Day one
A call, usually the same day you ring. What is known, where the wine is, whether the cooling is running, and what the estate's deadlines are. If something needs doing before I can get there, I will tell you on that call.
Estate Triage · For executors, trustees, and estate attorneys
You have inheriteda cellar and a duty.
An executor who finds a wine collection has four obligations: inventory it, safeguard it — it is the one asset in the estate that is actively perishing — establish its value as of the date of death, and decide what happens to it. Estate Triage does all four in about a fortnight: I inventory the wine on site, write a USPAP-compliant valuation, and deliver a disposition memo saying what to insure, hold, distribute, donate, or consign, and why.
From $2,100
About a fortnight
None
The executor's obligations
Executors usually call me in the worst week of their year, holding a set of duties nobody trained them for. Here they are in plain terms. Your attorney will tell you how your state and the will apply them; this is what they mean where the wine is concerned.
Four duties,one perishable asset.
Find it and write it down
Everything, and everywhere. The cellar, the wine fridge in the kitchen, the cases in the garage, the storage locker nobody mentioned, and the bottles at a second house. An estate inventory that omits a third of the collection is a problem that surfaces later, at the worst possible moment.
Safeguard a perishable asset
This is the obligation people miss. Wine is not a painting: it degrades, and it degrades fastest in exactly the conditions an unoccupied house produces. A cellar with the cooling off is losing value every week the estate takes to organise itself. Securing the wine physically comes before valuing it.
Establish the date-of-death value
Fair market value as of the date of death — or the alternate valuation date if the estate elects it — for the estate accounting, and for Form 706 where a return is required. That is a different figure from insurance replacement value and from what an auction house would net you, and the three are not interchangeable on a filing.
Decide: keep, distribute, sell, or donate
And be able to show why. Beneficiaries who disagree about the wine are usually disagreeing about something else, and a documented, reasoned recommendation from someone with no stake in the answer is what keeps that conversation short.
What you receive
The dispositionmemo.
One document, written for the file: enough for you to act on, enough for counsel to rely on, and enough for a beneficiary two years from now to see why each decision was made.
The inventory
Producer, vintage, format, quantity, and location, lot by lot — including everything found off-site.
The valuation
Fair market value as of the date of death, prepared to USPAP, signed, with the market evidence behind each conclusion set out.
Condition and risk
What shape the collection is in and what is deteriorating now. Bottles that will not survive a slow administration are flagged first.
Immediate actions
What to do this week: power, temperature, security, and whether anything needs moving before anything else is decided.
A recommendation per lot
Insure, hold, distribute in kind, donate, or consign — with the reasoning written out, so the file shows why, not just what.
The sale analysis
Where consignment is recommended: which two or three houses I would approach, their published rates, realistic timing, and what the estate would actually net after costs.
The donation option
Where a charitable disposition makes sense, what the deduction route requires — including the qualified-appraisal threshold — for the estate's CPA to confirm and act on.
What to pour
A short list for the funeral or the family gathering. It is the smallest section of the memo and often the one people remember.
The timeline
About afortnight.
Faster where a filing date or a house closing requires it. Say so on the first call and the work is sequenced around the deadline.
Week one
On-site inventory. I come to the wine — house, storage facility, or both — and count, condition, and photograph it, bin by bin.
Week two
Research and writing: auction records and current market for every significant lot, the valuation conclusions, and the disposition analysis.
About a fortnight in
The signed appraisal and the written disposition memo, delivered together. After that, the wine stops being one of the things you have to think about.
The fee, and the conflicts
I never sellthe wine.
Estate Triage · From $2,100
Flat, agreed in writing before I start, and inclusive of the USPAP-compliant appraisal — that is not charged on top. Where the estate needs only a valuation and no disposition advice, the standalone appraisal is from $1,400. USPAP prohibits an appraiser from charging a percentage of the value reported, so my fee does not move with the number in the report.
Prestige Vin buys no collections, holds no inventory, consigns nothing, and accepts no referral fee, kickback, or share of proceeds from any auction house, broker, or retailer. I earn exactly the same whether the estate keeps every bottle, sells the lot, or donates it. That is the only arrangement under which a recommendation about disposition is worth reading.
Anthony Clemenza owns Prestige Vin and also owns Clemenza Law. If the collection belongs in the estate plan rather than only on a schedule, counsel there can help — but you are free to instruct any appraiser and any attorney you wish, and nothing about this engagement depends on your using either firm. No fee passes between the two in either direction, and no part of my fee is contingent on a referral, a filing, or a sale.
Clemenza Law — collectionsExecutor questions
What people askin week one.
Nothing here is legal or tax advice, and I am not the estate's attorney. I am the person who can tell you what the wine is, what it is worth, and what to do with it.
What should an executor do with a wine collection?
Four things, in order. Secure it — confirm the cooling is running and the house is locked, because heat is the fastest way for estate value to disappear. Inventory it, everywhere it lives. Establish fair market value as of the date of death, in writing, from someone with no stake in the outcome. Then decide between keeping, distributing, selling, and donating, and document why. The wine is usually the only perishable asset in the estate, which is why it should not be the last one handled.
How is wine valued for estate tax?
At fair market value as of the date of death, or the alternate valuation date if the estate elects it — the price a willing buyer and a willing seller would agree on, neither being compelled to act. That figure is normally lower than insurance replacement value and different again from auction net proceeds. Whether a Form 706 is required at all, and which date applies, is a question for the estate's attorney or CPA; I supply the valuation they rely on.
Can an executor sell wine from an estate?
Usually, but it depends on the will, the trust instrument, and state law — including liquor-licensing rules that govern who may sell alcohol and how. That is a question for the estate's attorney, not for me. What I can tell you is what the collection is worth, what each realistic disposition route would net after costs, and which lots are worth the trouble of selling at all.
Do we need an appraisal if the family is just dividing the bottles?
More often than you would think, yes. Equitable distribution in kind requires knowing what each share is worth, and a case of 1982 Bordeaux and a case of last year's rosé are not two cases. A valuation also protects the executor: a documented, independent basis for the split is the answer to a beneficiary who decides two years later that they got the lesser half.
The house has been sitting without air conditioning. Is the wine ruined?
Not necessarily, and guessing is the wrong approach in both directions. Heat damage shows in specific ways — pushed corks, raised capsules, seepage at the neck, stained labels, dropped fill — and I inspect and photograph for exactly those. Some collections come through a bad summer largely intact; some are a total loss above a certain shelf. The report says which, lot by lot, and what it does to value.
How long does Estate Triage take, and what does it cost?
About a fortnight from the first call to the delivered memo, faster if a filing or a closing requires it. The fee is from $2,100, flat, agreed in writing before I start, and it includes the USPAP-compliant appraisal — it is not charged on top. Where the estate needs only a valuation and no disposition advice, that is the standalone appraisal, from $1,400.
Do you buy the wine, or take a commission on the sale?
No, to both, and this is the part that matters most in an estate. Prestige Vin holds no inventory, buys no collections, consigns nothing, and accepts no referral fee, kickback, or share of proceeds from any auction house, broker, or retailer. My fee is flat and paid by the estate. I earn precisely the same whether you keep every bottle, sell the lot, or give it away — which is the only arrangement under which my recommendation is worth having.
Will an insurer or the IRS accept the report?
The valuation is prepared to USPAP with a stated intended use, named intended users, a defined basis of value, an effective date, the market evidence, and a signed certification — the form insurers and the IRS expect. Tell me at the outset who will read it and I will write it to their requirements. Whether a particular filing is required, and when, remains a question for the estate's attorney or CPA.
New York · South Florida · elsewhere by arrangement
Then the winestops being a problem.
Tell me where the collection is, roughly how large, and what the estate's deadlines are. If the cooling is off, say that first — I will tell you what to do about it on the call, whether or not you engage me.