Sotheby’s fall series of wine and spirits sales totaled over $11 million in a strong debut for their fall season here. A multivendor sale accounted for more than $4.9 million of the total (96.7% sold), led by 7 bottles of ’96 Jayer Cros Parantoux that earned more than $59,000 and 9 bottles of 1990 La Tâche that sold for more than $50,000. The sale entitled “Classic Cellar 2” also did well, earning more than $2.8 million, led by six bottles of 2000 Pétrus, which sold for $23,558. As Pétrus was the feature of this sale, the top twelve lots were all Pétrus. A single-owner focus, however, did not fare so well: the “Connoisseur’s Cellar” generated $2,814,792, but was only 83.5% sold by lot; the highest-grossing lot was a case of 1995 Jayer Cros Parantoux that sold for $65,962 including premium. Finally, the Asian allotment of the special “l’Odyssée d’un Roi” bottling of Rémy Martin Cognac Louis XIII sold for $190,000, as compared to the $135,000 that the same bottle earned in New York. The package includes the cognac in an engraved decanter from Cristallerie Saint-Louis in a trunk by Hermès and with a white gold pipette from silversmith Puiforcat. The next and final bottle will be sold in London on November 16th.
Archive: October 2016
September 2016 wine auction recap
Executive Summary:
Bordeaux continues to strengthen; provenance increasingly important as single-owner and ex-domaine sales do very well; Burgundy trends are mixed but overall generally still positive.
Detail:
The fall auction season opened with a multi-vendor sale by Christie’s Hong Kong, led by rare wines from the library of Bouchard Père et Fils. The top-grossing lot in the sale was a case of ’88 Romanée-Conti that sold for more than $174,000, a vigorous result. The old property from the Bouchard cellar also did well, making 260% of the pre-sale low estimate. Chambertin 1865 sold for nearly $40,000 per bottle, and Montrachet 1865 sold for more than $25,000 per bottle.
Fine wine market update H1 2016
Top Line Review
Volume through the major auction houses dropped by 13.8% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2015, yet value remained largely unchanged at -0.23%. This is due in part to a few very large sales in the first half of the year such as Sotheby’s sale in New York for Bill Koch in May ($21.9m realized) and Zachy’s large Hong Kong sale ($9m) as well as some spectacularly expensive lots that raised the average lot price across the board, including the ten bottles of 1945 Mouton Rothschild from Sotheby’s Koch sale that made an impressive $343,000. In our view, however, these fairly stagnant figures hide important shifts in demand type and demographics as outlined below.