I’ve made a lot of investments over the past 20 years. Some won big, some went to zero. But fine wine with Cult Wines is the one I regret most. That isn’t because of the returns. It’s because of the whole experience: three years of chasing basic updates, broken promises, and fighting to get my own money and my own wine back.
Since 2023, I’ve sent at least 34 emails chasing them about withdrawals, transfers and status updates, 16 of them in 2025 alone. I’ve counted at least 10 promised calls or follow-ups that never came. Meanwhile, they sold over £20,000 of my wine more than seven months ago, and I still haven’t been paid for it.
I’m sharing this because I know many of you are weighing fine wine as an investment, and you deserve an honest account of what it can look like from the inside. This is my experience, told in good faith, so you can see what the exit looks like before you think about the entry.
The numbers
I opened my account in September 2021, and on Cult Wines’ own figures I’m down £36,700.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Money paid in (2021–2023) | £280,600 |
| Money paid back out to me | £176,100 |
| Wine still held (45 wines) | £47,400 |
| Wine sold but not yet paid for | £20,300 |
| Net position | –£36,700 (–10.9%) |
The wine I still hold is worth 21.8% less than I paid for it. On top of that, I’ve paid a monthly management fee the whole time, including all the months I was waiting for my own money.
Figures are from my Cult Wines portal as at 30 September 2026.
To be clear, the loss isn’t my complaint, and I accept it. Fine wine is a collectible, and like any investment it can go up or down. I’m sharing the numbers only to show what a real account can look like from the inside. The problem is everything else.
It started with trying to sell
The problems didn’t start with the money. From 2022 onward, almost every time I tried to sell wine I hit a wall. Requests to list wine went unanswered or were talked down, and more than once I was told I shouldn’t sell, or couldn’t.
In October 2024, my account manager wrote that the best bids in the market were at “70-85% of the current market values” and that they “certainly do not encourage clients to hit these bids, unless they are desperate.” In January 2025, the sell button in my portal didn’t work. And when wine finally did sell, I had to fight for months to get paid.
In 2023 I moved part of my collection to a private bonded warehouse. By August 2024, after more than two years of this, I asked to move my entire account out. After a call with their Director of Trading & Operations, I agreed to leave part of it with them and moved the rest to another provider. In hindsight, that was a mistake. Everything that followed happened to the part I left behind.
Trying to get my money out
Each of my two cash withdrawals took four to five months to arrive, and one of them went to the wrong bank account. Now £20,300 from sales made in early 2026 is still outstanding.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | They promise £6,018 on “next week’s payment run” and ask for my bank details, again. There’s still no date for the other £20,300. I ask them to delist my wine, and it stays listed. |
| Sep–Oct 2026 | Their system tries to charge my card for fees while they owe me £26,000. |
| Aug–Oct 2026 | Six emails and a call. A director twice promises to “come back to you” and doesn’t. A reply only comes after a formal complaint. |
| Jan–Mar 2026 | Wines are sold out of my account. The money never reaches me. |
| Oct 2025 | My second withdrawal finally arrives, about 4.5 months late, paid to an old account I hadn’t asked them to use. |
| Sep 2025 | Support tells me “the buyer missed the agreed payment date.” It was cash already sitting in my account. They escalate to “upper management,” then go silent for a month. |
| Jul 2025 | “Lead time… around 60 days… significant backlog.” The promised follow-up never comes, and I chase 54 days later. |
| Mar 2025 | I’m asked to fill in the withdrawal form again. My first withdrawal is paid about four months after I asked. |
| Feb 2025 | An unexplained $408 charge turns out to be two months of fees billed together, put down to a “third-party processing error.” |
| Nov 2024 | I request my cash balance through their website. Two months of silence follow. |
| Aug–Dec 2024 | I move most of my wine to another provider. Two cases go missing, and it takes about 10 weeks to get them shipped. |
Every reply is polite. Almost none of them come with a date.
£20,300 of wine sold, and nothing paid
Between January and October 2026, Cult Wines sold 17 lots of my wine for £20,470. My statement calls the money “pending.” Most of these sales are seven to nine months old.
The biggest single item is a case of 2002 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Échezeaux. It sold on 16 March for £7,980, and seven months later I still haven’t been paid for it. The others include Mouton Rothschild 2021, Trapet Chambertin 2017, Perrot-Minot Richemone 2018 and Biondi-Santi 2016.
The wine has left my holdings, but the money hasn’t come in. As far as I can tell, a buyer is holding my wine on credit while I carry the risk.
In October I told Cult Wines in writing: collect the money, or cancel the sales and return the wine to my account. I’m still waiting for an answer.
Great service while you’re buying, silence once you want out
When I was putting money in, the service was excellent: quick replies, calls whenever I wanted, and fresh allocations to consider. Once I stopped buying and started trying to sell wine or move it out, that service all but disappeared.
I think the reason is the business model. A managed wine account makes money when you buy, and from the management and storage fees on every case left in their warehouse. Wine that leaves the warehouse earns them nothing. So, as I see it, the company has little reason to make leaving easy.
That’s exactly how it felt to me. Each withdrawal took months. Moving wine out meant weeks of chasing missing cases. Every request seemed to go to a new person: three account managers, a shared support inbox and an accounts team, and I was asked for the same forms and bank details more than once. All the while, the monthly fees kept coming out.
What I’d tell any investor
- Test the exit before the entry. Ask how long it takes to get cash out, how long to move your wine to another warehouse, and what it costs. Get the answers in writing.
- Platform risk is real. With a managed account, you aren’t just betting on Bordeaux. You’re betting on the company’s cash flow, its buyers and its back office.
- “Sold” is not “paid.” Ask whether you’ll be paid when the trade happens or when the buyer settles. Then ask what happens if the buyer doesn’t pay.
- Fees don’t stop while you wait. Management fees kept coming out of my account the whole time my money was stuck.
- Service changes when you stop buying. In my experience, the attention was excellent while I was investing and faded once I started selling.
- Own your storage if you can. Wine held in a bonded warehouse in your own name is far easier to move than wine sitting inside someone else’s managed account.
And the bigger lesson for me: an asset you can’t easily price, sell or collect on isn’t a good place for serious capital. I won’t invest in wine again.
Where this goes next
No client should have to fight this hard for a basic update on their own account, or to be paid for wine that has already been sold. Markets go up and down, and I accept that risk. What I don’t accept is how a company treats the people whose money and property it holds.
I’m moving my remaining wine to an independent warehouse, and I’ll update this post as things change. When Cult Wines pays what’s owed or explains the delay, I’ll publish that here too.
If you’ve had a similar experience with Cult Wines or any other wine investment platform, I’d like to hear from you. Write to me at sam@investlikeaboss.com.
This post describes my personal experience, based on my own account statements and correspondence. It’s not financial advice.
