Decanter World Wine AwardsFine wine company disappears leaving clients empty-handed
- Thursday 2 February 2012
- Comments (8)
Beaumont Vintners Ltd, a wine investment company set up in June 2010 and registered in Fulham, London, sold a client – who wishes to remain nameless – Chateau Lafite vintages from 2004 through to 2007.
The cases of the 2004 and 2005 never arrived at EWGA Ltd, the Lancashire bonded warehouse used by Beaumont Vintners.
EWGA Ltd told Decanter.com the client was not alone: it had had ‘a number of calls from Beaumont clients whose wine is not in the warehouse and who cannot contact the company, who are not answering the phone.’
Decanter.com has also been unable to contact Beaumont Vintners either by email or phone.
Meanwhile Beaumont’s sole director, Samuel Philips, 30, is also the sole director of another wine investment company – Alexander Barclay Wines Ltd, formed in August 2011 with its registered office in London’s ultra-exclusive district of Knightsbridge.
Alexander Barclay’s website is very similar to that of Beaumont Vintners.
Its introduction reads, ‘Alexander Barclay is Formed by a group of experienced and successful businessmen and traders, Alexander Barclay's are providing an opportunity for our clients to gain a foothold in the thriving and prosperous fine wine market.’
Beaumont Vintners’ introduction is identical: ‘Formed by a group of experienced and successful businessmen and traders, Beaumont Vintners are providing an opportunity for our clients to gain a foothold in the thriving and prosperous fine wine market.’
The name Beaumont Vintners Ltd appears on the Alexander Barclay site: ‘Beaumont Vintners uses relative pricing, industry supplied information,…’
Alexander Barclay claims to store wine at EWGA Ltd, although EWGA told Decanter.com it has no account for Alexander Barclay Wines Ltd, will not be opening one and has made a complaint to the Trading Standards Authority.
Have your say!
Vincenzo Tagliavia
February 28 00:24
Niall, the cold calling is probably not the most "honourable" way to establish presence or leverage a brand. But when it's done (from a marketing point of view) in an integrated way it works. The problem is not the cold calling here but the intention behind it. If the intention is positive then why not? If we intention is to deliberately con people of course that is to be condemned. In the 90's it was stock broking (anyone?) then it came land which both FSA, DTI and other regulatory bodies continuously failed to curb despite numerous complaints and disgraceful cases; wine has just gone past And as a honest person I do not appreciate generalisations on collectors who are put off by real estate investments or else. I sympathise with people who have had bad experiences. But that's nothing to do with properties, wine or cold calling. This boils down to values example honesty and knowledge supporting actions from the investors side.
Rodney Barrett
February 04 10:37
from the above: complaint to the Trading Standards Authority.
Please Decanter, keep us informed of how TSA perform, re:the above fine wine scam.
Niall Blunden
February 04 04:41
I agree about the inefficiencies of the overall market Vincenzo, but not about certain companies' "tactics". The truly reputable companies do not ever cold call. There's no need for that.
And for the company in question, its staff did cold call me. When I confronted them about overcharging, they made a groundless argument that their price was justified by the better provenance that they offered.
Perhaps most tellingly and important of all, none of these companies actually appreciate and understand fine wine. A real disgrace to the industry.
As an aside, your company also runs real estate investments. Not exactly the best to attract fine wine collectors.
Richard
February 03 09:37
If anyone is taken in by the new company website, then send me their name and I'll be a Prince from a faraway land with a cunning deal for them!
The site is truly awful, poorly formatted, spelt, repeats the same information again and again, uses the wrong names ... there is no way I would give someone with this sort of image 50p let alone thousands.