Moving house - 1994 vintage port must go!

[ollie56]

I am about to downsize and will have nowhere to put my rather large wine cabinet and / or its contents. After carefully considering all the options and noting the inevitable advice to people on this forum to keep their vintage port rather than sell it, I have reluctantly decided to sell it anyway.

I have 8 bottles of each of Dow's, Warre's and Graham's 1994, so 2 cases in all. I bought the lot (plus a few more that are earmarked for godchildren and will be handed over when we move) in bond and they have been stored at 12C in the same cabinet in the same place in the same house ever since I took delivery of them. They are in perfect condition other than minor damage to a couple of the labels with no visible seepage. Sadly I don't have the original wooden boxes.

BBR has all these 94s at £75 a bottle or £400+ for 6, so I'm thinking that £50 a bottle would be a reasonable price to ask, i.e. £1200 for the 24. Any takers please pm me.

[DRT]

Hi Ollie,

Welcome to

Can you please let us know roughly where you live so that any prospective buyers know what logistics would be involved?

Have you considered putting these into storage? The cost would be negligible for such a small parcel.

Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

Derek

[djewesbury]

Storage is indeed a good plan. There are some companies who can take odd bottles that are not in bond, for instance Fine & Rare Wines at London City Bond, who have reasonable charges also.
If you are set on selling, are you definitely wanting to sell in one lot? I can imagine that a few of us might combine to take these off your hands but it's less likely that someone will take all 24 bottles.
(I might be interested in some of the Warre especially.)

[ollie56]

Thanks for the prompt replies folks. I live in Cambridgeshire and I'd be happy to sell them separately.

[jdaw1]

I have a cousin Oliver in Cambridgeshire, he being a medic. Please reassure me that you are not him.

[LGTrotter]

It sounds a lovely stash and I'm sorry to rain on your parade but I recently bought a case of Graham 94 from Berrys BBX for £400 in bond which works out at just over £40 a bottle. I appreciate this is not quite retail.

[jdaw1]

I am about to downsize and will have nowhere to put my rather large wine cabinet and / or its contents. After carefully considering all the options and noting the inevitable advice to people on this forum to keep their vintage port rather than sell it, I have reluctantly decided to sell it anyway.

That explanation was recently re-written, and your comments have nudged me into adding a ¶ about storage.

If you are selling to free space, do consider professional storage. Several regulars on ThePortForum.com store Port at Seckford Wines; others use Fine+Rare; others, needing greater accessibility, use Big Yellow in Fulham; some use or have used Octavian Vaults. If the quantity is small then the cost will be modest.

[ollie56]

No, jdaw1, I am not a medical Oliver. And LGTrotter, you are right that £400 is not quite retail. Retail is in bond + £2.73 a bottle + VAT at 20% on all of that which = £43.28. Still a lot less than £50, obviously.

Anyway, following all the helpful messages I've received on the forum and privately, and further to some in-depth Googling, I am now offering the Warre's at £35 and the Dow's and Graham's at £40. But not for long. And I'll be heading for storage rather than reduce the price any further - if nothing else, at least I now know what it's all worth, so thanks very much for all your helpful comments and advice.

[ollie56]

I now have a taker for half my stock (8G + 2D + 2W) so I'll keep the other case (6D + 6W) and put it in storage. Thanks again for all the advice, folks.
Regards
Ollie

[djewesbury]

A perfect result. All the port finds a good home. And gets drunk.