At a basic level, a wine broker is someone who acts as a middleman between people selling fine (or rare) wine and people looking to buy fine wine. There are many wine brokers, but not many good ones, and it is crucial that you work with only with good wine brokers.

The difference between a good and bad wine broker is the difference between making 12-14 percent and nothing, or oftentimes losing money. The following are the things a good wine broker does.

A good wine broker will have a liquor license and experience shipping fine wine all around the world. Shipping wine (or any alcohol) across state and national borders is fraught with legal and regulatory compliance issues, and must be done correctly. There are many ways to do it wrong, and doing it wrong can result in fines, con scation, or in extreme cases, exposure to criminal charges.

A good wine broker will have a well-maintained physical facility (with power backups) to properly store wine and ensure it does not spoil.

A good wine broker will have a large and varied clientele, both as a signal that the broker is good at their job and to ensure they have both a constant supply of wine for their clients looking to buy, and a large pool of buyers to provide liquidity to clients looking to sell.

A good wine broker will have extensive experience in many different parts of the wine industry. They will know the important local knowledge and industry gossip and be able to see major changes coming early enough to act on them.

A good wine broker will have deep and long-term contacts with auction houses, wineries, and other wine brokers, all over the world. The broker will personally know many of the major players and be able to connect with anyone else quickly, if necessary.

A good wine broker will have impeccable ethical standards, a meticulous reputation, and expert experience in confirming provenance and authenticity of fine wine.

And most importantly, a good wine broker will have excellent understanding of all aspects of wine, especially the commercial potential of fine wine. Quite frankly, the broker has to be an expert at what the market will pay for wine now, and an expert at predicting what the market will want to pay in the future. If there is one thing that separates the good from the great, this ability is it.

Imagine managing all of those tasks yourself—on top of your normal job. I think you can see why there is no question that the easiest way to invest in wine is to use a wine broker.The question is not whether you should you use a wine broker or not. Of course you should. The question is which wine broker you should use, and how to find the right one for you.This is the hardest part about investing in wine: finding the right person to help you manage the process, so you will achieve your investment goals.

The first thing we recommend is that you actually use two wine brokers, not just one. This is mainly because the varied and distributed nature of the wine market makes it impossible for any one broker to be able to always meet all the needs of any one client.