-term fine wine storage provider, where temperature and humidity are held constant year-round and security is managed to the same standard. Every case is checked in, logged and barcoded on arrival, condition reports with photography are available, and all wine in your client reserves is insured to full replacement value.

To be listed on LiveTrade, stock must also be held in bond, in a regulated facility and in pristine condition. That is what allows a buyer on our platform to act on a price without having to assess provenance themselves, and it is why the same requirement applies to everyone. Wine and whisky leaving bonded status attract UK duty and VAT at that moment, and neither is recoverable once paid. Taking delivery is therefore a decision worth making deliberately rather than by default.

Storing with us costs £14.50 a year for a case of twelve and £7.25 for a case of six, with insurance included for stock bought from us or sold through LiveTrade, and full rates on our storage page. Everything stored with Bordeaux Index appears in My Portfolio automatically, valued and ready to trade or deliver.

None of which puts the wine out of reach. It is yours, and we will deliver it whenever you want to drink it. Plenty of our clients keep a drinking cellar at home and an investment portfolio in bond, and keep the two apart for exactly these reasons.

Selling can be instant. LiveTrade is the only wine and whisky trading platform that commits to firm bids and offers on an ongoing basis, and for LiveTrade+ wines - a distinct set of market-making wines whose liquidity is such that we commit to making a market on them 24/7 - that means instant liquidity on hundreds of the world’s top fine wines, without resorting to the often slow broking processes used elsewhere.

Any top fine wine or whisky can be traded on LiveTrade, subject to being stored under bond in a regulated UK or European facility and in pristine condition. For wines outside the LiveTrade+ list, you upload the stock, set an offer and wait for a buyer to bid or buy. The marketplace shows every bid alongside the proceeds you will receive, so you always know what a sale would return before you accept one.

Payment depends on where your stock is held. If it is in Bordeaux Index storage, you are paid within a week. Otherwise, we pay as soon as the asset reaches our warehouse and has been inspected - as a guide, around two to three weeks for stock coming from a UK tax warehouse, and three to six weeks from an EU warehouse. Storing with us is therefore the single biggest thing you can do to shorten the time between deciding to sell and being paid.

You can sell directly from My Portfolio, in the LiveTrade app or on the website, where every wine shows its market price, its net value on sale and the current best bids and offers. There are no membership fees and no hidden costs.

Around £10,000 is what we would suggest for a first portfolio, though there is no formal minimum. A diversified collection with a good spread across producers, regions and vintages can be built from roughly that figure, but people have started with considerably less, and a few carefully selected cases are enough to get going. On LiveTrade you can buy a single case of wine or a single bottle of whisky.

The £10,000 figure is about diversification rather than access. Below it, a portfolio usually holds one or two wines, which means its performance depends almost entirely on one producer and one vintage - and however good that wine is, that is a concentrated position. At around £10,000 the same money spreads across several producers, regions and vintages, and it is that spread, rather than any single choice, that produces a steadier result.

Storing with us costs £14.50 a year for a case of twelve and £7.25 for a case of six, with insurance to full replacement value included for stock bought from us or sold through LiveTrade. There are no membership fees, no account charges and no hidden costs - on LiveTrade, the price you see is exactly what you will pay or receive.

What the right starting figure actually is depends on what you want the portfolio to do and how long you intend to hold it, which is why it is worth a conversation rather than a rule. If you have any further questions on wine or whisky investment, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the LiveTrade team here. 

There is no fixed answer, and we would be wary of anyone who gives one. Fine wine is a long-term asset, and the right horizon depends on the wines you hold, the vintages they come from and what you want the portfolio to do. What is consistent is that it rewards patience - returns come from maturity and scarcity, and both are measured in years rather than months. There is no lock-in at any point: anything carrying a firm bid on LiveTrade can be sold whenever you choose.

As a wine matures into its drinking window, cases are opened and supply falls, while the number of people wanting to drink it rises - and that widening gap is where the value accrues. It builds slowly. Critic re-scoring and the release pricing of later vintages can move a wine sharply, but neither can be predicted or hurried.

Our team is on hand to advise on the right horizon for your portfolio, and on when to sell - whether you are starting out or holding a collection built over years.

What decides whether a wine trades well later is where it has been, what condition it is in, how deep the demand for it is, and how easily it can be sold again.

Provenance and condition come first. A case that has stayed in bonded, professional storage since release carries a documented history, and that history is priced into what a buyer will pay. Original packaging, intact labels and good levels all count, and every unexplained gap in the record widens the discount.

Pedigree matters more than a score in isolation: a 98-point wine from a producer with a thin secondary market is harder to sell than a 95-point wine that trades every week. Wines still a decade from their drinking window have the longest runway, and spreading across several producers, regions and vintages does more for a steady result than any single choice.

Then ask how you would sell it - before you buy, rather than after. To trade on LiveTrade, assets must be in bond and in pristine condition, which removes much of this complexity: condition and provenance are covered, and you can see what a wine will fetch before you commit. On the rest, our team is on hand to advise.

Wine and whisky you have paid for in full belong to you, not to us. You retain ownership of everything in your Reserves, and our records distinguish your stock from Bordeaux Index’s own trading stock. It is your property, held on your behalf.

Your stock is kept at the Colerne Reserve, operated by Octavian, the world’s leading long-term fine wine storage provider. The site is heavily insulated to control temperature and humidity, uses LED lighting to eliminate UV and the heat conventional lighting generates, and handles stock with bespoke machinery to minimise vibration. Every case is checked in and out, logged and barcoded on receipt, so each one stays fully traceable, and condition reports with photography are available - free of charge for wine bought through Bordeaux Index.

We arrange insurance for stock held in your Reserves against damage, loss and theft, through a third-party insurer. The full position is set out in our terms and conditions.

What we cannot remove is market risk. The value of fine wine can go down as well as up. What you hold instead is a physical asset with finite supply, in your name, that you can value and sell at any time through LiveTrade - and our team is on hand to advise on how it sits alongside the rest of your portfolio.

Wine and whisky stored in a government bonded warehouse are free from UK duty and VAT while they remain in bond. Fine wine is generally considered a “wasting asset” by HMRC, where the asset’s predictable life does not exceed 50 years determined at the date of acquisition, and is therefore generally considered exempt from capital gains tax. Treatment varies by asset, and longer-lived wines and spirits may fall outside this. Wine and whisky are however generally liable for inheritance tax.

Bordeaux Index are not tax advisors and take no responsibility for any opinions given here. We recommend seeking tax advice before making any investment decisions. Visit here for all Terms and Conditions.

Everything listed on LiveTrade must be in bond, held in a regulated UK or European facility and in pristine condition. Every case sold is rigorously inspected at our warehouse before it reaches you, and nothing that fails inspection makes it onto the platform.

That sits on top of how we buy in the first place. We make thorough provenance checks and physical inspections on everything we purchase, and we are selective about where stock comes from. Condition issues are rare as a result.

You can also see the market before you commit. Every wine on LiveTrade shows its current bid and offer and the date and price of its last trade, so you are buying against visible, recent evidence of what the wine is worth rather than a single quoted price.

Behind all of it is a merchant that has bought, sold and stored the world’s great wines since 1997. If you want to ask about a specific wine or case before buying, our team is on hand.

To trade on LiveTrade, assets must additionally be in bond, held in a regulated UK or European facility and in pristine condition. In practice the paperwork is handled for you - we and the warehouse manage the bond, customs and transfer documentation, which is much of what makes trading through a merchant simpler than trading privately.

Bordeaux Index is not a legal or tax adviser and this is not advice. We recommend taking independent advice before making investment decisions.

Two identical cases of the same wine and vintage can trade at materially different prices on storage history alone. After the wine itself, provenance is the largest single input into what a buyer will pay.

The strongest record is a case that has stayed in bonded, professional storage since release, with its ownership and storage documented throughout. Buyers also price on original packaging, which trades more readily than loose bottles, and on physical condition - intact labels, correct fill levels, no sign of heat damage or seepage.

On LiveTrade this does not arise. Everything listed must be in bond, held in a regulated UK or European facility and in pristine condition, and every case sold is rigorously inspected at our warehouse. Stock held in your Reserves is checked in and out, logged and barcoded, so it stays fully traceable, and condition reports with photography are available - which is the record a future buyer will want to see.

My Portfolio values everything automatically. Valuations are updated regularly by our proprietary valuation algorithm, which draws on a wide range of proprietary and public data. For every wine you see both the market price and its net value - what you could expect to receive on sale — and at the top, your totals show what your cellar cost, what it is worth today and how it has performed.

Open any wine and you can see its price history, critics’ tasting notes and its current market on LiveTrade: the best bids and offers, and when and at what price it last traded. You can filter by location, region or vintage to see your options across the whole collection at a glance.

My Portfolio is free with a Bordeaux Index account, in the LiveTrade app and on the website, and it holds everything you own - including wine stored elsewhere, in bond or duty paid. Valuations are a guide rather than a quote, so for anything you are seriously considering selling, or for a wine not quoted on LiveTrade, our team is on hand to give you a view.

A good place to start is How to Start Investing in Fine Wine, which covers how the market works, what makes a wine investment grade and what to budget. From there, our Investment Guides go region by region, through Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône, Champagne, Italy and California. And if you would rather see the market than read about it, the LiveTrade Marketplace shows live bids, offers and last traded prices - you do not need an account to browse.

Reading only gets you so far. The most useful thing is usually a conversation: our traders and account managers work in these markets every day, and they are happy to talk whether you are weighing up a first purchase, wondering what to do with wine you already own, or just want to understand how it all works. If you have any questions, please contact us.