Our Credentials
Lay & Wheeler has been synonymous with high quality wine for over one hundred and fifty years. Over this time the company has earned a reputation for the expertise of its staff and for personal service; and in the same period it has developed an international reach, with customers in seventy countries.
The Lay & Wheeler team demonstrates strength in depth. Including one Master of Wine, our buyers are well-seasoned with considerable competence in the major producing regions. Lay & Wheeler has become an industry leader in the specialist fields of en primeur sales, managing private reserves and fine wine trading. Our expert buyers visit the best producers in classic regions every year, frequently making several trips to assess the best wines. In addition to promoting the new vintages of Bordeaux and Burgundy, the company has pioneered the sale as ‘futures’ of the leading wines of Champagne, Rhone, Piedmont, Tuscany and Rioja.
An efficient wine selling process demands a rigorous attitude to shipping and cellarage. Lay & Wheeler’s private reserves systems are second to none, and high quality cellarage is assured through the company’s close association with Vinothèque, the UK’s leading fine wine storage environment. Our Portfolio Service offers a comprehensive, information-rich, cellarage proposition designed to meet the needs of the sophisticated wine buyer.
The third dimension in the market for fine wine, after sourcing and storage, is broking, the ability to dispose of wines on customers’ instructions. Lay & Wheeler has an active broking division, fully-tuned to current market conditions so as to be in a position to offer the best results.
The combined skills of wine assessment and market knowledge ensure that our team is ideally placed to assist customers wishing to buy the rarest wines, whether for personal cellars or as an alternative investment. The relationships we have developed with some of the finest producers in the world underpin this role. An extensive stock portfolio boasts rare wines from illustrious Burgundian estates such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leflaive, Domaines Comte Lafon and Domaine Leroy; and in Bordeaux, Châteaux such as Pétrus, Le Pin, Cheval-Blanc, Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Margaux and Mouton-Rothschild count amongst the ‘blue chips’ of the wine world. Not only are we able to source many of these wines directly from the producer to guarantee provenance, but we have worked hard to establish links within the global wine trade to ensure we can source the best wines at the most favourable prices.