Cellar disposal

Selling off your prized stash or investment portfolio of wines can be nervewracking, gut-wrenching, highly rewarding and fun - or even all in turn. So how do you get the best deal you can? Here's a full guide from a trade insider

- CHRIS LOSH

There are no better products to buy than wine. Fact. With its infinite variety, wide range of prices and ability to (a) increase in value, and (b) make your steak taste better, it appeals to nerds, collectors and sybarites alike.

Which perhaps explains why wine lovers can end up with so much of the stuff. Bottle racks groaning, wine fridges stuffed, cases littering the floor. And let's not even get started on the hundreds of bottles sitting in bond.

If any of this sounds familiar, feel free to speak up. You're among friends.

Most of us in the vino-curious community have never considered selling our cellar; our idea of 'disposing of bottles stretches no further than emptying them into a glass and drinking them.

But there may be times when you need to (ahem...) liquidate some assets. It could be a small, strategic sell-off to free up space or a much larger/total disposal as a result of a house-move, or worse.

People tend to sell their cellar at a time of crisis - divorce, bereavement, things like that,' says Paddy Shave, head of wine sales at Brightwells auctioneers. But in fact, more and more people are coming to us at the moment and saying that they're not sure about being able to pay their bills.

Whatever your reasons for deciding to sell, you need to know your options for how to go about it.

STORAGE IS KEY