A short call
Thirty minutes, no charge. What the collection is, roughly how large, where it lives, and — the question that shapes everything else — who has to accept the number.
Estate & Insurance Appraisal · Estate Triage · Re-certification
A number someone elsehas to accept.
A USPAP-compliant wine appraisal is a signed, written opinion of value for a collection, prepared to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice — the rules insurers, the IRS, and courts expect an appraisal to follow. You need one when the figure has to satisfy somebody other than you: an underwriter scheduling the cellar, an executor filing Form 706, the IRS reviewing a Form 8283 deduction, or a court dividing marital property.
USPAP-compliant, signed
From $1,400
A percentage of value
Four reasons people call
Almost every appraisal I write exists to answer one of four questions, and the purpose changes the number. Tell me which one you are in and the rest of the engagement follows from it.
The purpose setsthe value.
Insurance scheduling
An underwriter will not schedule a collection it cannot see. A homeowner's policy usually caps wine at a few thousand dollars, blanket, with no per-bottle recognition. A scheduled rider needs a written valuation naming the bottles, the formats, and the replacement figure — and it needs updating as the market moves.
Replacement value in the relevant market, bottle by bottle.
Estate administration and Form 706
A federal estate tax return reports the collection at fair market value as of the date of death — not what it cost, not what it would fetch at auction after fees. Executors and trustees need that figure from someone with no interest in the outcome, dated correctly, and defensible if it is ever questioned.
Fair market value as of a stated effective date.
Charitable donation and Form 8283
A non-cash charitable deduction above $5,000 requires a qualified appraisal by a qualified appraiser, with Section B of Form 8283 signed by that appraiser and the receiving charity. Your CPA will confirm the thresholds and timing that apply to your return; my part is the appraisal itself and the signature that goes with it.
Fair market value, with the appraiser's declaration attached.
Equitable distribution in divorce
A cellar is often the last asset anyone thinks to value and the first one that turns into an argument. A single neutral appraisal both counsel can work from costs less than two competing ones, and it stops the wine from becoming the proxy fight.
One neutral valuation, engaged jointly or by the court.
What arrives
Inside the writtenvaluation.
Bottle-level inventory
Producer, vintage, format, quantity, and location — including cases still in original wood and anything held off-site.
Condition and provenance
Fill level, capsule, label, closure, storage history, and purchase records where they exist. Condition is where value actually lives.
Photographs
Referenced back to the inventory line, so nobody has to take my word for a fill level or a stained label.
The value conclusion
A figure for each lot and for the collection, with the definition of value used — replacement, fair market, or marketable cash — stated plainly.
The market evidence
Auction records, retail comparables, and the reasoning behind each conclusion, so the number can be followed rather than trusted.
Effective date and intended use
Who the report is for, what it may be used for, and the date the values speak to. USPAP requires all three, and insurers and the IRS both look for them.
Certification and qualifications
Signed, with my credentials and a statement that my fee is in no way contingent on the values reported.
Assumptions and limiting conditions
What I inspected, what I did not, and what the report does not claim to be.
How it goes
I do the inspection and I write the report. Nothing is subcontracted, and nobody arrives at your house who has not spoken to you first.
Six steps, aboutthree weeks.
Engagement letter
A flat fee, the intended use, the intended users, and the effective date, agreed in writing before I start.
Inspection
I visit the cellar and work bin by bin: count, condition, format, photograph. Off-site storage is visited the same way, by appointment with the facility.
Research
Auction results, current retail, and market direction for each significant lot. This is the part that takes the longest and it is the part that makes the report hold up.
The written valuation
I write the report myself and deliver it signed, in PDF and bound if you want a copy for the file. Roughly two to three weeks from inspection for most collections.
Re-certification
Values move. An annual or biennial update keeps the insurance schedule and the estate file current without repeating the whole engagement.
Published fees
Flat, or hourly.Never a percentage.
USPAP prohibits an appraiser from taking a fee that moves with the value reported, and for good reason: an appraiser paid on a percentage has a stake in the answer. Mine is quoted in the engagement letter before I open a single case, and it does not change when the number does.
Estate & Insurance Appraisal
From $1,400
A signed, USPAP-compliant written valuation: on-site inventory, condition and provenance review, market evidence, and the value conclusion your insurer, the IRS, or the court will read.
Appraisal re-certification (annual update)
From $575
Keeps insurance schedules and estate valuations current — recommended every 1–2 years. Priced at a fraction of the initial USPAP report since comps and inventory carry forward.
Estate Triage
From $2,100
For attorneys and executors: on-site inventory, USPAP-compliant appraisal, and a written disposition memo (what to insure, donate, or consign — with auction-house handoff). One engagement that makes the collection question disappear.
Travel outside New York and South Florida is quoted at cost with the engagement. Executors and attorneys working to a deadline should say so on the first call — appraisal work can be sequenced around a filing date.
Who this is for
The people whoneed the paper.
Collectors whose insurer has asked for a schedule, or whose blanket coverage has quietly been outgrown.
Executors, trustees, and estate attorneys who need a date-of-death value and a plan for the bottles.
Donors giving wine to a charitable auction or institution and claiming the deduction.
Divorcing couples and their counsel who want one neutral number instead of two contested ones.
Family offices and wealth advisors carrying a collection on a client balance sheet with no evidence behind the figure.
Questions I am asked
Before youcommission one.
Nothing here is tax or legal advice. Where a threshold or a deadline touches your return, your CPA or your attorney has the last word — I write the appraisal they rely on.
How much does a wine appraisal cost?
A written, USPAP-compliant valuation starts from $1,400. The fee is flat or hourly and quoted before I start, based on the number of bottles, how many locations they sit in, and how much research each significant lot needs. USPAP prohibits an appraiser from charging a percentage of the value reported, so my fee never moves with the number in the report.
Is a wine appraisal free?
No, and be careful with anyone who offers one. A free appraisal is almost always paid for by the transaction that follows it — a purchase, a consignment, a commission. I do not buy collections, sell them, or take a share of any sale, so the appraisal has to be paid for directly. That is the whole point of it.
Who can appraise a wine collection, and how do I find one?
For insurance you need someone your carrier will accept; for the IRS you need a qualified appraiser as the regulations define one. In practice that means demonstrable expertise in the property being valued, a report prepared to USPAP, and no financial interest in the outcome. Ask any appraiser three questions: are your reports USPAP-compliant, how are you paid, and do you also buy or sell wine.
Do I need an appraisal to insure my wine collection?
To schedule it, yes, in almost every case. Wine sits inside your general contents limit until it is scheduled, and that limit is rarely written with a serious cellar in mind. Carriers differ on how recent the valuation must be — most want it inside three years, some inside one — so ask yours before you commission the work.
How often should a wine appraisal be updated?
Every one to two years for an active collection, and immediately after any significant acquisition, sale, or loss. Fine wine markets move in both directions and an insurance schedule anchored to a five-year-old number is either overpaying or underinsured. Re-certification runs from $575, because the inventory and comparables carry forward.
What information does a wine appraiser need from me?
Access to the wine, first of all — including anything in off-site storage. Beyond that: purchase records or invoices where you have them, prior appraisals, storage history, and any insurance schedule already in force. Missing paperwork is normal and does not stop the work; it just means condition and provenance are read from the bottles instead.
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 willing seller would agree on, neither being compelled. That is a different figure from insurance replacement value, usually a lower one, and the two are not interchangeable on a return. Which applies to your estate is a question for its attorney or CPA.
Do I need an appraisal to donate wine?
For a non-cash charitable deduction above $5,000 the IRS requires a qualified appraisal by a qualified appraiser, and Section B of Form 8283 signed by that appraiser. Below that threshold the requirements are lighter. There are also timing rules about how far in advance of the filing the appraisal may be prepared — confirm the current ones with your CPA before scheduling the inspection.
Can you appraise a collection you have not seen in person?
For an insurance schedule or an IRS filing, no — condition drives value and condition has to be inspected. I can give you an indicative range from a good inventory list before anyone travels, so you know whether a formal appraisal is worth commissioning at all. The signed report requires the visit.
Will you buy the collection, or sell it for me?
Never. Prestige Vin holds no inventory, takes no retailer margin, and accepts no referral or consignment fee from any auction house. If selling is the right answer I will say so in writing and hand you the two or three houses I would approach and what each would cost you — and I earn nothing either way.
New York · South Florida · elsewhere by arrangement
Who has to acceptyour number?
Tell me the rough size of the collection, where it sits, and what the appraisal is for. If a formal report is not the right answer yet, I will say so — that call costs nothing either.