< Back to Blog
21/03/2019

Storage Matters

by Lewis Byrne (Head of BIX and Client Reserves)
  1. Follow

Many people put years of love and attention into building the most carefully curated fine wine collection – and then store it ‘wherever it lands’. Long term storage conditions are absolutely vital for the health of your precious collection and finding a service provider who gives you not only the right conditions, but the right service AND the right tools to really understand and manage your collection is crucial. At BI we have been storing fine wine for years and our state of the art temperature- and humidity-controlled facility at The Colerne Reserve now holds a truly brain-melting volume of incredible stock. To give you an insight into our logistics, here are a few interesting thoughts:

·         In 2018 we shipped to 38 different countries; the total weight of our shipments was equivalent to 43 Routemaster London buses, or 3 Blue Whales…

·         In 2018, our warehouse received so many cases that if you lined them up, end to end, they would reach 12.5 miles, or roughly the distance from St Paul’s Cathedral to Twickenham Stadium…

·         If you took all the cases in our warehouse and stacked them flat side down, they would reach a height equivalent to 96 Shards stacked on top of each other, or 3.5 times the height of Everest…

·         Even with this volume of stock coming in and out of the warehouse, over the past 6 months we are landing stock in less than 3 days on average.

So as you can see we are not new to this game - in fact we think we do it pretty well. Better, arguably, than many of our competitors. Changes are certainly afoot in the storage world; you should have heard from any merchant you store with if they are planning to move, and if this is the case it’s worth asking those key questions about the quality of the new provider. Clue: merchants don’t always move because the quality of service and offering is improving. If you’re storing precious Clarets, Burgundies, Champagnes and the like, you need to be sure they’re in the best hands. We believe these are ours.

Switching? Yes, you can

Switching – something we’re accustomed to these days when it comes to our energy, broadband and banking services and the same should be true when it comes to your storage provider. Think about it, why would you seek out the best tariff or services from banks but not do the same for the keepers of your most precious liquid assets? Certainly it’s not a decision you should take lightly but it’s still one you should think about making. Is your current provider really providing the best possible service at the price?

The common argument I hear time and again for NOT switching providers (and I’ve been doing this for a long time) is that it’s too hard or too time consuming. Let’s bust that myth right now – it isn’t. The process is a simple as this – give it to me and I’ll do the work for you. I only need three things from you:

  1. A list (or lists) of the wines you’d like to move
  2. The prices you paid for them originally
  3. The merchant you’d like to switch from

That’s it. Really. I’ll then get in touch with the merchant to act on your behalf and arrange the move. I’ll make sure everything arrives safely and once it does, you’ll get a notification confirming that everything has been placed in your cellar. When you switch, you will be able to access your ‘Cellar’ section, which gives you complete control of your wine collection. You can pay your bills, arrange deliveries, sell parts of your portfolio on BIX or LiveTrade, or of course, add more to it. Our proprietary algorithm provides a market value and shows the percentage return (where cost prices are available). You can decide what to drink, keep or sell.

I’ve helped many customers over the years switch to us and I genuinely believe we can offer you the best tools and the best service. You won’t find me on comparison sites, so get in touch and let’s have a chat.