Q3 Auction Results Are Mixed

Awhile back,  way back in August when I reported on the Q2 auction results and how Burgundy was leading the field.  Well Burgundy, my beloved, has made a liar of me.  Wine has a way of biting the hand that holds the glass, usually via immoderate consumption.  But wine can also bite your hand if you dare to write about it, let alone say anything dogmatic.

Granted, I still feel that Burgundy is attracting more and more collectors in part because 1) Pinot is still cool, and Cote d’Or is about the best you can get, and 2) Bordeaux screams old money, and while some people embrace that image, others don’t.  But bottom line, Burgundy is making a splash, and dare I say dropping anchor.

So what happened?  Well two auctions to speak of, Bonhams & Butterfields in San Francisco July 26th, and Acker Merral & Condit in New York on September 6th.  The first one, B&B, had a pretty meager outing with one in four lots being passed, now I cannot say why, could have been high reserves, summer financial blues, money being spent on things other than wine, I don’t know.  The wines that did sell, well the vast majority were bought below their market price from the previous quarter.  So bargains were had.  An ’85 DRC La Tache sold for $2380, a 53 percent drop.  Bad for the seller, great for the buyer.  There was no home team bias in San Francisco, as was proven when a case of ’97 Dominus that went for $357, a drop of 79 percent.  What does that tell you?  Those ‘97s are starting to top out.  Drink ‘em if you can’t sell ‘em.  Another one that kind of surprised me was 12 half bottles of 2001 d’Yquem (and half bottles in sauternes generally fetch more than their red wine counterparts) that dropped 38% for a final

The AM&C auction in September saw Bordeaux taking over, again.  A ridiculous lot which contained 25, yes 25 Imperials of 1995 Mouton-Rothschild was the focus of a bidding war between two determined would-be owners, driving the price up 70% from the previous quarter’s price to eventually stop at $187,550.  This auction only saw 86% of its lots sold, better than B&B, but still what one usually expects from these types of auctions.  The AM&C auction saved a bit of my face in the Burgundy department.

But this kind of slow down will only lead to more as we enter Q4, especially given all the financial turmoil, crazy political season, and the overall grind of the winter months.

Q4 will have some pretty good deals I imagine.  Shop wisely.