Continuing to ride the seemingly endless ascent of prices for Burgundy wine, sales of fine and rare wine at live wine auctions in major worldwide markets finished the third quarter with a cumulative total of US$ 207.8 million, an advance of 7.58% over the same period last year. In the auction market, success breeds success, and the year so far has seen more lots coming to market (just over 55,000 this year compared to slightly more than 52,000 last year). It is likely that the strong sales this year have helped to draw out high quality wines from closely-held collections. The strong market has also buoyed the sell-through rate, which improved to an average of 93.4%, up from 92.3% last year.