I have become interested in the wine auction market as a result of reading articles in Wine Spectator and Fine Wine Magazine. I find the whole thing fascinating. As a collector myself, I think that even something like wine is considered and traded as a commodity like stocks and is subject to market forces like everything else.
Over the weekend I attended the Acker Merrall & Condit New York auction at Marea Restaurant. They titled it "Grape Expectations". I wanted to see it live.
What was for sale you ask??? A lot of blue chip wines -- Chateau Lafite, Latour, Domaine Romanee Conti. There were also a lot of California Cult Cabernets, Chateauneuf de Pape along with vintage ports and everything in between. A lot of the vintages for this particular auction was not terribly old, rather "drinkable" wines according to the AMC promotional materials. About 700 lots in total, I had no idea that this was going to a long day.
The auctioneers switched off about every 45 minutes or so. There were 2 AMC people sitting near the auctioneer with laptops. I thought they were manning the screen behind the auctioneer, which one was, but also to manage the internet bidders, which there seemed to be plenty. About 2 tables from the laptop people were 2 other AMC employees, with cell phones attached to their ears. I felt like I was living a movie during a live auction. Yes, they were on the phone with phone bidders bidding up the lots the bidder coveted. Every so often, an AMC phone liason would lift his hand and you see his lips mouthing something into the phone, then the hand would lift up again bidding on behalf of the phone bidder until the phone bidder won. It was exciting to watch this alone.
The live bidders dripped in as the auction proceeded. Seemed like the first 150-200 lots were mostly awarded to internet bids. The live bidders, like myself, sat at their respective assigned tables, following along in the auction book, calculating with calculators or on smart phones the bottle price per lot. Clearly, most had studied what to buy and every so often, a paddle would wave in the air with a bid.
As the bidding went along, pourers went around tables asking if we would like a taste of a wine that was being featured. One was a Mersault (white Burgundy) from the early 1990s in large format. The other was a 1986 Chateau Figeac from Bordeaux. Some bidders even brought their own wines. Who knew??? A 3-course lunch was offered that day for $95, a bargain at this ultra-luxe Relais & Chateaux Italian seafood restaurant. Guiseppe and I love eating here, but I didn't plan on staying so I opted out of the lunch. A $100 credit for the lunch was offered if one purchased wine per $1,000.
My initial impression was that competition for this secondary market, if you will, was not as strong as I had always imagined to be. I mean, Guiseppe and I have bought collectable wines over the years and would think that one day, it would be worth x. But if today was my one and only time to form an impression, this would be false. In fact, some wines were auctioned off for less than the retail price. But also, some were sold for more -- the ones that are difficult to procure from a retail standpoint, like Screaming Eagle, DRC and Petrus.
Many of the articles I have read in wine publications have suggested that wine auction sales are a reflection of the current economic climate. In better times, that is, 2008 and before, the hammer prices were very strong. At the auction, I felt that the auctioneer was trying to coax the people in the room to bid.
I have read that the auction market in Asia is where the action's at. The newly minted millionaires will pay anything to obtain collectable wines. Maybe I need to attend an Asian auction next time for comparison of this weekend's experience.
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