Cellar Insurance

If you have more then a few hundred bottles of wine, have you taken out a separate insurance policy or spoken to your insurance carrier about it being covered under homeowner’s policy? I have heard conflicting messages on this. Any experiences shared would be great. Thanks.

Hi Sam,

I recently went through the surprisingly arduous process of insuring my collection. As I don’t own a home I was essentially forced to pursue standalone wine insurance, which from what I’ve gathered is generally more expensive than an add on or rider to homeowners. That said, I’m fine paying a “premium” premium as the coverage I have is fine wine specific and the folks I work with are more knowledgeable than your average insurance folks. Happy to share details if you want. From a pure cost perspective an add on is probably better but alas.

Get a Chubb homeowner or renter policy, and do an add-on, which is surprisingly cheap, given the financial and psychic pain if major wine loss via theft or disaster, which is not remote.

I got insurance recently from Bluewater. Was ridiculously easy and fairly cheap. It’s a stated value policy, so you tell them how much you want and they insure it. I sent over a spreadsheet list of my wines. When my collection changes, I have to notify them with the updated sheet every quarter and can update the amount of the policy at any time.

I would recommend Chubb, in my opinion you pay more but their service come claim time is unmatched. I had to make a claim when my offsite storage was broken into. They asked for a spreadsheet of the lost wine, the police report number and I got a check in a week. The police report number was done over the phone as they would not come out to look at the locker. I have an add-on to my homeowners under their vintner product. The cost of the coverage, $400k for $1,000, has not changed in eight years I believe.

stand alone policy or do you have other insurances with them?

Does Chubb do a standalone wine collection policy or only if they insure the home? I have an old stone home and their quote to insure the home was astronomical. I would do a separate policy on wine if they do that since I have heard great things about their coverage/payment if there is a loss.

Only as add-on to home owner or renter policy.

Anyone have experience actually making a claim with them? Add-on doesn’t seem like an issue for me.

$1K premium for $400K? Damn, my $550 premium for $75K in coverage isn’t looking too good in comparison…

My premium is .7% thru AIG. It is a stand alone policy and took more than a few phone calls to obtain. My home insurer doesnt offer coverage and other companies would only offer wine insurance if I brought over my other policies at what would have been at a much higher cost. I think this was the individual agents policy to only offer it bundled though and not a directive from Chubb, AIG, etc.

Got it thanks. My coverage is a stand-alone policy, since State Farm doesn’t offer anything…

Have an agent you can recommend from AIG?

I have coverage for my wine through State Farm. They didn’t seem very adept and getting the policy, but it’s basically a rider to homeowners insurance, like one would have for jewelry, etc.

I’m not particularly confident in the scope of coverage beyond theft or destruction, so have been looking around.

+1 on Chubb add-on insurance!

My insurance is an all-risk add on to the scheduled property coverage on my Safeco homeowner’s policy. The rate is $0.521 per $100.

Anyone use American Collectors Insurance? That’s who USAA sends you through when you try to add-on. Couldn’t find much online to tell me if it’s good or not.

As someone in the UK this all feels slightly bizarre. Storing in professional storage at $16/case/year includes replacement cost insurance as well…

I tried both Chubb and AIG but each time I was pushed to add a home policy. Eventually gave up so I’m still on the hunt as well.

[swearing.gif]

Correlation risk. Search on Safe Harbour thread about storage operator and self-insurance fraud.