Wine Collection Insurance Coverage

Protect your entire wine collection

You insure your cars, jewelry, even your fine art, so why not wine? Depending on what type of homeowners coverage you have, your wine collection may not be protected. Even a simple power outage, not an uncommon event, could lead to a wine loss which is not covered.

Ideally, a wine collection, just like fine art and antiques, should be scheduled and separately insured against power losses, mechanical breakdowns, fire, breakage and theft.

With our ongoing relationship with leading wine experts, Ellis Insurance provides access to comprehensive wine protection programs, loss control and appraisal services, and inventory systems.

Features and benefits of working with Ellis Insurance include:

Blanket and itemized coverage options
Choose blanket coverage, itemized coverage, or a combination of the two. With blanket coverage, your entire collection is covered under one limit, with a generous single bottle limit of up to $50,000. Itemized coverage is recommended for wines valued at $10,000 or more and can be combined with blanket coverage to provide the best protection for your collection.
Power outage and mechanical breakdown
This coverage includes loss due to power outage or mechanical breakdown of heating, cooling and humidity control equipment – critical coverage for oenophiles.
Wide spectrum of perils
Coverage spans a wide spectrum of causes of loss including fire and theft breakage, flood, and a range of others.

New purchase protection
Depending on the purchase amount, coverage automatically provides up to 100% of the itemized limit for wine on the policy for up to 90 days, giving you plenty of time to report your new acquisitions to us. Compare this to 25% or a maximum of $50,000 offered by leading competitors.
Worldwide coverage
Your wine is protected worldwide and while in transit.
No deductibles on standard policies.

Ellis Insurance also gives you access to top wine inventory management and appraisal resources at preferred rates.

Please contact us for more information on our wine collection services.

More About Insuring Your Wine Collection

4 Tips for Protecting your Wine Collection

Regardless of the size of, or motivation for, your wine collection, education is a critical component when protecting your collection. These 4 tips will help with that first step in protecting your investment.

Wine as an Investment

Wine used to be something you drank, right? Well, not anymore, at least not exclusively.Wine has become a serious investment commodity, increasingly so in the past decade. More than ever wine has the capacity to appreciate in value, to the point where the current value of certain wines can far exceed their original purchase prices.

Protecting Your Wine Collection against Earthquakes

Wine enthusiasts, by definition, know wine. Knowledge of how insurance policies protect wine may be scarce – until there is a loss. Don’t assume a wine collection is covered by home insurance. In all but a few cases, it isn’t. Especially where earthquakes are concerned.

The Specialized Art of the Appraisal

“You need to know what you own, and to know the value of what you own,” said Nancy Harrison, a fine art specialist with Emigrant Bank’s fine art financing unit in New York and the president of the Appraisers Association of America.

How Much Is My Bottle of Wine Worth and How Do I Sell It?

“This query and variations of it – “How can I sell this old bottle of wine and how much is it worth?” – is an often asked question. So…Prepare a special meal, open the bottle, and have fun.

Insuring your wine collection - from Wine Spectator magazine

Ideally, a wine collection, like other valuables such as silver, antiques, coins or fine jewelry, should be separately insured against fire, breakage and theft. If you have a collection worth several thousand dollars, there are two options worth considering: a blanket policy or a stand-alone wine insurance policy. Both cost about the same and give you considerably better coverage than a standard homeowner’s policy.