Taking cover for the cellar

9th September, 2005

A leading insurance firm is warning consumers who store wine in their cellars at home to ensure that they have adequate home insurance to cover the cost of replacing bottles.

A 40 per cent increase in the contents of wine cellars in the UK could threaten home insurance policies, warns Chubb Insurance, as 65 per cent of Brits overlook their wine collections as an insurable item.

A further 85 per cent of those who do remember to put it onto policies underestimate its value, and with vintage wine prices on the increase, this mistake is potentially costly.

Today, Chubb released a specialist wine report - advising the nation's wine drinkers on whether they need cover, and if so the best way to go about it.

'Since 2000, sales of wine in the UK have grown by a substantial 30 per cent, reaching £7.6 billion last year,' said John Sims, European head of personal insurance at Chubb.

'Our insurance appraisers are seeing more substantial wine collections being stored in homes, with more than half of our policyholders now using a cellar or purpose-built storage.'

The insurer outlined the risk of storing wine at home, and stressed the need for cover. It advised that wine is not always automatically covered by standard home insurance policies, saying that Brits should ' check their policies carefully'.

 

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