Check out the list. Not only did I fail to buy anything, I failed spectacularly. Great stuff though, Interesting provenance and usually undervalued. Not this time.
someone must have been rather optimistic to spend 11 racks on a bottle with no label…
15 bottles of mostly oxidized Chalone Chardonnay for close to $1k per after premium and tax. Wow.
The prices on the Ridge mixed lots were incredibly high
Deeeym.
Given the color of the bottles and capsule conditions of the German wines I thought the prices were extremely high. I generally don’t get too fussed about corroded capsules except when the prices get that high. And 50% or more of my pre-70s Egon Mullers have been corked, they had a real problem with TCA during this period so I have stopped paying top dollar for those wines.
I got 2 out of the 3 lots I wanted. My computer froze when the 3rd was closing.
I’m skeptical of the quality of what’s in a lot of those bottles. Almost $600 a bottle for ‘75 Monte Bello? Yikes. I might pay $300 for a perfectly stored ‘78. I saw some ‘80s in there which I thought was tired 10 years ago.
For me the most overpriced was the case of assorted York Creek for $350. At our recent ancient Ridge tasting, these were the only real failures. The five bottles of 1970s Monte Bellos for $8125, also way overpriced.
A few others
Mag LMHB 1970 $3000
Mag Cos 1961 $3750
Bottles of 1961 Margaux $10,625
I bid on 20 lots about 12 hours before the end; German, California, Port, and Madeira. Ended up getting only one. Obviously someone bid just before the closing on a few of those in which I was interested.
Those Ridge prices are just plain stupid. A fool and his money, indeed. I’ve been picking up older Ridge from 2000-05 in the past few months for $25-45. Zins, field blend reds, and the occasional Petite Sirah.
Regarding York Creek, I opened a bottle of 2003 Zin a couple of weeks ago that was firing on all cylinders. That was one of the $25 buys.