Is Your Wine Collection Worth Insuring?
If you spend a great deal of your time and money finding and acquiring quality wines, you might be interested to know that there’s something called wine collector’s insurance. Some wine aficionados are surprised to discover that after ten or fifteen years of collecting wine, their cellar has some real market value. You buy a few bottles of hard-to- find wine, a few years go by, you buy a few more, and suddenly what began as a simple curiosity develops into a hobby that’s worth several thousand dollars. But storing wine in your own home comes with its fair share of challenges. You can protect your newly discovered investment by learning about the intricacies of wine collector’s insurance.
Is My Wine Collection Covered by Homeowner’s Insurance?
While homeowner’s insurance or an additional rider can cover some valuables, the typical problems facing wine collectors are usually not. If your wine collection goes up in a blaze of smoke along with the rest of your house, there’s a good chance that your wine collection will also be covered. But sadly, house fires and other natural disasters aren’t the biggest threats facing your wine collection. It’s the occasional power outage, temperature control, or the accidental shattering of a bottle that you should really be worried about. Most homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover such minor occurrences. If you have a large collection of wine, you’ll be much better off with a specific policy that’s designed to insure your vinous investment.
How Do I Know If I Need to Insure My Wine Collection?
The answer to this question all depends on how you feel about your wine collection. Are you extremely proud of the time you’ve spent gathering all of these precious bottles? If your wine collection has a special place in your heart, you should look into getting a quote for an insurance policy. Most policies only cost about 50 cents per year for every 100 dollars of coverage. Depending on how much wine you have, those numbers are probably pretty reasonable. Investing in wine collector’s insurance is a good idea even if you don’t intend to sell the wine. You’ve already spent so much money acquiring the wine; why not take a few steps to protect it.
What Type of Policy Should I Choose?
If you decide that you need wine collector’s insurance, you have a few options to mull over. If you just have a few bottles that you’d like to insure, you’re probably better off going with a rider on your homeowner’s insurance policy. However, homeowner’s insurance usually doesn’t protect against things like temperature control or the occasional wine fraud, but it will insure your collection in the event of an earthquake, a fire or a flood.
Larger collections require a separate policy. If you have more than thirty of fifty bottles that need insuring, you should contact your local insurance company to see if they offer wine collector’s insurance or seek out a third-party provider. A company that specializes in insuring wine will give you two options: blanket coverage or bottle-by-bottle coverage. Both are good options but choose the latter if you have some really fancy bottles lying around. Before you sign up, you’ll need to have your collection appraised by a professional.
If you’re a serious collector, treat your investment with care and sign up for wine collector’s insurance before it’s too late. Contact the team at Summit Insurance Advisors for more information about signing up for wine collector’s insurance.