There was a time when professionally storing your wine meant entrusting your bottles to a solid chap in a pair of corduroy trousers somewhere in St James’s after a handshake and good lunch. Would they be cellared properly? Probably. Were they insured? Possibly. But, could you track demand for a wine or vintage; read critics’ reviews at the push of a button and then decide to buy or sell? Highly unlikely.
Thankfully, when it comes to how you manage your wine portfolios, Octavian, which has already changed the wine storage landscape by applying modern processes to this most ancient of commodities, is now helping collectors and investors monitor their wine in real time, allowing them, for example, to know when it’s at peak drinking condition or, as the Americans say, ‘reach out’ to other collectors and investors to build, diversify or even downsize their portfolio.
“Our customers and the wine trade in general are realising that wine storage is as much a part of the wine ecosystem as the vineyard, the tank, the barrel, the bottle and the shelf or wine list,” says Octavian managing director Vincent O’Brien. “As I’ve said before, we’re the stage it stays at the longest. “You wonder why people used to be so cavalier about it. You wouldn’t do it with any other asset.”
O’Brien is keen to highlight Octavian’s value-added services, especially My Cellar, a software which allows its private clients to manage their portfolio online. “It’s an interactive inventory of a client’s wines, complete with charts and tables which can be bench-marked against the current market activity alongside your purchase cost, giving you immediate visibility of gains made on your stock holding, as well as highlighting the top performers in your inventory. They can also access background information about the producer such as recommended drinking ranges and how their wines were rated by some of the world’s most respected critics.”
O’Brien is especially excited about The Trading Exchange, Octavian’s online sales platform. “This was our opportunity to differentiate, to lead by example and show the rest of the industry how buying and modern wine trading wine should be done. We don’t just look after our clients’ wines, nursing them to maturity, we also want to help them trade as easily as possible in the optimal market conditions.”
Would-be sellers have a full dashboard of data that gives them all the information they need – current market value as well as other online listings – if they want to list their wines for sale. Buyers seeking a particular wine or vintage can create a personal watchlist and meanwhile, Octavian will discreetly contact anyone who has that wine held in their inventory. Potential buyers are reassured by studio-quality photos of the cases and bottles, taken by Octavian’s in-house photographer as well as a record of the storage history from the moment they came into Octavian’s care.
As O’Brien is at pains to point out, “So often, provenance is lost in the fog of time. The least we can do is offer peace of mind.”