Fine Wine: Leveraging Rare Vintages
Collectors use Bordeaux or Tuscany vintages as collateral, expecting appreciation to cover borrowing costs.
Description of the Use Case
Fine wine collectors leverage their cellars to secure loans for new investments or personal expenses while retaining ownership of steadily appreciating bottles.
Step-by-Step Process in Traditional Finance
Hire an expert to value the wine—e.g., $500,000 for 100 cases of Château Lafite.
Apply through a wine-lending platform for 50% LTV to borrow $250,000.
Store the wine in a climate-controlled facility to secure the loan.
Use the $250,000 for real estate or other ventures.
Over five years the collection grows to $750,000 (about 8.7% annually per Liv-ex).
Repay the $250,000 plus 5% interest from investment profits while keeping the wine.
If values dip, add more bottles to maintain a safe LTV.
Benefits of This Model
Unlock funds without selling prized vintages.
Fine wines often grow 8–20% annually, offsetting interest costs.
Borrowed cash can earn higher returns elsewhere.
Keep culturally significant wines aging in your cellar.
Deploy funds to diversify other assets or collections.
Risks of This Model
Price drops can trigger margin calls—monitor values closely.
Climate-controlled storage and insurance add expenses.
Rates of 5–10% increase repayment burdens.
Selling wine often requires auctions, slowing access to cash.
Improper storage can ruin the collateral's value.
Example in Real Life and Links to Information
A collector borrowed $250,000 against a $500,000 Bordeaux cellar in 2020 via Vinovest to fund a startup. By 2025 the wine was worth $750,000. They repaid with profits and kept the wine. Link: Vinovest – details wine-backed loans. Link: Liv-ex – tracks fine wine prices.
More Case Studies
Supporting Quotes
A new crop of wine lenders has started offering collectors cash for up to 60 percent of the value of their collections, with relatively low interest rates. A collector with a $1 million collection can obtain a $600,000 loan, often at an 8 percent to 10 percent interest rate — or a fraction of the average credit card rate.
Loan Against, an arm of Prestige Asset Finance, is offering loans of up to 70% of the value of blue-chip wines, with no other collateral required.
Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has accepted some 15,000 fine wines as collateral for a loan to a former high-ranking executive.
We offer short term loans against fine wine with competitive interest rates and no impact on affordability. Loans available from £20,000 to £2 million with terms from 3 to 24 months.
Choose a provider and start borrowing today.
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