More Auction Insanity

Was looking at last weeks Acker auction results. Lot #115 - (8) bottles of 2004 Leroy Bourgogne Rouge - $14,880.00!!!
Somebody please give me some rational for this.

Due to the GCs being declassified in 04

There was a reason it was declassified.

But this is the Bourgogne not the Vosne… maybe someone forgot?

LOL you could pretty much buy the DRC Corton or Echezeaux from a great vintage at retail for that.

$90 at release, average Cellartracker score 88.6 points, la la la the beat goes on…

Wow!!!

Pretty sure I picked up a few bottles of that on release at Binny’s for about $75 per…

I bid on half a dozen lots in HDH’s upcoming Burgundy auction I feel were certainly competitive. I don’t expect to win any.

You got cheated, I sold it for $72!

Seriously though, I bought a mixed cases of Vosne, Gevrey and Bourgogne Rouge, and sadly drank them all.

FWIW, these wines have serious issues and have been separating.

Less money for people to spend on something that I actually want to bid on and drink?

This is what I’ve read:

2004 was a unique yet controversial vintage for Leroy.That year, Madame Leroy declassified all her upper level wines to villages level as she found that the 2004 vintage lacked the level of quality and vibrancy that her wines represent. She declassified her wines into five – so the Vosne Romanee includes Grand Cru (Richebourg, RSV), 1er cru (Brulees, Beaux Monts) and Villages (Genaivrières). Bourgogne includes Clos Vougeot and all the Leroy holdings in Cote de Beaune, from Grand Cru to Villages, etc.

I imagine you don’t buy this wine to drink but due to the uniqueness of the bottling.

There is no insanity in my mind ! Every thing is relative.

I believe it is something like this : Chinese Factor.

To open any Domaine Leroy - rouge (…regardless it is from 2004 …) around Chinese New Year days…in the year 2022 - is to give * face* to your friends ( who are your invited guesses.).

You listen too, too much to Bill and Steward …and sold the 2004 red…too fast !!!

Wow, bad deal even if they were Nebuchadnezzars (15L bottles)!
Peter

That would be $93 per 750ml bottle, bargain if you need that much wine

What was the estimate?

This is indeed peak insanity. I’ve had that wine. I didn’t think it was any good.

I don’t think it’s buyers from China:

No. 4 is well known to be an unlucky number because 四 sounds similar to 死 (sǐ), which means “death” in Chinese. Did you know that if you press a Chinese elevator button to go to the 50th floor of a building, you may actually only be going to the 35th floor? This is because many buildings in China not only omit the 13th floor, but are also missing any floor containing the number 4, which is considered to be the unluckiest number in Chinese culture.

IIRC, this under performed and was near the bottom of a blind tasting in Chicago in the mid to late 2000’s
I brought it!

Someone just had to have it and had to bid more than the next bidder. Amazing what people pay for wine that is certainly not upper echelon. Think of how many cases of wine you could get for that price!