How and when do I earn a return on my wine and whiskey investments?

For fine wine, the timeline will depend on the specific vintage, the style of wine, its tannins, acid, and sugar levels (which will change with age), and when an investor added it to their portfolio.  Generally speaking, we advise clients to anticipate holding wines for 7 to 10 years. For whiskey, the required minimum hold time is 3 years, but we advise clients to anticipate hold times of 4 to 10 years (sometimes longer for rare Scotch whiskies). 

To maximize selling price—and therefore return—an investor should put a wine on the market when it is at peak maturity and best quality. Since most fine wine takes 7 to 10 (or more) years to mature after it is bottled, a vintage that is 7 to 10 years old is approaching its drinking window and peak quality, and will therefore command the highest price. 

When you set up your Vinovest profile, we’ll ask you how long you plan to hold your wine. We will then purchase wines that will peak within that range.

Whiskey also needs to be aged prior to sale (and therefore return), but the timeline here is dictated by legal requirements (e.g., straight bourbon must be aged a minimum of two years) as well as the aging preferences of the purchasing distillery (e.g., a distillery seeking to bottle an eight-year bourbon will seek out casks that have aged that long).