Why Is $2.5 Billion Worth of Wine Buried Deep in the English Countryside?

In 2023, the world spent an estimated 328.5 billion dollars on premium wine. By the end of the decade, that figure is projected to be closer to half a trillion — slightly more than the entire GDP of Thailand. Indeed, pricy juice is more popular today than ever before, and the same can be said for high-end spirits. The demand for proper storage, in turn, is also at an all-time high. And make no mistake: not all storage spaces are created equal. 

If you need ironclad proof, look no further than the Octavian cellar. But first, you’ll need to find it. Tunneled some 100 feet below the quiet landscape of western England, the facility might just be the most secure wine vault on the planet. That’s not at all what it was built to be. 

The site began its life as a stone mine in the early parts of the 19th Century. From here famed bath limestone was quarried for use in stately manors in London to the City Hall of Cape Town, South Africa. During World War II, the Ministry of Defense took over the subterranean layer and repurposed it as one of the country’s largest munition stores. In doing so, they installed an elaborate series of ducting to circulate air, while also reinforcing the structure. 

These enhancements proved quite auspicious for its eventual status as the ultimate depositary for high-end hooch — the same conditions that optimally serve gunpowder also benefit alcohol in the glass. It’s a happy coincidence that wasn’t realized until 1986 when engineer and professional audiophile Nigel Jagger decided to buy the plot to store everything from old records to F1 tires. Due to a year-round temperature of 57 degrees, complete absence of UV light, and steady airflow to control humidity, the mine is ideal for elongating the life of just about any stored good. But when it comes to wine, specifically, there’s no place like it.

“[All these conditions] occur naturally, so it’s not dependent on a generator, air conditioner, or dehumidifier,” explains Vincent O’Brien, managing director of Octavian Wine Services. “Fine wine storage is all about precision and care. It is about allowing the wine to mature over some time in perfect conditions, maintaining a constant temperature — around 13 degrees Celsius — with high levels of humidity, [hovering around 80%].”

The vault exists under a highly secure compound, fortified by gates, roughly two hours west of Central London (depending on traffic, of course). The only evidence of what’s going on below the surface is a nondescript hangar, where crates of Petrus, Screaming Eagle, and DRC are checked in, loaded onto a flatbed, and carefully rolled down a rail line, preserved from the old mining days. Humans must enter by way of 137 steep steps augured into the earth. 

For the large majority of clients, taking a single step into Octavian’s vault is entirely superfluous. The company handles all logistics and quality control and even affords its customers the opportunity to view their trove remotely. 

“We have a customer service department that sets up identify verification and goes through the process of asking the customer for their product list, including value, alcohol level, and condition,” says O’Brien. “When received, wines are checked off against the list, photographed, and logged into our database. Customers then have full control of their account via the online wine portal, provided by Wine Owners software.”

In addition to all this, Octavian is also an industry outlier in that it’s one of the few storage sites providing full insurance to its customers. However, the company reserves the right to tack on a supplemental fee for extraordinarily priced goods so take note if you recently purchased that $2.7 million bottle of 1926 vintage Macallan. 

Even if you were sending such an astronomically-priced bottle down the mineshaft, it would register as merely a drop in the proverbial bucket. All in all, Octavian now counts around $2.5 billion worth of liquid assets within its 30-acre footprint. That’s enough to distinguish it as the world’s largest collection of fine wine and spirits. And it’s that second category that’s growing the fastest.

“We only started storing spirits around 10 years ago,” O’Brien points out. “But whisky is now 10% of our stockholding by volume.”

Whether wine or whisky, Octavian will currently charge you approximately $22 per year to store a single case of it in the vaults. The lowest amount you can set up an account with is $127 worth of liquid, and as a prospective client, you must pass an identity check, as well as provide sufficient paperwork to demonstrate ownership. 

Of course, the back of your closet is always a dependable fallback for storing wine. And so long as it’s bombproof, temperature and humidity controlled, shut off from UV light, and safeguarded against all surface-level vibrations, that closet might just give Octavian a run for its money.