How does this work

  • Wine follows a long and complex path when traveling from the vineyard to your cellar.

    It involves many different wine businesses (importers,wholesalers, retailers, etc.), logistics providers, and regulations. Each step in this journey increases the final price of the wine and the risk of improper storage. The Buyer|Cellar service is designed to streamline this process and allow consumers to purchase wine directly from the source. We handle all the logistics of getting the wine from Europe to you, for one flat and transparent fee. This approach allows us to provide customers with a huge selection of pristine wine at a significantly reduced cost.

  • Your wine starts its journey when we buy it on the exchange or from a European partner. Shortly after your purchase, we send out a notification confirming your purchase information. The wine is then immediately transferred to London for inspection.

    Once your wine has arrived in London, it is inspected to confirm that it meets the precise standards and is verified for authenticity. Once the wine passes inspection, you will receive an email notification.

  • Your wine is then transferred to our bonded warehouse in Beaune, France where we consolidate all of our shipments bound for the USA. Here your wine is tagged and kept in the perfect environment while it awaits the journey stateside.

     

    Your wine is shipped in a location-tracked, climate-controlled environment from France to the USA. Once the wine passes customs, it’s transferred to our central depot in Newton, MA.

  • When your wine has arrived in our depot, you will receive a notification from our team. Depending on your instructions, the wine is either shipped to your chosen destination or held for in-person pickup, available every Saturday or weekday by appointment.

Common Considerations

- Why is wine pickup the default option?

The Buyer|Cellar mission is to provide world class wine, with exceptional provenance, at the best possible price. To facilitate this mission, we ask our customers to use our partner pickup locations whenever possible. By picking up your wine at a location near to you, Buyer|Cellar can own the entire wine custody chain and ensure that poor or expensive last mile shipping does not negatively impact your experience. It also gives us the opportunity to share a glass of wine together!

- How does Buyer|Cellar establish wine provenance?

Buyer|Cellar only lists wines that meet strict custody standards. By working within an international network of reputable wine dealers, sommeliers, and exchanges we are able to source fine wine at its point of origin. Provenance is of utmost importance across all of our available wines. In addition to our direct sourced wine, we also provide access to industry-cellared back vintage wine, bottles with fewer owner transitions and optimal storage. Identifying pristine wine is core to our service and every wine sold has the source clearly defined.

- How are Buyer|Cellar prices set?

All prices available through the service are buying offers established by reputable international merchant exclusive wine exchanges, brokers, and dealers. Transactions through our platform incur a service fee to cover the cost of the service and compensation for our partner retailers. The service fee is included in all our pricing so you always understand the complete cost of your wine with no hidden fees.

- How does Buyer|Cellar identify its targeted wine list?

Buyer|Cellar uses proprietary algorithms to analyze investment grade wines available within our network. This information is cross-referenced with auction, wholesale, and retail data to identify the best wine buying opportunities for the most sought after fine wines. Hard to find vintages, beautifully aged wines entering their drinking window, and wines being traded below established fair value are prioritized. You can learn more about how we score our wine offers in the “Opportunity Evaluation” section above.

- Is Buyer|Cellar a retailer?

No, Buyer|Cellar is a procurement and data service that partners with retailers to provide customers with access and transparency into the global fine wine marketplace. All wine purchased through the platform is transacted between our network and partners before being sold to you.

FAQ

Q.How long will it take for my wine to arrive?

The vast majority of our wine is warehoused in Europe (with some exceptions). Six times a year we ship our purchased products over in a climate controlled container. Depending on when you buy your wine, please allow up to 5 months for arrival to our depot in Newton, MA.

Q.What if something happens in transit?

To make sure you're receiving the best quality product, all of our bottles are inspected before final delivery for condition and provenance. If the condition of the wine does not meet any of our quality standards, we will cancel the order and work with you to find a suitable replacement.

Q.Can I make a return?

Our products are sold directly to you from an international network of reputable dealers, wine merchants, collectors, and sommeliers. This model allows us to provide you with more favorable pricing than you will find from a typical retailer. As a result, all sales are final. With that being said, if an order was placed in error please reach out to us within 24 hours to reverse the transaction.

Q.Who are you?

We're a new kind of wine company based in Massachusetts, USA. You can find out more about our company and our team in the “About Us” section at the top of the page. Please feel free to contact us anytime at sales@buyercellar.com

Q.I'm looking for something special but I don't see the exact bottle on your site.

We offer private buying services to any of our customers. We work with many private collections and industry professionals to get access to rare and hard to find wines. While these collections might not meet our very high standards for direct listing on our marketplace, we are confident they are maintained with an eye for condition and quality. Please feel free to contact us anytime at privatebuying@buyercellar.com to learn more.