Cult Wines Avis 

*** Update - Response to Cult Wines' Reply ***

My original review is below, this is an update to their reply.

1. Market Volatility: My complaint was never about the sales price or market performance, it was not being paid for wines that had already been sold. Market conditions do not explain a failure to pay on a completed transaction. Other merchants I deal with settled promptly under the very same market conditions.

2. Resolution: My account was indeed "fully settled", but only after I paid £2,000 to a solicitor to issue a Letter Before Action. Months of emails and calls produced no result. I was never offered options to"relist" or "take physical delivery", the wines were marked as 'sold' and no longer in my cellar. It was I who suggested returning the wines since they seemed unable to settle, it was not an option they volunteered, as their reply suggests. The "residual funds" were compensation for wines released from custody without payment, which could no longer be returned. Their reply makes this sound like standard procedure, from my perspective, it was anything but.

3. Price Discovery: I set the sale price when I listed the wine on their platform. There was no extended price discovery process. The delay was purely in receiving payment for a completed sale, not in finding a buyer or achieving a better price.

4. Asset Security: I contacted Coterie Vaults directly. They told me wines are held under a single Cult Wines corporate account and cannot be searched by individual client name, only by Rotation Number. This contradicts their reply, and is why I advised investors in my original review to record their Rotation Numbers.

5. Communication: Some calls and emails were answered, but with vague assurances and no concrete timelines or commitments. No meaningful progress occurred until my solicitor became involved.

Had this process been as smooth as their reply suggests, I would not have needed to spend £2,000 in legal fees to access my own funds. I stand by my original review and my advice to fellow investors to exercise caution.

*** Original Review ***

In September 2025, I sold a portion of a portfolio I bought in 2019. After waiting their 'standard' 90 days for settlement and receiving nothing, I spent the next 3 months sending emails and making phone calls. Since they seemed unwilling or unable to pay the £28k that was due, I requested they instead reverse the sales and return the wines to me. Still with no resolution, in February 2026, I finally had to hire a firm of UK solicitors to threaten legal action.

Once threatened with court proceedings, the sales that they previously said were final were reversed. Several cases of wine were returned to me, though they still had to pay out for 10 cases they apparently no longer had access to.

In my experience, a company claiming to manage £200m in assets that takes months of chasing and the threat of legal action to settle just £28k raises serious questions. Based on my dealings with them, I felt their handling of my case suggested a lack of experience in managing a fund of this nature. The way they dealt with my claim felt amateurish. To be fair, the CultX online platform is polished and well-designed, but my experience behind the scenes was very different, and left me with little confidence in their operations.

As a precautionary measure, I moved the remainder of my collection to another merchant due to concerns I developed during this process about the company's long-term reliability. My research during the legal process gave me the impression that these operational issues may not be isolated.

My advice for anyone already invested:

1. Consider transferring your wines to another established merchant. It's a straightforward and inexpensive process, and in my experience, other platforms settle significantly faster without the need for legal pressure.

2. Record your Rotation Numbers. If you still plan to sell on CultX, make a note of the Rotation Numbers of your wines in the far right column of your cellar view before listing them for sale. Having them allows you to verify the physical custody of your stock with Coterie Vaults, which may be important if you ever need to escalate a dispute, as I had to.

Wine is already a high-risk investment. In my view, a sound investment shouldn't require spending £2,000 on a solicitor to access your own money. Add what I experienced as an unreliable settlement process, and the investment becomes even harder to justify.

Based solely on my own experience, I found Cult Wines to be the most difficult exit I've ever had with any investment. In my opinion, there are more reliable wine investment alternatives available in the UK, and I would encourage anyone considering wine investment to research their options thoroughly before committing.

Always an interesting evening in a great location. A great opportunity to taste wines that I would not normally come across, with excellent accompanying nibbles and to learn more about the industry.

I started working with Cult a few years ago with a modest allocation, unsure if wine could truly rival my equity portfolio. Today, it’s one of my most consistent performers. My advisor at Cult Wines didn't just push 'big names'; they identified undervalued gems in Piedmont and Tuscany before the market spiked. The transparency of their CultX platform is also excellent and as easy to use as any brokerage account

Great selection of wines for investment and purchase and helpful service. RM was professional and communicative

Good experience, the team has been quite professional and proactive. I also recommend the Cult X platform, quite good pricing and liquidity.

I am generally a patient customer and understand that en primeur wines only become physically available after a certain period of time. As a customer who has invested a considerable sum, I would have liked to receive updates and clearer timelines, rather than having to make repeated enquiries before receiving a detailed explanation.

Unfortunately, the wines ordered years ago have still not been delivered, despite promises made at the time and repeated requests. Rotation numbers have not been entered, and the wine collection is therefore not complete. I am very dissatisfied and disappointed with this situation.

Excellent & professional advice from an expert who is passionate about wines
Aarash Ghatineh has always been helpful and provided good advice even during the down turn.
Happy with service and experience

Really enjoying using the platform with the new upgrades. When will these be available on the app?

As a new client the general introduction with my client manager and subsequent Q&A session set me up to explore a totally new experience.
The App itself is intuitive and reasonably user friendly. The remarkable amount of transparency into each wine, its trades, historical data, ratings and perceived quality gives one confidence.
The highlights for me however are the regular podcasts and the obvious candour of those presenting. The topics are always interesting and educative. The more I replay them the more I learn.
I still don’t know whether I am an investor or a consumer. While the latter is really appealing, it’s great to know I can liquidate if necessary. Having a passion for wine is essential.
To summarise, it’s exciting, totally new, professionally run, and I am not sure where it will ultimately take me but I’m up the ride. Cheers

**Cult Wines’ response states there are parts of this review which are factually untrue. Everything written below is factual and backed with written evidence. There is nothing in this review that is untrue.**

Update: May 2026
After filing a lawsuit to the Tokyo District Court, the court informed us that Cult Wines' Japan entity had been dissolved. As such, our lawsuit couldn't proceed.
Cult Wines closed their Japan entity purely to avoid litigation.

I subsequently have now contracted a Hong Kong-based lawyer to submit a lawsuit against Cult Wines Ltd of Hong Kong.

For reference, despite numerous demands for money to be returned over the past 30 months, they have fallen on deaf ears. This company is a joke.
Do NOT do business with them.

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I was told to expect an average return of 8~9% before fees.
After 6 months my investment was down.
I asked to withdraw my funds. They aggressively tried to convince me not to withdraw.
After insisting I would sell, they said the sales of my wines would be completed within 18~20 weeks. That was more than 2 years ago and they still haven't completed the sale of my wines.
The limited number of wines they have sold were all at a loss and the valuation of my remaining portfolio has continued to tumble, despite every other asset class skyrocketing.
After further investigation I realised the company does not possess the financial instruments licenses to be able to manage funds from investments in Japan.

Despite explaining to them that their Japan operation is acting illegally, they still refused to return my funds.

I have now submitted a lawsuit against Cult Wines not only seeking my original investment, but also to cover my legal costs as well as compensation for the emotional stress caused directly from their lack of cooperation.
I expect the court to provide a significant pay out.

Excellent! the product was amazing.

Excellent Service & Perfect Birthday Surprise!

I recently received my 6 bottles of wine from Cult Wines for my birthday, and I couldn’t be happier with the experience! From start to finish, everything was handled so professionally.

The packaging was secure and beautifully presented, making it feel extra special for the occasion. Delivery was smooth and right on time, and each bottle arrived in perfect condition.

I really appreciate the quality selection — you can tell they take great care in sourcing their wines. It truly made my birthday celebration even more memorable.

Highly recommend Cult Wines for anyone looking for premium wines and excellent customer service. I’ll definitely be ordering again!

I invested £10,000 with Cult Wines expecting professional portfolio management and investment expertise. Instead, the service declined into aggressive sales pitches for en primeur and cases – behaving more like a wine merchant than an investment manager.

Cult Wines repeatedly changed its fee structures, always to the investor’s disadvantage. What began as a 15% one-time entry fee evolved into recurring annual management charges, unilaterally imposed despite the absence of any real portfolio management.

Communication was poor both before and after liquidation. Emails unanswered, calls inconclusive; after requesting liquidation, it deteriorated into made up excuses and lies just to keep you waiting.

The liquidation process

- Liquidation offers far below the portfolio’s declared market prices.

- The market price was unjustifiably inflated, while the highest bid – the real market reference – was often much lower and far apart, with no transparency on their valuation basis.

- Proceeds frozen on the platform, no clear payout policy.

- Even after the promised 90-day payout, my funds have still not been released.

This shows a pattern of lack of transparency, misleading valuations, delayed payments, and unprofessional practices.

Strongly advise avoiding Cult Wines.

Foi FANTÁSTICO!!

Paul foi brilhante em suas palavras e ensinamentos. Cada vinho uma experiência.

I invested with cult wines in 2019. 12,000£ as a sample to see if they were a company i wanted to continue doing business with. The investment has not done well in this time, as they declare my portfolio with a value of 8,900£ as of today.
However the main problem is what they say your wine is worth and what you get for it can be completely different. I have been trying to sell my full portfolio since March 2025 and they did not even sell 50% of the portfolio.
Then, when they sell you wine the balance is not available immediately. However when I bought it was on immediate payment terms.
Very disappointing and I will not be buying more wine from them.

Really enjoying the new portal. Tom’s recommendations have always hit the spot too, highly recommended

Following the passing of my Father, Jessie was extremely helpful in dealing with his portfolio. She advised us to hold off before selling to get a better price, and then was speedy in helping us sell. She always kept us in the loop, and contacted us at agreed times. Despite a little back and forth about the payment method, we finalised my Father's account, and my Mother and I were very grateful to her. Really lovely lady to deal with .

Big shout out to Cult Wines and to Aarash Ghatineh for coming through on a promise to assist me following unforeseen problems with the sale of some wines.
Aarash took the trouble to contact me and investigate the situation and was able to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion. I have been a client of Cult Wines since 2014 and have always found them easy to deal with and always happy to help with good service and advice.Once again great service and advice thanks to Aarash.

I invested some money with Cult Wines in the past - I thought it would be a fun way to learn more about wine investment. I had a low bar but they didn't clear it at all. There is no consistency in employees and pretty much every person I ever dealt with left which caused me to want to redeem my funds. We agreed on a payment plan (many many months - I was very patient and accepted their proposal) and Cult missed pretty much every date they committed to in writing. I cannot recommend anyone invest any funds at all with Cult. It doesn't feel like a stable organization or an organization that will do what they commit to do. I generally don't post negative reviews because I assume people are doing their best but in this case I feel it is my duty to provide a warning to prospective investors.

Love the website portal, and their access to wines is always exceptional