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Updated: 10/5/2010
A Bit About Virginia Juice & Emily Hodson
I recently toured Veritas Vineyard & Winery and had a fantastic time. It was easily the most informative tour of any vineyard I've ever had, and I learned more in that single day about wine than I have any other week of my wine-luvin' life.
The brief vid on the right discusses Head Wine Maker Emily Hodson's efforts that have brought National acclaim to Veritas.
You can experience "Virtual Veritas", a trip I highly recommend for the "Virginia Uninitiated" in particular by following this link.
10/4/2010
Case of Pristine 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc Sells Well Above Estimate at Morrell Wine Auctions
I was working the sale (and getting paid to do so, therein lies your full disclosure)- but I am not being paid to report on what occurred.
In short: the sale, held at Morrell's Wine Bar at Rockefeller Center, was a rousing success. We'll have to wait to get the more detailed numbers, but here are a few broad descriptions and notes of what went down at the auction this past Saturday:
• The Lafite was flying out at near (and on multiple occasions surpassing) high estimates. Without looking at the hard data, I would estimate that it performed the best of the First Growths.
• The other first growths did just fine as well, with Chateau Latour garnering more attention than I had previously thought, hammering at near high estimates for all vintages and formats.
• The Chateau d' Yquem: all 287.4 gallons of it, 1.44 TONS (as we figured) of the stuff did well, as well. I was hoping to buy at least half of it to fill up the hot tub on the back of the Kogo Yacht that I plan on renting for a couple months to explore the tropics this winter.
My Dr. said I should "live a little".
• "The Story of the night", without ANY doubt was the sale of a case of the 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc. In excellent condition, recorked and re-capsuled at the Chateau itself in 1995 with levels into the neck for each bottle, "lot # 844" was estimated to sell between $36,000 - $60,000. When the dust began to settle, the bidding slowed, and the hammer finally came down by auctioneer David Molyneux-Berry M.W.: the final hammer price was $74,000.
74 GRAY-UND (spelled phoenetically and properly emboldened). That's $14,000 above the lot's high estimate. Before premium. Now, keep in mind some houses have buyers' premiums approaching 20%- while Morrell has stuck to an 18% figure that played to both their advantage as well as to the buyer and seller's advantage concerning a lot of such lofty value at acquisition. 1% in this case, padon the pun, means $740. That makes a difference, and especially to the buyer as his/her money is going towards the wine as opposed to the house that is selling it, encouraging that buyer to be more aggressive. The seller also benefits, since this encouragement to the buyer is also to his benefit in what is ultimately realized.
SO, with 18% premium, the purchase of the case of mint condition 1947 Cheval Blanc comes to $87,320- before sales tax. Keep in mind too that sales tax in Manhattan has reached upwards of 9% (give or take a tenth of a point)- so I would ship this, delicately, to another location to avoid such exorbitance on the part of the Borough. Divide that by 12 & you reach the figure of $7,276.66 per bottle, again before tax. Historically speaking, and with one glaring exception of a purchase made in Hong Kong from Sotheby's in May of this year (for about $24,000 a bottle, which is beyond insanity as defined by Webster's) this lot can be looked to as a harbinger regarding a slightly upward leaning trend for the rarest of the rare of Bordeaux.
With that I tie the bow of an incredibly brief review of Morrell's auction on Saturday. More to come and break down once the full set of results are in- and it should be interesting to compare these results (of a top-flight cellar) to some of the other whoppers coming down the pike as well as some that have already taken place.
We'll have a greater wrap-up of how things went in a more detailed fashion when those details become public. If I had to take a guess though, I would say the wine auction market, just like the NYSE, has swung back to being a seller's market- particularly for the premium items from Bordeaux.
9/28/2010
Several Auction Results In. Results = BIG up tick in premium items.
There's been speculation as to what will happen with this coming fall and the wine auction market. There are some extremely "lofty" and in some cases downright "ridiculously extravagant" collections that either are or will soon be on the block. Looking at one of the most recent sales, some of the answers to those questions regarding the auction market are manifesting themselves in the form of concrete results.
The graph below comes directly from Hart-Davis-Hart's web site, and is a collection of data pertaining to 15 key wines, as explained above the chart:
While keeping in mind this is a sample of what may be considered some of the rarest of the rare- it is a great example of what we can continue to expect in the "ramping up" of the auction market, heading into the fall season of 2010. Whoever is buying, and my bet still points mostly to an emerging and thirsty Asian (see: Chinese) market, they are setting the tone for the finest of the fine wines in the world.
Another noteworthy mention as we look towards some of the sales and incredible collections upcoming (including smashes from both Morrell as well as Spectrum) would be the lots that eclipsed their high estimates- always a good weathervane to see "what is the hottest" at any given time:
Top 5 Lots exceeding the high estimate by dollar (September 2010 Auction):
Lot
Description
Estimate
Hammer
Aggregate
103
1989 Château Haut-Brion
(1 jeroboam (5L))
$5,000-7,500
$16,000
(...wow)
$19,120
915
1982 Château Margaux (12 bs)
$7,000-10,000
$18,000
$21,510
72
1989 Château La Mission Haut Brion
(12 bs)
$7,500-11,000
$17,000
$20,315
772
1991 Côte Rôtie, La Mouline Guigal (12 bs)
$6,000-9,000
$15,000
$17,925
101
1989 Château Haut-Brion (12 bs)
$9,500-14,000
$19,000
$22,705
The '89 Chateau Haut-Brion, be rockin' for sure. Drinking in its prime, becoming more and more rare, and being appreciated by those who covet it as a contender for the true "Wine of the Millennium" that competes with the lofty likes of the '82s, the 95's, etc.
This may also be a signal to watch for both the higher end '89 vintage items as well as the stand-outs in the fantastic 1990 vintage as well like the Palmer and the 1990 Chateau Montrose, as they to enter what some consider to be their prime.
Yes, we'll talk about this, as it may have been my favorite wine event ever, with the glaring exception that my wife and I are enjoying our second anniversary apart.
You can scroll through the WineGavel.com Auction catalog below. Just click on it to get a full screen view. We'll be taking a closer look at what Winegavel.com has to offer in a more detailed way shortly- but for now, here ya go, courtesy of Winegavel.com.
September 9th, 2010
Just click the image below to have a look at Spectrum Wine Auctions.
September 8th, 2010
Just click the image below to be magically transported to MorrellWineAuctions.net...
Morrell Fine Wine Auctions opens up their catalog for what they're terming:
"The Wine Collection of the Year"
Click the pic of the Petrus on the left to have a look at what is a hell of a way to start off this auction season, and get yourself registered. There are some deals to be had, and we'll have more on that later.
