Corks

Meeting the Collectors – In Conversation with Neil

Photo by Ning Shi on Unsplash

In this mini-series of articles, ARENI meets with Fine Wine collectors from all over the world.

Based in London, Neil is a financier who travels the world for work. With nearly 25 years of collecting experience, he explains how his personal preferences shifted from Bordeaux to a wider range of origins and how price defines how he buys.

ARENI:

How would you describe your job?

Neil:

I do a range of things. I’ve been an investment banker for 25 years, working mostly in frontier and emerging markets. I set up my own advisory firm just over two years ago. And, in addition to that, I manage a portfolio of investments where I’m an executive board member. I spend my days on Zoom, constantly talking to China, talking to Russia, talking to the US.

ARENI:

Would you say that your wine consumption is mostly linked to when you travel for business?

Neil:

In a normal week in London, I don’t drink during the week. I’ll open a nice bottle on Friday and a bottle on Saturday and that’s pretty much it.

My very fine wine consumption is at home and it’s private. When I travel, if there is client entertainment I will drink as well, but it’s never as good as the one I have at home or with one or two close friends who are fine wine aficionados as well.

ARENI:

What is a Fine Wine for you?

Neil:

It’s something I will open. There might be some mystery behind it because it could be an old wine and I don’t know if it’s still good or not. So there’s an element of mystery. Price obviously has something to do with how sellers classify wine. But I do look for good deals.

And I’m very picky with what I get. Whenever I buy a wine, I check half a dozen sources to find out if the price is reasonable. Where does it come from? How has it been stored? And how is my overall wine collection diversified?

Because for many years it was all one thing. If it’s a special occasion beverage, it usually dictates what I eat and not the other way around. If I’m hosting a dinner with people who I know appreciate wine, I will choose the wine before I choose the food.

ARENI:

When did you start collecting?

Neil:

I started collecting wine seriously in 1998. In 2000, there was a technology boom and finance was doing very well. Most of my colleagues spent their bonuses on buying tech stocks and I thought, I’m not going to do that because I think there’s a bubble. So I took all of my bonus in 2000, which was paid at the beginning of 2001, and I bought en primeur Bordeaux for the year 2000. I bought about 130 cases of it.

I’m drinking the profit. I bought all the first growth super seconds in 2000, including some much cheaper ones. Then in 2002 I bought a lot. I stopped for a few years because I ended up with thousands of bottles of wine. I also participated in some auctions.

So I ended up, just under 20 years ago, with a cellar that was 95% Bordeaux. In the last 18 months I’ve started to diversify.

ARENI:

Do you have any particular region or areas, or even a state that you would like to continue to diversify with?

Neil:

I would like to have more Burgundy, although during this confinement I acquired a fair bit of white Burgundy.

I still haven’t bought red Burgundy because I just think the universe is too tricky.

I would like to dig deeper into some Italian, selectively, some Spanish, selectively. I have some Pingus and I’d like to go a bit deeper there. I would like to have more California and I wouldn’t mind trying some Pinot from Washington State and Oregon. I have tasted good Australians, good South Africans.  But that’s it, really.

ARENI:

Some collectors when they buy wine, have wine to put aside to age, maybe wine they could auction, and wine to drink. Do you buy all your wine with the same kind of mindset?

Neil:

I rarely buy cheap wine, if ever. I have so much in the cellar that sort of my everyday drinking, on a typical Friday night, are some of the 2000s, which for some people are exceptional wines and very hard to find today.

I try not to spend more than 200 euros a bottle if I have to spend more than that then it has to be something incredibly special.  

I started, like everybody did, with Parker. The Bible of wine was Parker and I knew that he drove prices and there was a clear bias there. When I did all of my initial purchases, it was using Parker primarily. Wine Searcher didn’t exist yet. I now use Wine Searcher a lot more. If I’m going to buy a case today, I’ll go onto Wine Searcher as a first stop. I’ll read the Parker comment, the Jancis Robinson comments and other relevant comments. If I want to learn a little bit more, I’ll go onto website and do a bit more reading.

ARENI:

Do you want to make sure the price is correct? Or are you interested in other aspects of the wine?

Neil:

I do price comparison, because I’m not going to buy something from one source, if I can get it 20% cheaper elsewhere. I know all the wine producers absolutely hate Wine Searcher.

ARENI:

And you’ve got stocks in both London and France.

Neil:

London, France and Switzerland. I buy in France and Switzerland and almost exclusively from Berry Brothers in the UK. Because I’m a good customer, I get whatever allocations I want. And I get some more in France and Switzerland. But it’s a very tight group of suppliers. I just decided that I trusted the service. I trusted the storage.

ARENI:

Do you buy Fine Wine at a restaurant or wine bar?

Neil:

Well, I mean, define fine wine. I will never spend €500 for a bottle of wine in a restaurant. When I go to a restaurant with friends, they always give me the wine list. When I look at the wine list, I think, okay, well that, one’s a good deal. That one’s not a good deal. This one’s a really good deal. If I’m with people who appreciate it, then the sweet spot in London would be about £150 or something like that. But I’m not going to go nuts, unless I’m celebrating a big business transaction or something like that, because it’s poor value for money.

ARENI:

How much do you rely on the sommelier’s advice?

Neil:

With the exception of Bordeaux. very much. I think sommeliers are absolutely critical. We’ve been to Italy and the South of France, and when I go to restaurants is when I try new stuff. And if I really like it, then I’ll buy more. But for that, I tend to befriend the sommelier and they understand fairly quickly that I know my way around. I ask them questions and, more often than not, they will take me down to the cellar to show me what they have. We’ll discuss it. It might take 15 minutes, but we’ll get there.

This interview was recorded in October 2020, under Chatham house rules of non-attribution. Names have been modified and content has been lightly edited.

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