Q&A with Ollie Thorpe, Operations Director at Wine Fi the next generation investment platform that makes it easy, transparent and cost-effective to invest in fine wine. 

Tell us a little about your background?  

I am from Shrewsbury in Shropshire, and my background is largely centred around maths, economics, and wine (rather conveniently)  My father is an MW, and my brother is a wine buyer - so I grew up being subjected to lots of discussion/tasting/eulogising over dinner. I studied Economics at Bristol University, and most recently led operations at a venture-backed tech startup. I left that company to join our CEO Callum at WineFi at the start of this year. 

What is WineFi? 

WineFi is a next generation investment platform that makes it easy, transparent and cost-effective to invest in fine wine. Wine performs favourably vs. mainstream equity, commodities, bonds, gold, over both the long and short term, whilst being uncorrelated to traditional assets. Returns in many cases are also exempt from CGT. 

We combine our investment committee's decades of expertise with technology to identify, source and manage a portfolio of blue chip wines on your behalf. We invest exclusively in the top wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Tuscany, Piedmont and the Napa Valley. We consider these regions to produce the only truly investment grade wines. Our approach is to combine our investment committee’s expertise with AI and predictive analytics to identify, source and manage diversified collections of blue chip wines. 

What differentiates WineFi from its competitors? 

Lots of things! 

We are heavily focused on data science to drive informed investment decisions. There has historically been an unfortunate tendency for wine merchants to say 'this is a good wine, buy a couple of cases and see how it does'. In comparison - we use hundreds of thousands of data points from historic prices, to critic scores, to drinking windows to give each wine a WineFi Investment Score (WIS) which allows us to objectively analyse the potential for appreciation. 

Investment Committee. We marry our analytics with qualitative analysis from our investment committee (IC). Our IC is made up of wine trade leaders with decades of experience. 

Industry connections. We are part-owned by Coterie Holdings, one of the wine trade's largest hold companies. This means that we have access to their network across a range of key areas. This allows us to source great wines at scale, and store them at discounted prices. 

What makes Wentworth so special for your business? 

I have been lucky enough to spend lots of time both on the estate and the golf course. Wentworth has a unique sense of community that I think ties in well with our principles as a business. As Liz mentioned, a big part of this sense of community is working with businesses that you can trust, and we pride ourselves on transparency. Investors are able to see our exact analysis for each portfolio, and can view the value of their portfolio in real-time using our platform. Our CEO Callum regularly posts 'build in public' updates so that anyone interested can see how we're getting on as a business.  

Do you have any specially targeted products for residents? 

We currently have two core products. 

Bespoke Portfolio 

If you're interested in investing £10,000 or more, WineFi can construct a bespoke investment portfolio and manage it on your behalf. You can learn more in our prospectus here. 

Investment Syndicate 

If you are looking to maximise diversification at the lowest possible cost, our syndicate offering allows you to co-invest in a diversified portfolio of assets from £2,000. Our latest syndicated offering - the Burgundy Collection was a record size, and sold out in record time.  

If there was interest, I'm sure that we could offer a unique Wentworth Residents syndicate. This would allow up to 25 investors to co-invest in a portfolio, allowing for greater diversification. 

Do you have any joint ventures/partnerships with other companies in the area? 

Unfortunately, we currently do not. Our partnerships so far have been with companies looking to offer fine wine to their client base. If you have a client-base or audience that is looking to gain exposure to a tax-efficient asset like fine wine then please do reach out to ollie@winefi.co

What key piece of advice would you offer people investing in wines? 

A key thing to be aware of is secondary market liquidity. Incumbent wine investment companies consistently show their investors excellent returns on their portfolio. However, when the investor looks to realise these returns they are faced with months or even years of waiting before they see any money, and it's rarely the full value that they were originally quoted. It is important to choose assets that can be exited if necessary, and to have the correct broking channels. 

What do you love most about your job? 

The team and the mission! The wine industry is very much an "old boy's club" and the experience of investing in wine has often reflected that attitude. It is no secret that wine investment is a specialist topic. Many investors who are otherwise knowledgeable about mainstream asset classes may know very little about wine. Unhelpfully, there is also a culture of "take our word for it" that permeates the wine investment landscape.  

In my opinion this is a huge disappointment. Wine has such interesting characteristics as an asset class and investors are put off by a knowledge gap, or a lack of funds to create a truly diversified portfolio. It is our job to bridge this gap. 

Do you have any information that could be shared with residents that would assist them? 

Our website is winefi.co.uk for any further information at all please feel free to reach out to me at ollie@winefi.co - I would be happy to provide any additional details.