Vinovest Reviews 278

Where do I begin?

I invested $10K 2 years ago over several installments. I'm currently down ~11%, which is very underwhelming for an investment that was supposed to be uncorrelated with the stock market. The figure with -11% unrealized loss is the supposed "market value" of my vines (whatever that means), not the value that I can sell it for. I've been trying to liquidate for 4 straight months, and the best bids I've gotten on their "marketplace" lowball by 20-30%, so I'm essentially stuck unless I'm willing to accept a 40% total loss. Not at all what I was expecting.

Secondly, and more importantly, the company's ethics are highly questionable. When I signed up, they advertised on their website that customers are never charged any fees for selling 60 days after their purchase date. They changed their terms *after* I invested. They are now charging a 1.5% selling fee and refuse to honor their original terms to me, which further increases my losses. They also promised that selling on reasonable terms would always be possible and that they personally hand-hold customers through liquidations. They even used to have a marketing punt on their website saying "your investment is liquid (pun intended)". Turns out all of that was a lie too.

I understand the business landscape changes and have a lot of sympathy for startups creating brand-new products, but there is no excuse for pulling the rug from under your users, especially your *early* users. Vinovest is an unethical company and I don't recommend anyone use their product. I will update my review if I receive any meaningful response from Vinovest.

I started to invest with Vinovest about 1.5 years ago as a mean of diversification, and based on the claim they had better performance than the S&P500. As of today, my portfolio is down 8% against the inital value in dollar. As a matter of fact, it is down 18% if you factor in the depreciation of the dollar during the same time. I invested to fight inflation and it went the opposite direction; my investment got depreciated against a highly depreciating currency. If I wanted to sell right now, by looking at the comments, I could expect to get 75% of the price displayed by Vinovest. That means if I would sell now at these conditions, I would have lost 43% of my investment, and this in a matter of 1.5 year... This is a complete fail, what else can I say. I believe Vinovest is over-paying the wines that they buy for their customers, and I believe their selection is not very good since most of the wines they selected for me lost their value. Obviously it does not make sense to sell now before the selling window, so I will wait, but the experience so far is painful.

I opened a Vinovest account over 2 years ago. A month ago I decided to take a close look at my portfolio and came to the conclusion that my positions (which were picked by VinoVest) decreased in value over the 2 years, all the while VinoVest was charging 2,5% commission. Thus, I decided to cut the losses and liquidate the positions.
Unfortunately, when one decides to liquidate, you are pretty much on your own. There is absolutely no help from the VinoVest team, even though their website claims:"When you’re ready to sell, our worldwide team will assist you in getting the maximum return on your investment." You will have to place the wines on the "market" yourself at the price that you deem right (it is very opaque where you have listed your wines, sometimes Vinovest claims that is on a marketplace they run, other times it’s the contrary, however I wasn’t able to find any listings of the wines that I have listed on any publicly available online marketplace). I chose the price that was recommended by VinoVest, as that seemed reasonable, they are the experts, even though it was mostly below the price that I paid for 2 years ago. To date (so a month later) I received offers for only 1 of the positions at a 25% discount to what VinoVest claims is the value of this holding and based on what VinoVest charges the 2,5% commission. So basically, they have cheated me twice, first as I will obviously not be able to liquidate my funds, at least not at the value that VinoVest states and second because they have been charging me commission on these very same inflated values.
Furthermore I had some positions in the so called trading portfolio, a portfolio that isn’t managed by VinoVest, has lower fees and lets a user trade (make decisions) on his/her own. This portfolio actually fared worse than the managed one, but I am no expert and was able to sell at prices similar to the ones indicated by VinoVest. However, once I have liquidated all my positions in the trading portfolio and asked for the funds to be withdrawn there have been just stalling and excuses why the transfer hasn’t been processed. First I received a form that was intended for US accounts only (Eu bank accounts do not have a routing number), when I informed CS about this they asked me to send the details via e-mail. After a week I got a confirmation that my bank account details were entered and that a transfer will follow within a week. Which didn’t happen and after following up what was the reason, they said the transfer failed because my country of residence doesn’t match with the country code of the IBAN (I have sent a Revolut IBAN which has a different country code than my address). After complaining that they should have advised this before and asking whether they would then prefer to get the account details with the same country code as my address, but which accepts EUR only, I received no reply and a week later I am still waiting.
All of the above stated is in my opinion absolutely unacceptable and makes me wonder why a company that advertises “investment” services would be stalling a payout of 1k$ and doing everything possible for me to actually lose the money I have “invested”. So, my conclusion is they might not be running a legitimate business and this might actually be a scam, otherwise they surely should be more forthcoming when their clients want to liquidate and cash out their own assets.

Vinovest is great at marketing. But they overpay when they buy your wines and their valuations are grossly inflated. For everyone leaving glowing reviews - try to sell your wines. No one will pay you Vinovest’s valuation (if you can even get an offer). You have lost money, you just don’t know it yet. And all the while Vinovest collects their monthly fees. Put your money in an S&P 500 ETF. UPDATE -- Vinovest is attempting to get this review removed if I don't identify myself, which I don't intend to do. Not a single one of my wines has sold and I get a slew of offers at 70% of the value put on the wines by Vinovest. I am going to lose a lot of money here.

I had an initial discussion with a supposed wine investing expert. I started small to see if they lived up to expectations and the investment was worth it. All my wines are losing money. Not a single good investment. I have stopped and just assume this is a lost cause. I would invest in other assets classes.

I've been a user of their platform for over 2 years now. In that time, my investments have been above the cost basis (meaning NOT losing money) about 5% of the time. Otherwise, everything's been losing money. When I went to pull the plug, you can't just get your money out. You have to put your wine up for sale on their open market, where you only get bids at about 2/3 the "value" that VV assigns it. In the meantime, they're taking advisory fees every month, whether you make money or not. They claim that wine outperforms equities...my account has done anything but. Fun amusement, but not a solid investment by any stretch.

This company is indeed a scam.
They say they buy fine wine for you, and (1) you can sell the wine at any point and (2) you can take physical possession of the wine at any time.
Both claims are absolutely material. And both claims are false.
(1) In fact, you cannot sell the wine at any time. They will only sell the wine for you in a supposed "selling window" that they themselves unilaterally determine. And if you want to sell outside of the "selling window" that they have decreed, they only let you list the wine for sale on their completely illiquid platform.
(2) In fact, you cannot get physical possession of the wine at any time. I have been repeatedly contacting them to get a quote for physical delivery of the wine. They simply ignore me entirely.
In other words, this company is attempting to defraud me of thousands and thousands of dollars of fine wine. This is obviously illegal and criminal, and they will hear from me.

PS: the scammers have now responded. Note that they do not deny, because they cannot, any of the points I make.
They cannot deny that, contrary to their lie, one cannot sell the wine on the open market at any time.
They cannot deny that they continue, obviously illegally, to prevent me from taking physical possession of my wines.
This company is a criminal scam.

I would avoid vinovest at all costs. They are not going to stick around for long. Here is why.

When you purchase wines on vinovest they buy them mostly through Liv-ex and then store them in bonded warehouses. This is a great start. They then start to con you.

What they do is provide you true valuations only on wines that list on Liv-ex, this makes sense and is accurate. For wines that do not show up on Liv-ex though they jack up the valuations in whatever way is necessary to keep your portfolio positive. I would guess that their algorithm literally increases valuations of unlisted wines based on the losses incurred by the wines with valuations.

It gets worse though. Don't even try to sell your wines. The user interface is absolute garbage and at the start was predatory. Here are the details.

- They charge a ridiculous early liquidation fee that is not clearly communicated. (likely buried in the service agreement)
- They use there own system to bid on wines. I had bids that were extremely robotic. Either someone is scraping the system or vinovest is working both sides.
- They dont sell the wines for you, or help you at all. Have fun listing wines for months and getting $100s less than you paid.

This company is a scam. I tried to liquidate my account some time ago at least a year and someone sold my wines for me which was great. Then when i go to withdraw, i notice there isn't a listed method to withdraw whatsoever! I sent emails and complained and did not get far. Finally, they sent me something to fill out that once i filled out, they were supposed to allow me to withdraw. I filled it out and waited, then, they decided to just repurchase all my sold wines, charge me a fee for the early liquidation, and now i am stuck on this new listing method of wine listing of bids/sells. So far, my wines are worth nearly 35% or less than what I invested. This company is an absolute scam by all means. NEVER USE THEM DONT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY OR YOU WONT EVER SEE IT AGAIN. I am still trying to any amount back but its nearly impossible. I have been trying for months now probably over a year and all i get is a run around. TERRIBLE COMPANY, criminal at worst, and incredibly dishonest at best.

Very disappointed with my experience with Vinovest! the collection of my investment money was very quick and easy, however when I decided to exit my investment, it has been nothing but a headache. I have been trying to exit for over 8 months and have had what they have called software "bugs" and lack of support in liquidating my wines. After all of this time, I have only been able to sell 2 of my 19 holdings... all at losses. I would not recommend this company and have no clarity on when and how I can get $ out.

The wine platform is excellent, though I think the filters could be improved — more collapsibility, similar to have wine.com allows you to filter by region, grape, vintage, etc. Also, knowing the full order must be fulfilled to ‘keep’ the bottles would be helpful.

Whiskey, I wish there was some selection process in the American range. You just add money and a barrel is purchased. Maybe diversity in selection is not there yet (or that doesn’t suit your purchasing process) but I would love the ability to invest in Rye vs Corn, or different mash bills.

Ultimately, happy to be able to invest in wine & spirits. The app is intuitive, easy to navigate, and concise. My comments above are very much driven by preference.

Thank you!

Vinovest is an excellent platform for generational wealth creation.
More excellent returns than investing in the stock market as I am currently doing.
Vinovest platform is an excellent source for me to create my wealth.

Ease of use- made the decision making process easy

Truly slick and innovative platform. I started investing a couple years ago, and recently had to withdraw due to some personal circumstances. My portfolio manager was extremely helpful and guided me along the process of liquidating my wine collection. I also really enjoyed the events and webinars that they held, and will be returning again soon.

Overall, it is a fun idea. However, the shipping cost to receive wine is quite high. I am looking into selling my wine to cash out and will either take this to a 4-5 star review or a 1-2 star review depending on how this next step goes.
I am playing with WhiskeyVest as well - so far, it's "meh" as I am told that they will ship a sample, but that's not happened and it's been close to a year that I've owned the cask. I think they are still in beta and it's been a bit too long to still be in beta, so not really excited about that experience at least yet.

The worst investment I have ever made. Quick in collecting money from investors and extremely slow when you liquidate. My experience with Vinovest is terrible and horrible (countless emails to push, push and push for liquidation) It's more like a Ponzi scheme. I hope there will be no more victim like me.

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Since Vinovest asked for more details to better understand my experience otherwise my review above will be deleted, I am more than happy to share my experience with everyone especially people who is considering depositing money in VV. You asked for it! (Well, I don't think VV don't know customers' feedback. I am not the only victim anyway)

2022/12/21, I raised the request of liquidation and close account to VV. No response from VV at all for one week. On 2022/12/27, I wrote mail to VV CEO, he said it's Xmas season and my portfolio manager will follow up my liquidation request after he is back after New Year.

2022/12/30, VV automated purchased Dom Perignon, Chef De Cave Legacy Edition 2008 (USD$1612) in my account. It's ridiculous that VV was not able to liquidate my wines in Xmas & New Year break but they could use the balance cash in my account to purchase wines. I complained to VV CEO immediately. On 2023/1/4, this Dom Perignon, Chef De Cave Legacy Edition 2008 was sold at US$1603 and VV charged me US$48 early liquidation fee. (Exactly like scammer)

On 2023/1/6, VV started to liquidate 4 cases of wines in my account, I thought everything is on track. However, in the same day, VV used the money from liquidation to purchase another 4 cases of wines. (Absolutely it's scammer) I called VV office in NYC and California more than 100 times and sent many emails, no response AT ALL until I left many nasty messages in CEO's FB and Twitter. (Try this! It works well in pushing) VV portfolio manager called me back and reversed the deal for the 4 cases purchase.

From 2023 Jan to 2023 Feb, more wines were liquidated after I pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed by sending emails. I did received the money.

The remaining 4 cases of wines, there was no progress at all. I sent mail to complain and push. Finally, liquidation started in April. Suddenly, VV market estimated price started dropping dramatically and I dropped my selling price accordingly but it didn't make liquidation happen. In just one month, the price dropped around 45% (VV estimated price in Apr/B and the liquidation final price). VV estimated price is a mystery.

Anyway, I deposited US$50K in VV in 2020 June and I received US$50,747 in total in 2023 April. However, I wasted so much time in pushing VV, checking the status and complained. The buy and sell mechanism (price, buyer, seller) is a black box which is manipulated by VV.

***Fun Part***
On 2023/4/11, VV informed customers must take either REBALANCING STRATEGY (VV automatically adjust customers' portfolio, I assume it automated buy and sell by Vinovest) or BUY & HOLD STRATEGY (fixed portfolio and can’t sell the wines until the wine’s selling window comes). In the end of the notice mail, VV specified "the strategy will be fixed starting April 16, and you will not be able to change it after this date.".
It's very unprofessional that VV pushed customers to decide a permanent strategy within 5 days (April 11/ April 16) after VV's notice. For me, the strategies are more like VV can buy and sell for customers at the price and timing VV want. If you don't let VV to do so, you can't sell the wines until VV says it's the wine’s selling window. I never have any investment requires permanent strategy- fixed and can't be changed after you decide. This is a big joke and scammer for sure.

Suggestion from my heart- Don't even invest one cent in VV. It's a black box, no transparency and I had no control of my liquidation AT ALL base on my experience in past half year. It doesn't worthy it and just a waste of time. I spent so much time to push VV by all means- I was so frustrated and desperate just to get my money back. It's ridiculous.
** All emails with VV and liquidation records are available.

It was very easy to add funds and get my portfolio going, but it's being impossible for me to take the money out, I dont want to use the word SCAM, but it seems to be the case...

Its been one month now that I decided to sell my portfolio and listed my wine for sell. Since then I had almost no offers, and the few ones I got were unbelievably LOW, dont even cover the initial investment value (of 2 years ago). Its doesn't seem that I will be able to get my money back if it keeps like this.

When I got my money in, they assured that it was a 3 weeks process and I could withdraw the money out. It's been 1 month already, no offers, no money, no answer.

Triple think before investing in this site.

People need to realise that this is a long term investment, the process of getting your money out is going to take a while, they have to remove it from storage and action it, don’t start investing if you want an easy cash out option. You need to hold this investment for at leat 10 years. My experience so far has been positive, even if I would have preferred an introductory call, similar to masterworks.

Vinovest is a great wine investing application.
I just regret we can't transfer funds from managed to trade portfolio.
A great idea could be to have preferences for managed portfolio as type of wine, colour or location.
I recommand this app.

It was very easy at first to move the funds over and invest in wine. The problem is when you want out. The process can take forever, and they don't just simply buy it back from you. The wine is put into their auction feature for other investors to bid on. This process can take months, and the offers can be insultingly low. I wish I never tried this.