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The initiative was launched by Crédit Municipal
de Paris, the council pawnshop, last week. Within 48 hours, it had received
more than 200 bottles of vintage wines with a total market value of over
€45,000.
'We're surprised to see how many people are doing this,"
said Bernard Candiard, the CEO of Crédit Municipal, patting a bottle
of Bollinger champagne worth about €1,000. The council started allowing
wine as collateral because it was among their strongest assets, with the
best-known Bordeaux and burgundies generally appreciating in value with
time.
Among the Parisians who snapped the offer was a doctor
bringing in €17,000 worth of bottles, including a 1961 Pétrus,
costing around €9,000, one of the best wines ever produced. An old
lady pensioner with six bottles of Pomerol valued at €240 borrowed
€120.
Crédit Municipal, which is there to give public
service gives a short term loan of up to one year against an accepted
collateral such as jewellery and other valuables evaluated by the in house
assessors.
Mr. Candiard plans to give loan against 90,000 bottles
stored in ideal conditions. The cellars under the 1777 Crédit Municipal
building have 80 per cent humidity, a constant temperature of between
12-13°C and have been fitted with low-intensity light bulbs.
Though wine may not be moved out easily, if it is well
packed, transported in moderate temperatures and left to settle for several
days after the journey, it regains all its qualities. But many of the
older wines are never consumed, anyway and are treated as family heirlooms.
It looks like the French men will have to keep track
of what they are storing lest their women folk slip a bottle or two of
their favourite vintages to lay their hands on something more perfumed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/wine/article3607843.ece
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