Celebrating Love and Longevity With a Stunning Wine Fund
The wedding season is a-buzzing (fingers crossed it’ll be back in full force soon!), and couples are busy putting together registries for their dream gifts. But what happens if there is no registry, or if you have no idea what the lovely pair might want? This is when things get tricky: you can always opt for beautiful chinaware, colourful cookware, or a piece of decorative furniture. You could also go for something from the realm of tech: like an Alexa, or a gorgeous pair of striking speakers. These gifts are, undoubtedly, all amazing. The only niggling issue is: they are not bespoke.
At Bespoke Wine Collection, we specialise in curating wine collections for special occasions. Take the wedding collection as an example: an exquisite assortment of six different vintage wines, focused on highlighting the year the couple first got together, commemorating the year that their love first started to bloom. We curate the selection for them to open the first bottle on their first wedding anniversary, followed by the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th wedding anniversaries.
Yet another personalised and unique gift idea is to create a communal fund for the newlyweds. This can be a vacation, art or wine fund, with the idea being that each guest contributes an amount toward the couple’s dream purchase.
The idea for a wine fund was inspired by my close friends’ wedding. Since it is customary in Russia to bring a large, gorgeous bouquet of flowers to a wedding on top of the actual gift, my friends highlighted that instead, they’d prefer to get a bottle of wine. The guests complied, and my friends were the happy recipients of a huge selection of wine.
After their honeymoon, we set up a day when I came to see them to “assess” their wine collection. Their dream was to leave 50% of the wine for future celebrations and to enjoy the rest of the wines within the first 5 years. The revision was successful but unfulfilling, as only 10% of the wines had potential for further ageing. The rest had to be consumed in the next year and a half, maximum two. That’s when I realised just how amazing and useful the idea of a Wine Fund really is. Working on a collection with a happy couple is an incredible experience, as we get a glimpse into their dreams and their future.
We recommend structuring the collection with the following ratios: 30% of the wines are for every day enjoyment over, say, the forthcoming 2-3 years. 40% of the collection to be kept for special celebrations like wedding anniversaries, birthdays, promotions and other memorable events, and the remaining 30% into wine investment, which will become family’s first passive income, bringing in an average of 127% ROI over 10 years. As well as this once in a lifetime collection, we advise our clients on storage options, proper glassware, preservation systems like Eto and Coravin, and all other aspects that accompany wine enjoyment.
Every collection comes with a Bespoke Bound Book featuring the history of the estates, stories from the winemakers, tasting notes and gastronomical pairings for each wine, as well as serving temperature, glassware suggestions and a step-by-step decanting process. We all know that a gallery visit is greatly enhanced by the presence of a curator or an audio guide, allowing you to to connect with the philosophy of the artist and the story behind the piece. The same applies to wine: understanding the story of the wine amplifies your wine drinking experience, elevating it to a truly soulful and deep level.
A wine fund is a gateway that lets you enjoy every single sip, connect with your partner, build memories, and nurture a wine culture for your family. Remember: wine and food are an integral part of culture, and experiencing both takes us to a truly sacrosanct and special place; a place of openness, temporary fearlessness and perception. In moments like this, you can’t help but feel grateful and appreciate the journey that you and your partner are on… and nothing is more precious than that!
