How to Sell Your Wine

The ABCs of Selling Wines from Your Wine Collection

If you’re wondering how to sell your wine collection online, that means you’ve probably run into one or more of the challenges that eventually hit all wine collectors:

1. You’re out of storage space, either in your home cellar or in your professional storage locker, and you’d rather sell a few cases than rent more space.

2. Your wines are hitting their ideal maturity for drinking, and you won’t be able to drink them all during their window of drinkability. Better to sell some wines at the peak of their value than let them lose value in your cellar.

3. Maybe a decade ago when you invested heavily in high-end California Cabernet Sauvignon you couldn’t imagine preferring other wines. But tastes change. Now you’d rather drink Burgundy or Barolo. Sell a few of those cases of premium Cabs and make room for cases of recently released Burgundy and Barolo.

4. You want to diversify your wine portfolio. A well-planned cellar should include vintage Champagne and white Burgundy along with premier Old and New World reds. Thoughtful collectors with a carefully considered collecting strategy always have a few bottles of vintage Champagne on hand for important moments with family and friends. Sell some red wine and use the money to buy a couple of cases of vintage Champagne and grand cru white Burgundy. 

What Season to Sell Your Wine

Wine enthusiasts are always interested  in fine wines. That said, some seasons are more conducive to selling fine and rare wines than others. Fall is the best time to sell premium and vintage Champagne as people get ready for holiday entertaining. Dessert wines also often do well in the colder months, when people linger around the dining room table a little longer or gather in front of a fireplace to enjoy an after-dinner wine.  Prestige wines, including well-reviewed first growth Bordeaux, grand cru Burgundy and top California Cabs are always in season, and always in demand. Some auction houses and online retailers offer free or discounted shipping in the summer to encourage consignments. 

Which Wines to Sell

Remember that the only wines with significant investment or resale value are premium wines. That means you need to invest in first or possibly second growth Bordeaux; grand cru and/or some premier cru red and white Burgundies; top Rhone Valley wines, such as well-rated Chateauneuf-du-Pape; vintage Champagne; top dessert wines, such as Chateau d’Yquem sauternes; and prestige reds from Italy, Spain and Australia. There is a devoted market for German Riesling and Portugal’s best dessert wines, but the markets are limited compared to the demand for the internationally famous reds.

Cult wines are another story. The most famous cult wines sell on the secondary market for 100% or more of their release price.  Cult wines include such famous Cabs as Screaming Eagle and  Harlan, and nearly anything produced by Sine Qua Non.

Gather Information about Wine Investment

Any collector who intends to sell off portions of a cellar should follow at least one wine journal. Wines that earn 95 points or more from Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator or Vinous become more valuable immediately. Wine journals are also useful for determining the window of drinkability for your wines. Predicting the window is not an exact science. Nevertheless, reviewers have broad experience and often go back years or decades after their first taste of a wine to re-taste it. In other words, they understand how wines mature. It’s worth noting what they say about a wine’s expected timeline. Even if you don’t agree with the reviewers, people considering buying your wines may take reviewers’ word as gospel.

How to Sell

Some wine retailers will sell your fine and rare wine for you, particularly if it is as coveted as Screaming Eagle or Sine Qua Non. But most won’t. Wine auctions are a better place to sell your wine.  The live auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s are famous for selling cases of rare wine at high prices, but fees charged to consignors can be high, and live auctions often are only interested in case lots.

Online auctions are convenient and usually accept collections made up of single bottles. Online auctions also can reach very large markets, meaning your wines have an increased chance of selling. 

Selling wine yourself online is difficult and impacted by many state and federal laws. Depending on where you live, you may need an alcohol dealer registration from the U.S. Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau, a winery license, a retailer’s license from your state, and a shipper’s license from each state where you plan to send wine. Selling alcohol online is complicated and fraught with legal challenges. 

What’s Your Wine Worth?

All auction houses offer free appraisals for collections of interest to them. A blue-chip wine with excellent ratings will likely have appreciated considerably since you bought it, unless of course you’ve waited too long to sell or stored it improperly.  And there are wines that are extremely good though not in the prestige category that may decrease in value over time. Remember that auction houses and retailers are generally realistic about pricing, since they have current, real-world experience selling wines, and they know what buyers are willing to spend.

Shipping Your Wine

There is only one hard and fast rule about shipping wine: Do it very carefully. You will need to contact a shipper with wine shipping experience, and you need to insure your wine. Shippers with wine experience will have the necessary licenses and government approvals to transport and deliver wine legally. Auction houses generally help arrange for safe shipping.