Thoughts On HDH Auction?

I’ve been looking through the results of HDH’s mostly Burgundy auction from over the weekend, and an admittedly cursory examination seemed to suggest some softening of prices, especially given HDH’s tendency to estimate low. There were some wild anomalies, like a parcel of D’Auvenay Aligoté with a high estimate of $500 that made $2,000, but I was struck by the DRC and Rousseau that did not reach their high estimate, when past auctions have seen most everything soar immediately. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Then there was this: Mixed Red Burgundy | Hart Davis Hart Auction Co.

But on the whole I generally agree with your sentiments (I missed a good chunk of the auction however).

I’m as big a fan of old Pousse as you’ll find, but good lord.

I remember fondly the 64s at discount pricing. Amazing wines.

There was a large consignment that was mostly DRC and Rousseau and it realized 93% of the high estimate. So not too soft.

I saw similar things before. I remember a lot at an Auction two years ago for 2 mags of a certain vintage of a certain wine. No mags were ever sold by any distributor or retailer, just a few mags left the winery direct to some special friends of the winery, according to my information. I really wanted these mags, and my highest bid limit was 150% above the high estimate (which was around 5x the release price of a single bottle). In the end, I didn’t get the lot. The price was roughly 350% above the high end or around 10-12x the release price of a single bottle.

Agree … [cheers.gif]

High-end red Mgm (and/or Double Mgm ) bottling in Burgundy are quite rare - one of the reasons when I encounter them, I try to get hold of them so give face to my Chinese friends.

**** I really wanted these mags, and my highest bid limit was 150% above the high estimate (which was around 4x the release price of a single bottle). In the end, I didn’t get the lot. The price was roughly 350% above the high end or around 10x the release price of a single bottle.****

I know there are reasons for this but I still shake my head when readily-available bottles from recent vintages go above retail at auction.

my friend sold that aligote ha

This was the HDH press release. As you can see the final tally was more than the high estimate, but I am sure that figure includes VIG. Still not a bad result.

Hart Davis Hart Wine Co., the #1 wine auction house in the U.S., continued its auction season over the weekend with an exciting April Auction of Finest & Rarest Wines Including A Celebration of Burgundy. The two-day sale brought in $9.1 million against a pre-sale estimate of $5.2-7.8 million. Bidders from five continents participated and 89% of lots sold above the high end of the estimates. All of the 2,469 lots sold, and many at record prices.

Burgundy aficionados competed for selections from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Dujac, Comte Liger-Belair, J.F. Mugnier, Armand Rousseau, and more. Examples included a 12 bottle 1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Assortment which sold for $89,625 (lot 810, est. $50,000-75,000); 6 bottles of 2010 Musigny, Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier which brought in $21,510 (lot 345, est. $10,000-15,000); and a 3-liter jeroboam of 2011 La Romanée, Comte Liger-Belair which garnered $20,315 (lot 566, est. $10,000-15,000).

Bordeaux continued to see strong hammer prices. Top lots included a double-magnum of 1990 Château Pétrus which brought in $26,290 (lot 1427, est. $13,000-19,000); 6 magnums of 1990 Château Montrose which garnered $13,145 (lot 1705, est. $5,000-7,500); and a 6-liter imperial of 2005 Château Latour which sold for $10,755 (lot 1667, est. $4,800-7,500).

Additional highlights included a full case of 1985 Côte Rôtie, La Turque, Guigal which garnered $22,705 (lot 1772, est. $12,000-18,000); 4 bottles of 2012 Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc which sold for $22,705 (lot 1695, est. $10,000-15,000); and 2 magnums of 1989 Barolo Riserva, Falletto, Bruno Giacosa which brought in $8,963 (lot 1960, est. $4,500-6,500).

Paul Hart, CEO, commented: “We had a near-constant stream of live bids rolling in throughout the entire sale. Buyers around the globe proved that they are still willing to pay remarkable prices for the world’s top wines.”

Hart Davis Hart’s next sale will take place May 21st and 22nd and will span the gamut of European and New World wines.

What are the reasons for this?

$5.7K per bottle for SE Sauvignon Blanc? Is this wine better and/or rarer than Coche CC? DRC Montrachet? [scratch.gif]

Provenance, laziness.

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You are not buying wine to drink, you are buying wine to stick in the front of your wine cellar to say " oh yeah, I have a couple of bottles of that"

SE could produce a limited production of rocks taken from the vineyard, and auction them off for 3 grand apiece.

I think the better word is convenience. I rarely buy at auction, but when buying wine at that pricing, the marginal value of finding bottles that might be 10% lower at some random retailer instead of being able to buy what you like on a consolidated basis is negligible.
I don’t think provenance is an issue for current vintages.

Starting with the assumption that all the prices are ridiculous (at least to those of us of a certain age), I still have a feeling there is a shift occurring in the ‘wines of the moment’. I’ll bet if you did an analysis based purely on price achieved versus estimate Hudelot-Noellat might well come out on top. The Rousseau situation seemed particularly strange to me. People seemed willing to bid up the Clos St. Jacques more than than the two Chambertins.

I have done a bunch of this analysis on Burgundy and, by and large, your intuition is right (value producers getting bid up; flattening of the classification curve)

John Gilman gave the 2012 an 88. that’s $64 per point. LOL

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Not too shocked, people’s upper limit of what they will spend on a bottle keeps going up. There’s a lot more people who were willing to spend high hundreds now ok with low 1000s, fewer people who were already at the 1000 level jumping to 3k. I mean dinner at nice sushi or tasting menu place in NYc is approaching 1k with tax and tip and corkage, why not spend the same on the wine?

so did mine. Hahah