Valuing and Insuring a Wine Collection
How to document, value and protect a wine collection: the inventory to keep, three kinds of value, what to ask an insurer and what a buyer wants to see.
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Collectors, villa and chalet stocking, private jets and weddings.
The €5 Million Antinori Heist: What Was Taken, and What It Means for Solaia and Tignanello
Around 30,000 bottles of Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso, worth some €5 million, were stolen from Antinori's warehouse in Cortona. What happened…
Read more: The €5 Million Antinori Heist: What Was Taken, and What It Means for Solaia and Tignanello
The First Week of the Season in Saint-Tropez: Getting the Villa Cellar Ready
The first week of the season in Saint-Tropez is a particular moment. The villa has been closed since autumn, the garden has just been done, the pool is…
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Christmas in the Chalet: Wine and Champagne for the Festive Fortnight
Christmas and New Year are the busiest fortnight of the ski season. The chalet is full, the family has invited friends, and the cellar has to cover two big…
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Closing a Holiday Home for the Winter: What to Do With the Wine
A summer house closes in October and opens again in May. For seven months the cellar looks after itself, and that is where good wine is quietly lost: a power…
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How Much Champagne and Wine for a Villa Party? The Planning Figures
A party at the house is where the arithmetic matters most. Too little champagne and the evening runs dry at the moment it should lift; far too much and a case…
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The Villa Welcome Case: What to Have Waiting When the Family Arrives
The first ten minutes in a holiday house set the tone for the week. The family has been travelling since the morning; what they want is a cold glass…
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Local Wines Worth Stocking at Your Summer Villa, From Provence to Mykonos
Part of the pleasure of a summer in someone else’s country is drinking what grows there. A villa table with the local wine beside the classics is a better…
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The House Manager’s Guide to Wine Across Several Homes
A family with a villa on the coast, a chalet for the winter, an apartment in town and perhaps a yacht does not drink in four different ways. The principal…
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Building a Wine Cellar Into a New-Build Home: What to Decide Before the Walls Go Up
The best time to plan a wine cellar is before the walls go up. Once the plaster is on, a cellar becomes a compromise: a cooling unit with nowhere to vent…
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How to Stock a Holiday Villa for the Week: Quantities, Timing and What to Have Waiting
The car is on its way from the airport, the house is ready and the fridge is cold. What is in it, and what is waiting in the cellar, is decided days earlier…
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Setting Up a Home Wine Cellar: The Practical Checklist
A wine cellar is four numbers and a habit. Get the numbers right, temperature, humidity, light, vibration, and keep the habit of recording what goes in and…
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