Vinous Acquires Cellar Watch from Liv-ex

Wine collectors will be able to manage their cellars using scores and notes from the world’s most renowned wine critics, alongside pricing data from Liv-ex, the global marketplace for the wine trade. 

December 5, 2019, New York, NY – Vinous CEO and Founder Antonio Galloni announced today the acquisition of the wine collection valuation service Cellar Watch from Liv-ex, the global marketplace for wine. Vinous will take control of Cellar Watch from mid-January 2020. The new Cellar Watch will retain all the features that make it an essential tool to thousands of wine consumers around the world. Subscribers will continue to have access to Liv-ex data and can look forward to a number of upgrades, including an improved user interface and easier access to scores and notes from Vinous. 

“Our vision at Vinous has long been to provide wine lovers with best in class tools and resources to help them get the most out of wine,” said Galloni. “Now consumers can make informed wine decisions with the help of Vinous’ all-star team of critics and track the valuation of their wine collection with Cellar Watch. Through our suite of products, Vinous has taken a leadership position in wine information, with the goal of meeting the diverse needs of wine consumers at all levels.”

“We are delighted that Vinous, under Antonio Galloni, will be taking ownership of Cellar Watch,” added James Miles, Liv-ex Managing Director and Chairperson. “With independence at its core, Vinous has gathered a team of world class critics around its market leading technology. To this it now adds price data from Liv-ex. We are very excited to see how Vinous, with so much expertise in this area, builds on the successes of Cellar Watch to create an even better service for collectors.”

Cellar Watch is the latest acquisition by Vinous, the influential wine media company that acquired the apps Delectable and Banquet in 2016 and the International Wine Cellar publication in 2014. Widely regarded as the leading source for critical wine information, Vinous has a library of over 300,000 tasting notes. Delectable, a free app, has over 10 million user reviews and ratings by its active community.

About Vinous

Vinous is an independent wine media company founded by wine critic Antonio Galloni in 2013. Vinous acquired International Wine Cellar in 2014 and expanded its editorial team to include several of the most recognizable names in wine criticism, including Stephen Tanzer, Neal Martin, Ian D’Agata, David Schildknecht and Josh Raynolds. With over 300,000 professional tasting notes, Vinous is the go-to resource for wine collectors and industry professionals alike.

With the acquisition of Delectable in 2016, Vinous became the only company in wine to offer both professional reviews and the perspectives of hundreds of thousands of wine consumers who share their tasting notes on the popular app that is rated 4.7 on the App Store with over 15,000 ratings. Under Galloni’s leadership, Vinous is creating the reference point maps for the vineyards of California in collaboration with renowned cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti. 

About Cellar Watch

Cellar Watch has been providing collectors with accurate, independent valuation data since 2004. It was the first service to bring transparency to the market by giving collectors access to independent, transaction-based data. Cellar Watch is a popular tool for collectors wishing to have an accurate, up to the minute valuation of their cellars, whether as a hobby, for insurance needs or to help them manage their assets.

About Liv-ex

Liv-ex is the global marketplace exclusively for the wine trade with over 470 merchant members worldwide. Founded in 2000, Liv-ex helps members to price, source and sell wine more efficiently through its trading and data services. Liv-ex offers the most comprehensive database of fine wine price data worldwide, with over 644 million current and historic price points. It is the only source of standardized data covering both merchant transactions and list prices. Liv-ex indices use this transactional data to track the price movements of the most heavily traded fine wines. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index – composed of wines from eight different regions – is recognized as the industry benchmark and is quoted by Bloomberg and Reuters.