Contributor, Benzinga
February 20, 2024
Vint
Overall Rating:
securely through Vint's website

Investing in traditional assets like stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) remains the cornerstone of wealth building. However, to hedge against traditional market volatility and enhance your overall portfolio performance, you may want to diversify by including alternative assets in your portfolio mix. Wine is one of the most stable and long-term investment options in the alternative asset class, offering investors a fun way to earn a return.

If you’re looking to invest in fine wine but lack the time and capital resources needed to buy, store and sell it yourself, Vint might be the solution. Founded in 2019, Vint is an investing platform that allows accredited U.S. investors to gain wine exposure in their portfolios. You can also invest in whisky and other spirits. The company handles all the logistics, including sourcing, actual purchase, storage, insurance, market research and sales. Investors receive proceeds on a pro-rata basis from partial or complete sales.

Vint creates securitized offerings, converting high-value assets like fine wines into investment opportunities that can be divided into smaller fractions. This practice allows investors to access world-class assets with as little as $100 (similar to buying fractional shares), aligning with their financial objectives and risk tolerance. Vint offers the most unique and efficient approach to investing in fine wine and rare spirits — a stable and non-correlated asset class. This approach blends traditional investing with innovation, opening up investment opportunities for investors of all sizes and making fine wine investment more accessible and inclusive. Read on for a comprehensive review of Vint, its offerings, pros and cons and how it differs from similar platforms.

Best For
  • Wine enthusiasts looking to invest in fine wines and rare spirits without the hassle of managing the sourcing, collection and storage themselves
  • Investors seeking to diversify their portfolios with alternative assets and gain exposure to historically stable and non-correlated asset classes
  • Individuals with smaller investment capital, as Vint allows fractional ownership of world-class assets, making it accessible to a broader range of investors
  • Those interested in innovative investment opportunities that combine tradition and modern finance in the wine and spirits market
  • Accredited investors who want to include wine exposure in their investment strategies
Pros
  • Low investment minimum
  • No annual management fees
  • Well-regulated by SEC and FINRA
  • Streamlines portfolio diversification and performance optimization
  • Support investment via Self-Directed IRA (SDIRA), trusts and other entities
  • Reg-D investment options
Cons
  • Inability to redeem or sell shares when needed — no secondary marketplace
  • Involves a medium- to long-term commitment — 1 to 7 years
  • Limit investment to a maximum of 20% per offering

Vint Ratings at a Glance

Customer Service
Security
Minimum Investment and Pricing
User Experience
Overall

Vint Product Offering

Unlike most alternative assets, fine wines and rare spirits present unique challenges for individual investors because of the complex logistics of managing these investments independently. These challenges may range from sourcing and procurement to storage and insurance, which can be unappealing for beginners. Vint offers a seamless platform that eliminates the friction in this type of investment, providing accredited investors with easy access to the wine and spirits market without hassle. 

With its team of experts, Vint effectively manages asset movement and storage while ensuring compliance with regulations. It proactively monitors trends, producer developments and climate impacts to identify investment-grade wines and rare spirits with a profitable potential and maintain partnerships with key players in the industry to streamline the acquisition and sale of wine. The platform provides new opportunities for accredited investors to invest in some of the world's finest wines and spirits without the substantial financial backing typically required for these collections. 

Accredited investors and wine or spirits enthusiasts can also benefit from the potential to add a non-correlated asset with a historical track record of performance comparable to notable indices to their investment portfolio. Through Vint's thematic offerings, you can gain wine and spirit exposure to your portfolio and enjoy the benefits of diversification. Vint's approach is low-risk and relatively cost-efficient — you can invest as little as $2,500 in a collection, and the profit can be significant depending on your chosen collection. Here are some outstanding features of Vint's wine investing platform.

Low Minimum Investment and No Annual Fees

Vint securitizes fine wines and spirits, converting them into a tradable financial instrument divisible into smaller fractions, allowing investors to buy wine collection shares similar to fractional shares on a brokerage. Vint's shares can start as low as $2,500, depending on the wine collection. This minimum investment level enables investors with diverse capital to enter the market. Vint doesn't charge annual management fees. 

You only pay a one-time upfront fee to benefit from potential price appreciation and final sales of the collection. To make money, Vint takes a portion of each offering, ranging from 0.5% to 20%, thereby investing alongside the investors.

New Offerings Frequently

Vint works to provide investors with unique investment opportunities and launch new offerings almost weekly. The collections comprise wines from various parts of the world ranging from a few bottles of affordable wines to high-priced rare whisky. Each collection contains investment information, including the number of shares, share price and collection value. 

Detailed information is available about the wine or spirits, such as its origin, production process, winery ownership and why the collection is expected to be profitable. Vint provides a constructive breakdown of every bottle in the collection. Overall this information is beneficial for carrying out due diligence before investing. Additionally, it makes the platform appealing to novice wine connoisseurs.

Works With SDIRA and LLC 

Unlike many alternative investment platforms that only support taxable accounts, Vint also allows accredited investors to invest through an SDIRA and partner with reputable custodians and marketplaces like RocketDollar, Millenium Trust Company, and The Entrust Group. This feature makes it a great option if you're a retirement investor seeking to add wine to your portfolio. You can invest with your limited liability company (LLC) or other entities. 

Distribution from Wine Sales

You'll receive a distribution whenever Vint sells a part of a collection. The unique structure of the offerings means investors may receive multiple distributions over time from their investments as Vint isn't forced to sell off the entirety of an a collection but rather can sell off individual assets. The estimated maturity date is part of Vint's information for each collection. However, an asset could be sold sooner or later, depending on the collection. Usually, you get a smaller distribution if the asset loses money. 

Vint Customer Service

Vint offers customer support via live chat, phone and email. The live chat channel provides the best options for real-time and immediate assistance. You can send an email to the support team if your inquiry or complaint is not urgent. An even better way to quickly access information without contacting customer support is via the FAQ section. This part of Vint's website constructively addresses common questions potential investors may ask with the requisite answers. If you prefer to talk to someone they conveniently include a link to schedule a 1:1 meeting with their investment relations team in all emails.

Moreover, Vint's blog is packed with resource-rich educational materials on fine wine and rare spirits investing, serving as an excellent learning center. Vint also maintains an active presence on popular social networking platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook, providing an alternative means of connecting with the team. Vint values building strong relationships with everyone on its platform, often hosting events and talks with investors. Vint has an impressive Trustpilot rating of 4.4/5 from 13 reviewers, reflecting its excellent customer support and service offerings. There were no negative comments.

Vint Security

Vint prioritizes users' privacy protection and that of the assets (wine and spirits). After acquiring wine, Vint collaborates with its partners to store it in state-of-the-art facilities with precise temperature and humidity control, relieving investors from the burden and cost of keeping wine themselves. Vint's storage partners, Domaine and Octavian, are professional wine storage companies responsible for storing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fine wine. 

Vint is regulated by the SEC and FINRA — two of the U.S.'s top regulatory bodies. This regulation ensures compliance and transparency in its operations, providing investors with confidence and security. The platform implements robust encryption protocols to safeguard investors' personally identifiable information and other sensitive data. Data collected during account creation is used strictly for personalized service delivery and sometimes marketing purposes and is not shared or sold to a third party.

Vint Minimum Investment and Pricing

Vint doesn't charge annual management or monthly fees. Vint charges investors a one-time sourcing fee for each offering to keep the platform running. Depending on the collections, these fees may also range between 0% and 35%. Either way, such alignment of interests ensures that Vint has a stake in the success of each offering, creating a sense of partnership with the investors. According to the website, Vint currently only accepts ACH payments. 

Vint User Experience

Vint offers a user-friendly platform that allows accredited investors to easily access and invest in fine wines and spirits, streamlining portfolio diversification with significant profit potential. The best part about the platform is that you don't need to be a professional sommelier or know anything about wine and spirits to invest. The company's experts are responsible for selecting different collection options. They also oversee the buying, selling, storing and handling of investment distributions. 

Each offering or collection comes with profitable insights and detailed information about each wine's provenance, production and other nuggets. New collections bi-weekly. And you don't have to worry about missing out because Vint notifies investors about upcoming collections via email. Registration is hassle-free and takes little to no time. To start, click the signup button, provide your name, email address and phone number and set a password. After verifying your email address, you must complete a short investor profile to begin investing. 

You must also confirm your eligibility by providing your date of birth, SSN and residential address, along with accreditation requirements. The reason is that Vint is only available to U.S. citizens or residents. You also need to link your bank account. Once you're done, you can proceed to browse collections and invest. Vint's regulated status and partnerships with professional storage facilities also ensure a secure and hassle-free investment experience. Benzinga considers the platform highly recommendable. 

Vint vs. Competitors

Vint's closest competitor in fine wine and rare spirits investing is Vinovest. Vinovest has an investment minimum of $1,000 compared to $2,500 for Vint. Vinovest investors buy individual wine bottles and can sell or drink them all. By comparison, Vint's accredited investors only own a fractional share of the wine collection, not the physical wine bottle. Vint also beat Vinovest in customer service, as reflected in the Trustpilot rating of 4.4/5 against Vinovest's 3.8/5.

Overall

Vint offers an innovative platform for accredited investors to diversify their portfolios with alternative assets like wine and spirits. With fractional ownership and securitized offerings, Vint makes it accessible for accredited investors to participate in this historically stable and non-correlated asset class. The platform provides detailed information about each wine collection, helping investors make informed decisions. Additionally, Vint's partnerships with reputable storage companies ensure secure and professional storage for your wines. Overall, Vint offers an attractive opportunity for investors to gain exposure to the wine market quickly and conveniently. However, it lacks a secondary marketplace, making it illiquid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q

Is Vint legitimate?

A

Yes, Vint is a legitimate SEC-regulated platform for investing in wine and spirits.

Q

Is wine investing worth it?

A

Wine investing can be worth it if you’re seeking diversification and potential long-term gains, but it also comes with risks and requires careful consideration.

Q

Which type of wine will increase in value the most?

A

While certain wines may become more valuable over time because of factors like rarity, vintage and critical acclaim, predicting the exact type of wine that will increase in value the most is challenging and subject to various market influences. Investing in wine requires careful research and understanding of the wine market dynamics. Just because a wine is popular in a movie franchise or beloved by a famous character doesn’t guarantee its significant value appreciation.

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