Wine & Spirits Expert

At Chai Consulting, Maureen Downey directs an international team managing private wine collections, advising retailers/resellers in risk mitigation and best practices, creating/managing restaurant wine programs, and training teams and individuals in wine and spirits authentication.

Expert witness services have been provided to private individuals, wineries, restaurants, retailers, storage facilities, and insurance companies to include appraisals and valuation reporting for loss due to fire, hurricane, floods, and electrical outages, estate needs, asset division (divorce), and pre-sale liquidation and sales advisory and execution of winery library stock.

Downey provides white-glove collection management services to individuals including collection planning and sourcing, inventory-taking, and organizing of home cellars and private storage locations, inputting individual bottles into online inventory management software, and inventory analysis.  Services can be a one-time organization or contracted for ongoing inventory management and advisory services.

Downey specializes in sales representation and auction consignment oversight. Capitalizing on her incomparable global network, clients received preferred terms with resellers, and benefit from her unparalleled oversight on consignments and direct sales ensuring preferred sale placement and marketing. As a result, our clients realize unequaled results, and with little to no fees or expenses, when liquidating just a few bottles to pare down on inventory or when selling off an entire collection due to lifestyle changes, or estate needs.

Wine and spirits bottle authentication services include Chai Vault certification – groundbreaking, blockchain secured proof of authenticity and provenance – or detailed reporting of counterfeits to assist with the swift remuneration of bad purchases.

Ms. Downey owns Winefraud.com, the first of its kind online resource assisting individuals and trade professionals to combat wine and spirits fraud including avoiding the purchase or sale of counterfeit bottles. Since 2017 she and her team have been training individuals and retailers as TCM® Certified Authenticators all over the globe creating an unparalleled network of experts.

At Chai Consulting, Downey advises the world's top collectors, auction houses, wine merchants, restaurants, and hotels, as well as the FBI and US Department of Justice (DOJ). Notable cases include the Rudy Kurniawan case, Koch v. Greenberg, Gundlach v. Soutirage, JJ's v. Time Warner Cable.