A 750ml market reference, adjusted by format, condition, provenance and original case, in that order, then written down if the wine is past its window. Six bases follow. Every multiplier, every comparable-selection rule and every refusal is on this page, because a figure nobody can check is a figure nobody should sign.
Order matters and the appraisal prints these steps in this order as its derivation. A reference in USD converts at the property’s rate, then adjusts, then writes down, then multiplies by quantity. Applying condition before format, or writing down before adjusting, produces a different number and an appraiser will spot it.
Market referenceA 750ml figure with its source, comparable count and as-of date. No reference means carried at cost and excluded from every market total — not interpolated from a neighbouring vintage.
FormatHalf 0.45, bottle 1.00, magnum 2.15, double magnum 4.60, imperial 9.80. Large format carries a premium and any schedule pricing a magnum as two bottles is understating the asset.
ConditionPristine 1.00, sound 0.94, marked 0.82, suspect 0.60. Sound is the working assumption for trade stock. Suspect means low fill, seepage or an unverified storage gap, and it must be tasted before it is valued or sold.
ProvenanceEx-domaine 1.08, ex-maison 1.06, allocation or mailing list 1.05, trade 1.00, unknown 0.88. Twelve percent is what an undocumented chain costs, which is the argument for recording it at receiving.
Original wooden caseA further 1.05, multiplicative. It matters, and it matters more the further up the cellar you go.
Outside the house service windowFifty-five percent of adjusted market until a bottle is opened and tasted.
Evidence grading, and the floor
80% evidence coverage
Source: Aivin methodology, the floor below which a valuation will not certify
Grade A
Twelve or more comparable sales, relative spread under twenty-two percent, and a trade inside the effective year.
Grade B
Five or more comparables and a trade inside the effective year.
Grade C
A reference exists but thinly evidenced. Usable, and stated as thin.
Grade D
No reference. Carried at cost, excluded from every market total, listed on the face of the document.
The eighty percent floor
Under eighty percent coverage across the cellar the appraisal will not certify, regardless of who is willing to sign. The document states it with the coverage figure and the reason.
How comparables are selected
Auction results and merchant offers are not the same evidence and are not weighted the same. A hammer price is a completed transaction between two parties at arm’s length; a merchant offer is an asking price that may sit for months. Both appear, both are labelled, and the basis states which it is derived from.
Comparables are matched on producer, wine, vintage and format, in that order of strictness. A different format is adjusted rather than substituted. A different vintage is not used as a comparable at all, because vintage variation in Burgundy or the Northern Rhône is the whole point and averaging across it is how a schedule becomes indefensible.
What is still open
Market price licensing
In commercial discussion. Until a licence signs, market figures come from a synthetic reference set, labelled as such on every screen and in every export. No unlabelled synthetic figure leaves the system.
The signatory
The co-sign architecture is only as good as the appraiser at the end of it. Aivin works with the appraiser you already use, or introduces one, and never publishes an appraiser’s name without written agreement — which is why this page names none.
Outside review
We invite appraisal practices to test this method against their own working papers. A reviewer who tells us it will not survive scrutiny is the most useful call we can take.
Questions people ask first
Can software appraise a wine cellar?
An appraisal is a professional opinion. You cannot automate that.
No, and Aivin does not claim to. The opinion is an appraiser’s and the signature carries their credential. What Aivin removes is the fortnight underneath it: pulling comparables by venue and date, applying format and condition adjustments, and grading the evidence lot by lot. Unsigned, the document states on its own face that it is appraisal support.
What happens to bottles you cannot find a market price for?
Half my Jura has never traded anywhere.
Carried at cost, excluded from every market total, and listed as unresolved on the face of the appraisal. Aivin will not interpolate from a neighbouring vintage or a producer average to make a cellar look complete. An estimate with no comparable behind it is the number that collapses the first time an adjuster tests it.
