At Zachy’s online auction - current bid on 3 bottle lot of 02 Truchot Charmes is $3200! That is before the 22.5% premium. Yikes! You want it that badly, people, just PM me!
… I thought '02 Vatan at $160 was crazy. Cappellano pushing $300 too.
Yowza!
It has started to become difficult to drink Truchot.
OK…it hasn’t.
That wine was $80 just a few years ago…crazy
More than a few.
Took a look at the Ponsot they offered for a minute or two, particularly a lot of 2001 Clos de la Roche, but decided there wasn’t anything I was going to bid on. The days of wildly buying many different producers at auction are winding down for me as we narrow our focus.
there is always someone with more piss $$$ than you when it comes to wine auctions. it’s hard to fly under the radar
I was really hoping the Chinese stock market gyrations would slow down auctions, but to no avail. My (data free conjecture) hypothesis is that there is a massive expansion of bidders due to web buyers getting more comfortable with online bidding – and the bidding tools themselves getting a lot better. Increased demand is driving pricing. Sad!
Cappellano and other top end Barolo pricing was very strong and even over what those same wines/vintages are selling for at retail. Same for Burgundy and Rhone.
I did score a couple of solid buys with non-trophy wines in burg and piedmont, but deals were few and far between. Congrats to Zachy’s and the seller.
You just can’t find Pie Franco anywhere in the US, so its understandable why it gets snatched up.
Sad for buyers. Great for sellers
I thought the auction started out very low actually - low estimates and low reserves, but this one really snowballed and by the end bids ended up strong
zachy’s estimates are always low
i always thought i was gonna steal stuff, and never did
That’s EXACTLY why they do low estimates. It gets everyone excited that they’re gonna swipe a lot at some ridiculous price. Zachary’s hopes it attracts enough attention to start a bidding war in the final minute. If 30 people are watching a lot, you only need two or three to catch auction fever and try to outbid each other.
Dear Andrew,
We are delighted to share the great news that our recent event in partnership with Zachys Wine Auctions was a success! We are fortunate to work with the stellar team at Zachys who continue to provide the most accessible method for passionate collectors to obtain special and large formats wines from our cellars. Among the incredible lots, our 1700 Point Lot, consisting of one bottle each of every 100-point Schrader Cabernets produced, set a new world record at over $56,000. We are truly honored that the Schrader wines continue to be esteemed as the most celebrated Cabernets in American wine history, and want to thank you, our faithful followers, for your continued support. For more information on the Schrader lots included in the auction and the results of the lots please follow this link.
In preparation for the auction, events were held in Tokyo, Los Angeles and New York where bidders were able to sample some of the wines featured in the lots. One of our guests, Jeff Leve, chief writer and owner of the wine review website The Wine Cellar Insider, was able to attend the Los Angeles tasting and he wrote glowing reviews of the wines that you can read here.
When speaking of the 2013 Schrader Colesworthy which he awarded 100 points, Mr. Leve stated that it was “off the hook, off the charts, either way you put it, this wine is insane.” Of the other 3 wines that he awarded 100 point scores to, Mr. Leve described the 2007 Old Sparky as a contender 101 points if only the rating scale could go so high.
As always we would like to you for your generous support of our wine program and hope that those who bid on the lots were able to win the items they coveted most.
Sincerely,
Hm, I made out like a bandit that same auction. Depends what you’re buying, I guess…
This is not entirely accurate. A lot goes into estimates, including having to keep both buyers and sellers happy. Having known many people who work for Zachys, I can vouch for the work that goes in, and how thankless a job it is, with constant and conflicting complaints from both sides. I am certainly not implying that the auction house is Switzerland in this - they make more money if the wine sells for more as well - but they need to keep both sides happy in order to keep the marketplace functioning. A lot of work goes into that, and I can say with confidence that most employees at most of these places are doing their best to be accurate in their assessments.
Just watched people bid $35/bottle more then available at retail. WTF is wrong with people ?
There are two possibilities:
-
Auction fever
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Shill bidding
- For some buyers, especially foreign ones, to whom a few dollars either way doesn’t make a whole lot of difference, Zachys et al offers one stop shopping. There’s a wide variety of product, they don’t have to worry about shipping to a central location for transport, one payment etc.