Bordeaux
Burgundy
Champagne
Rhône
Napa Valley
Tuscany
Piedmont
Mosel
Oregon
Rioja
California sparkling
Valais and Lavaux
England
Douro
Etna
Mendoza
Marlborough
Stellenbosch
Barossa Valley
Tasmania
Beaujolais
Jura
Alsace
Loire
Provence
Ribera del Duero
Sonoma
Wat land kost
Goede en slechte jaren
Appellations
Beroemde wijngaarden
Beroemde wijnen
Wie ze maken
Zoek een oogstjaar
Wijnen vergelijken
Holding wine costs money every year. Bonded storage in the UK runs a per-case fee that commonly includes insurance; US temperature-controlled storage is priced per case per month. Over ten years the carrying cost is a material fraction of the case's value, and it is why Corkonomics' benchmarks page shows a net-of-costs figure beside the gross index.
Bonded storage
'Under bond' means duty and sales tax are deferred while the wine sits in a licensed warehouse; the wine can be sold on without ever leaving. Trade prices are quoted in bond. UK fees have commonly been in the range of £15–25 a case a year including insurance; the warehouse's records also become the wine's provenance.
The arithmetic
A $2,000 case stored at $25 a year costs 1.25% a year to hold before insurance. Add a 10–20% buyer's premium or retail margin on the way in and a 10% commission on the way out, and a wine must rise by roughly 30–40% over a decade before the holder is even in nominal terms — before inflation, before the opportunity cost of the cash.
In the ledger
Every return on this site is a gross price change. The net-of-costs illustration uses stated assumptions (10% in, 10% out, 2% a year) so that the direction and order of magnitude are visible; the assumptions can be argued with, the principle cannot.