Provenance, storage and counterfeit risk

Provenance

The trade prices provenance explicitly: 'ex-château' releases, wines sold direct from the producer's own cellar, fetch a premium because the buyer knows the wine has never moved. A case with a bonded-warehouse history from release is next; a case from a private cellar with no documentation is discounted; a single bottle with a scuffed label from an unknown source is a lottery.

Storage

Bonded storage in the UK, the traditional centre of the trade, costs a per-case annual fee (commonly £15–25 including insurance) and defers duty and VAT while the wine stays 'under bond'. In the United States, temperature-controlled storage runs a few dollars a case a month. Over a decade the carrying cost is a material fraction of a mid-priced case's value, which is why storage appears in every honest return calculation.

Counterfeits

The Rudy Kurniawan case (convicted 2013) showed that counterfeit Burgundy and Bordeaux could pass through leading auction houses for years; producers have since added anti-counterfeit measures (proof tags, engraved bottles, blockchain registers). The wines most at risk are the most valuable per bottle — DRC, Pétrus, old Lafite and Mouton — and the most at risk are buyers who cannot verify a bottle's history.

What it means for value

Two observations of the 'same' wine can differ by half on provenance alone, which is why Corkonomics records the seller, location and condition notes on any price observation it holds.