As my father was very ill in hospital, headed towards 'end of life' he admitted that he 'may have done something stupid' and said that he had invested circa £20K in wine. That in itself is not an issue, but it did surprise us, he has never had any interest in wine. However, now his estate is in probate, we need a valuation of the investment. This is one of the last things that the solicitor needs to apply for probate. She has contacted them, I have and my sister has, all to no avail.

The telephone number is an answering service, and although they say that they will pass messages on, we have had no contact. On their website, there is no direct email, just a 'contact us' box, again to no avail.

We are getting the feeling that this is not quite what it seems. The company's Twitter has not been active since 2016, the only thing I can find online about them is some questions raised by the wine press in 2015 (they state 15 years experience but have only been trading since 2011), and there are no reviews, positive or negative, anywhere that we can find. There have been accounts filed, that we can see, although it does not seem to have a lot of assets.

We are at the point of going to the press and social media in relation to this, particularly the lack of response. I would love to name them here, but I am not going to as yet.

Can anyone give me any advice as to what to do, short of actually turning up at their offices?

Thanks MF x