Anyone know of any US retailers that will arrange for bids at the VDP auction and will bring them in for you if you win?
Hi Maureen, I am not 100% sure, but the German commissioners should provide this service to you. So you place a bid with them and they charge your for the auction price, commission and shipping.
Dirk
Flatiron
DeeVine Wines in SF has for many years. Not sure if they are this year.
DeeVine- but you need to contact them ASAP. The deadline for bids was 9-1 and they are already over in Germany or on their way. They work through Selbach (the commissionaire branch of the company- same ownership as Selbach winery), so if you reach out to Selbach they might be able to help coordinate bids at this point.
SELBACH, J. & H. GmbH & Co. KG
Postfach 1104
D-54492 Zeltingen/Gewerbegebiet
Telefon 0 65 32 – 95 38 0
Fax 0 65 32 – 40 14
Are you sure they bid through Selbach? The sit on a different table normally. But that’s not a bulletproof indicator.
Yes. I know both parties.
Just a curious question? Does it matter who you bid through? Specifically do certain firms who have longer term relationships get any type of preference? Not asking about non-auction factors like counterparty risk etc.
Nope, well not in theory, I guess the larger the bidder the more chance of ‘spare’ bottles being available.
DeeVine stll exists?
Do they still cook the wines for no extra charge?
They do, but no longer have a brick and mortar store. Didn’t know there were issues with cooking the wines. I always picked up there. Ambient temperature in Pier 19 was fine.
I bought from them three times over the years. All three transactions were problematic. The worst was some auction wines (2001 Loosens) they had in stock - brutally cooked. Never could get them to answer the phone about it.
Never again.
A few of us shipped some ex auction stock from them to the UK around 2012, all have been excellent so far, but thats a small population.
My understanding is that the poor storage was at their pier location and it’s not a problem any more (assuming the wines don’t date from that period).
And I have not bought since they closed that site.
Stephen Bitterolf from Vom Boden is also offering Auction wines this year.
Do you guys think that the auction wines are noticeably better than the APs sold through retail or that they tend to be worth the premium? I notice that sometimes they get better reviews than non-auction wines, but sometimes they get worse reviews. I’ve never had any, but am admittedly very curious.
I don’t find it to be the case, but I am a bit of an outlier.
The better scores tend to be for the sweeter wines, and auction pradikat wines tend to be richer sweeter.
Obviously that does not apply to auction dry wines.
I’d advise really trying to understand the differences between (say) Schaefer Spatlese GD AP #10 and #05 before buying auction wines you won’t drink for over a decade.
That said in about to head off for my tenth auction, have several hundred bottles on the cellar and claim no expertise.
You’re heading there on Maureen’s behalf? 