FT Wine Plan in partnership with Lay & Wheeler

Review/Edit Order | FT Reader Wines | Contact L&W | Sunday 7th September 2008

 

Portfolio Service – for cellared wines

A new standard for your finest wines

To meet the demands of the informed fine wine buyer in an increasingly information-led age, Lay & Wheeler has developed a new Portfolio Service for cellared wines. This enhancement to the existing provision is of direct benefit to everyone interested in wine as a store of value in addition to its intrinsic merits of quality and longevity.

Customers will benefit from the following enhancements to the service previously offered by the Private Reserves department:

  • Secure, stable storage at Vinothèque, a Grade II listed building in the Heart of England
  • The highest standards of documentation and administration
  • Market valuations for regularly traded wines from a database updated four times a year
  • An Annual Stock Certificate incorporating purchase price, market valuation and lot details
  • Web-based visibility of your wine cellar, and the ability to withdraw wines on-line.
  • Access to our expert Consultants for advice over cellar building strategies
  • Quarterly Vintage Reports: ‘what to buy, drink, keep or sell’

Your best wines deserve a cellarage service that offers much more than simply safe, sound storage. Insurance cover against fire, theft, flood and accidental damage is a basic requirement, based on the cost of replacement at today’s prices, and a fully annotated Annual certificate is essential to help keep track of your cellar. You will expect informed guidance on your wines’ state of maturity and you will demand secure records and robust systems.

As a discerning customer you will also require cost price records, and on-demand updates of the current market value of your wines, as if sold on the market. You will seek full-time access to your stock portfolio wherever you are, via the Internet and with the ability to issue withdrawal instructions on-line. And you will welcome regular assessments of market conditions, reports of significant recent vintages and re-assessments of fine vintages already in the cellar.

Detailed information for the wine buyer or collector

Lay & Wheeler now offers significantly more than just a storage facility for wine. The new Portfolio Service provides information about each wine held at a level substantially more detailed than before, and subscribers will benefit from expert opinion on current market conditions, essential to form informed decisions over what to buy, keep or sell. The Portfolio Service is the new standard for wine cellarage, raising the bar of what is already seen as a benchmark within the industry.

A safe standard

With a track record in caring for its customers’ finest wines extending over thirty years Lay & Wheeler offers a well-seasoned team with decades of expertise between them. Tried and tested systems, developed specifically for the Customer Reserves service, ensure the accurate recording of purchases, prices, maturity dates and movements. Once shipped, wines are cellared at Vinothèque, a former Victorian grain warehouse with a long service in the storage of wine. In 2000 Vinothèque was refurbished by Lay & Wheeler to meet the most demanding standards, and the operation is now run as a fine wine repository by London City Bond, the United Kingdom’s leading wine warehouse company.

Wines held under Lay & Wheeler’s Portfolio Service conform to The BUNCH Code of Practice for unique case labelling so that you can instantly identify your own wines. 

Lay & Wheeler was a founder signatory to the Bunch Code, as well as a member of the Distance Selling Committee of the Wine & Spirit Association, the leading United Kingdom trade body for regulatory affairs.

Efficient and prompt delivery

Lay & Wheeler’s Customer Reserves and Portfolio Service is managed by wine experts located at the Company’s Holton headquarters. Withdrawal instructions for cellared wines can now be placed on-line for convenience, subject to a simple registration process and password activation, or by letter, fax or email. For your security withdrawal telephone instructions for valuable wines should not normally be placed by telephone. Lay & Wheeler offers an enhanced delivery service for delivery of cellared wines, with nominated day of delivery, timed deliveries, and deliveries on Saturdays.

Nominated day of delivery (Gold Standard) is offered free of charge to subscribers to Lay & Wheeler’s Private Reserves Portfolio Service.

Annual Fee

Reflecting the costs of provision of the various elements within the new Portfolio Service, an annual fee will be charged to all Private Reserve accounts. Payment of this fee is therefore a condition of cellaring your wines with Lay & Wheeler. The fee will be reviewed annually and has currently been set at £35 including VAT.

There is no additional charge for access to updated valuations or to expert consultation with Lay & Wheeler’s Wine Consultants.

Cellarage rates

We will be pleased to arrange for the storage of customers’ wines under the Portfolio Service, whether or not they have been purchased from Lay & Wheeler. Cellarage charges are reviewed annually and are currently

  • 1-15 cases £10.56 incl. VAT per case
  • 16-50 cases £9.48 incl. VAT per case
  • 51-100 cases £8.88 incl. VAT per case

The above charges include insurance cover at the full replacement value of stock.
For wines delivered from a paid reserve, including broker stock, an onwards carriage charge will be levied prior to delivery (UK mainland – for other destinations separate quotations will be provided) as follows:

  • 1-3 cases £12 plus VAT
  • 4 cases £16 plus VAT
  • 5 cases £20 plus VAT
  • More than 5 cases subject to special quotation

There is no charge for wines collected from Lay & Wheeler. Under bond transfers of customer stocks to other bonded warehouses are subject to a fee of £20 plus VAT for 5 cases or less. Transfers of more than 5 cases are subject to special quotation.

We firmly believe that in creating the Portfolio Service, Lay & Wheeler’s Private Reserves provision has extended its position as leader in the field. Cellarage customers, whether storing a handful of cases or a large collection, stand to benefit from the facilities now offered. Our expert staff will be delighted to discuss how you can obtain maximum benefit from cellaring your wines in Lay & Wheeler’s care.

For further information about Customer Reserves Management, or for a full Customer Reserves brochure, please contact: reserves@laywheeler.com

Terms & Conditions

1. Portfolio Service
Lay & Wheeler’s Customer Reserves provision will be available only to subscribers to the Portfolio Service. The fee for the Service will be charged on an annual basis in accordance with a published rate structure.

2. Cellarage charges
Wines cellared under the Portfolio Service are subject to annual storage charges. The cellarage charge includes insurance at replacement value. Please refer to Lay & Wheeler’s standard terms & conditions of cellarage.

3. Market Prices
Lay & Wheeler undertakes to provide market information based on quarterly review of prices for currently traded wines. Information supplied reflects the anticipated traded price, before commission.

4. Advice on purchase and resale
Lay & Wheeler uses its best endeavours to recommend actions based on its understanding of individual customers’ requirements and objectives. Lay & Wheeler is not recognised as a financial advisor within the meaning of the Financial Services Act, and no undertakings with regard to investment performance of any wine may be given or implied by any employee of the Company. Furthermore, Lay & Wheeler cannot be held liable for unforeseen changes in value of wines traded on the open market.

5. These terms incorporate Lay & Wheeler’s standard terms & conditions of cellarage.
For the avoidance of doubt any specific point addressed in 1 to 4 above will prevail.