Wine insurance for wines stored at offsite storage

I was told by an offsite storage manager to insure the average value of 1 box.
Should I follow his advice or should I be insuring the total value of all the wines stored at my offsite?
I know there were incidents in the past with theft at some storage sites but I store my wines at Vintage Wine Warehouse (owned by Morrell in NYC). I cant imagine that happening there. Am I wrong?

What’s your input on this?

Why would you pay for insurance that only covers one box of wine?

Speaking of - I should probably insure mine. I’m so used to homeowners insurance covering what I have at home that I forgot about the stuff I have offsite - where do you go to get this kind of insurance?

His reasoning was that typically if there is damage to my wines stored there, it’s just 1 box or bottle in the box. Hence, just insure avg value. There will never be damages to multiple boxes of my wines.
Those were his advices.

I believe many use Chubb for insurance. I forgot the other popular company.

Honestly that doesn’t make much sense to me. My insurance (through AIG) covers things like earthquakes, fires, and damage in transport - all of which are risks that would affect more than one box and that it seems worthwhile to be protected against

If we knew that a typical loss was always related to a bottle or a case we’d never get insurance. That’s not how “unexpected” works though. When we hav unexpected loss it could be on one bottle, one case, or the entire collection.

Yeah, I’m not super worried about losing a case or three in transit. I am worried about mass damage as Seattle is in a seismic zone and my locker is on the bottom half of the rack. That’s why I’d only entertain insuring the whole thing or none at all.

Get insurance from a carrier totally independent of your storage operator.
Chubb will cover for full replacement value, if declared in a rider to your home ownership or rental insurance with the company.

Not certain anyone would like to get a fraction of the overall value of their collection, should it be stolen or lost due to some catastrophe…

It’s been a while since I had a storage unit (for furniture, etc., not wine), but my dim recollection is that is was covered by my HO insurance. If nothing else, I’d start with your insurance provider and ask about offsite coverage.

As useful as a half-sunken sailboat.

I agree with Jason. If the guy’s pitch is correct that the risk against which you want to insure is just one bottle or one case, then it doesn’t seem to me to be the type of risk you would insure at all. IMO, one generally does not insure for expected losses because the premium would be pretty much the same as the amount of the loss, or relatively minor losses, because one can just absorb them when they happen. One insures unexpected but significant losses. Losing the whole collection in a fire at the warehouse would be an example of that. Dropping a bottle while doing a reorganization would not, IMO.

Everything everyone has said is what I thought. Just wanted to see why he would tell me that. Thanks everyone for your input and confirming what I believed.

You’re the guy who asks a question, gets an answer, and says, “Oh yeah, I knew that. Was just making sure.”

I insured collection stored in home cellar with Bluewater Insurance - not sure if they insure offsite. Bluewater-ins.com

Glad I found this post before I started a new one… Actually been meaning to get a policy for my in home wine storage. Will check out Chubb and Bluewater. Any others you’d recommend?

Do I need to have an exact inventory and value? Or what should I expect to have to provide?

here’s my strategy. I have insurance for $100,000. Now my cellar is worth much more and in 2 places. So if one burns down will I be made whole ? no. But I still have a lot of wine in another location. I then can spend what I want to replace on what I want but will probably bank a bunch. My cost is around $700 a year.

Not sure if every carrier that quotes wine coverage does so in the same manner. I provided a spreadsheet with retail/auction values to my insurance broker. He came back with a few choices, and they all said the spreadsheet was great. However, similar to as mentioned above, they quoted essentially a “bucket” of coverage based on a “round number” valuation. The basis for this is that a wine collection rarely remains static, with bottles being taken for consumption and additional bottles being added/acquired. Rather than constantly having to update the list with your carrier, they just assume your collection is worth the same value over time (unless you want to increase or decrease the declared value of your collection at some point).

My broker cautioned I still should document my collection with pictures/video, along with keeping receipts or acquisition info for as much of the big dollar items as possible. While a fire or structural collapse would leave evidence behind of what you owned/stored, good record keeping likely comes in very hand should a theft claim have to be filed.

There is still correlation risk. What if electric power in your overall area goes down, such that the wines in two separate places both get heat-damaged?
If your wine is worth so much, insuring it all properly will not add greatly to its total cost, anyway. Selling one or two bottles yearly, in order to protect the aggregate, should barely sting at all.

FWIW, I just had this conversation, but I had it with my insurance agent rather than a wine locker merchant.

My insurance is apparently typical (but not universal), in that wine is covered under the normal “personal property” portion of our homeowners’, and pretty much anywhere in the USA as long as it is there by my intention. There is sufficient blanket coverage for the entire value, however she did recommend that I separately cover the $500 deductible portion for wine (in case of something happening in shipping, moving, etc.), for $19/year.

I would also say that if I were running a wine storage facility I certainly would not be giving any advice on this subject other than “…insuring your wine sounds like a good idea to me.”

Safe Harbour debacle is a good example whereby you can afford a luxury only if you can also afford to insure it properly.