For some couples, wine is a shared passion. It can be a statement of their lifestyle and legacy, as well as a significant financial asset. As family lawyers, we are seeing increasing numbers of unusual collections of value, including wine, within divorce cases. This may be a wine cellar built up over decades or a carefully curated personal collection. Either way, this asset needs to be handled with care and expertise.
So what should lawyers consider when working with wine connoisseurs during divorce?
Counting wine portfolios as a marital asset
The legal stance regarding wine is that it counts as personal property, whether it is bought for enjoyment, investment, or both. Therefore it can definitely be considered as a marital asset, although when and how it was acquired will determine how it is treated: for example, one person bringing their existing collection into the marriage; couples beginning a collection together; or the gifting of valuable bottles to a spouse. To ascertain if the collection is part of the marital pot, you need to know where it came from, when it was bought, how it has been cared for and who owns it.
Clients with substantial collections should be able to provide evidence of records of purchase, cellar inventory lists and storage contracts. Good documentation will facilitate an accurate value of the asset early on in the process.
Requesting a professional valuation
Like some other assets, including art and antiques, wine is notoriously hard to value accurately without the help of an expert. The present worth of a collection will be based on multiple factors, such as the vintage, provenance, condition of the wine, how it has been stored – and its appeal to other collectors.
Wine value can be quite emotive or subjective, especially if one person regards themselves as the ‘collector’. To avoid arguments and delays, both parties can agree to use an impartial, specialist wine appraiser. Their formal report will help negotiations proceed more smoothly, and a court is likely to accept this professional information.
Ensuring a fair split
The division of a wine collection is likely to boil down to a combination of practicality, emotional attachment and fairness. The main options are:
- The bottles or cases are divided, based on their worth, rarity, or personal preference.
- One party keeps the entire collection with the other party receiving assets of equal value to balance this out.
- If neither party wishes to keep the collection, it is sold and the profit split between the couple.
When providing advice to clients, it is important to ascertain which of these options offers the most appropriate solution for their personal context. This may require digging a little deeper to understand why the collection is so important to one or both of the parties. Collaborative law settings or private FDRs can be useful to help establish if the collection has particular emotive significance for one party, or conversely, is something that they’d be more than happy to sell.
Advising clients to be prepared
For any client who is considering marriage or a civil partnership, who has a significant wine collection or is likely to inherit one, the option of prenuptial or postnuptial agreements should be discussed.
While these aren’t automatically binding, courts are increasingly likely to uphold them, as long as the agreements are valid, with both sides receiving their own legal advice. These agreements can help provide clarity on what should happen if the couple separates, especially if the wine is part of a larger collection of rare or valuable items.
Understanding emotional value
An expertly chosen collection of wine is likely to be worth more than just money. There may be strong emotional connotations; a bottle bought on the honeymoon, vintages that mark anniversaries and birthdays, or a cellar developed during years of shared passion. Such subtleties should be factored into the approach towards this asset and lawyers need to be aware of emotional links, especially when working with clients who have been married for a long time. Mediation or collaborative law are both useful processes that can make it easier to discuss solutions amicably, avoiding potential acrimony. We’ve experienced clients who have unique or non-obvious assets in their portfolios, including wine collections, antiques, art, designer clothes and classic cars. No matter what the asset, the key is to ensure they are handled with the same care, empathy and strategic planning as any other type of financial assets.
Rachel Buckley is Joint-MD and High-Net-Worth Divorce Solicitor at The Family Law Company
