Our local market has taken off like an Elon Musk rocket in the last 12 months, with Burgundy the star performer. Prices for local wines have also jumped markedly in last six months.
Hammer price yesterday for 05 Rousseau Chambertin was $5500 plus 15% BP.
For fun I went through my bidding history and I noted that in 2008 was the losing bidder on an 02 Rousseau Chambertin at $300/ bottle.
It’s becoming pretty tempting to liquidate a few bottles!
summer of 2021 definitely took a big jump for some reason for blue chip burg
When the 2002 Rousseau came out, I could as much as I wanted of the top 3, Beze, Chambertin and CSJ, but only if I bought the same amount of another Grand Cru. Cost for the Beze, and $125 and £40 for the Ruchotte.
Those are trading wines, not drinking wines.
Selling a part of a large wine collection is a pretty good way to hedge against a market downturn due to (China policy intervention, inflation, tech bubble, insert reason here) in the current environment. I struggle with a few wines in my collection that I only have 1-2 bottles of, but for anyone that has 6/12 bottle cases of aged GC burg, isn’t worth more than $20m and liquid (my arbitrary view of where one could rationally drink wines worth more than $500 on a weekly basis), and views a wines cost at its current value rather than what they paid, hard to resist.
Even for German wines. I auctioned off a few JJ Prum bottles. Sold two 2018 GH Kabi for $54 each and two 2016 GH Spat for $86 each. Insane.
Hey Kent, same issue here in NZ.
Recently like two weeks ago, a bottle of 1996 Penfolds Bin 389 sold at auction for NZ$380 before buyers 17.5% commission!
Bin 389 now nearly $400 a bottle, this is absolute f**king madness
Brodie
That is nuts. Bought a bit of 2006 at auction late last year for $80 all in, obviously not as good as 96, but not too shabby. Also bought a a fair bit of 94, 96 and 98 from a private cellar for $75 five years ago, and that was based on auction pricing.
I have been a buyer of Wynns John Riddocha db Cab Sauv for a number of years and the price was very static for a number of years. Reckon price realisations have doubled in last twelve months.
Interesting synopsis, and based on your analysis I should be sticking to cask wine 
But agreed I have never been a seller, but I am hard pressed to say hand on my heart that the marginal utility I derive from a $1,000 bottle over a $200 justifies the opportunity to sell and replace with something less expensive.
Early-1990’s John Riddoch was long available here for $35 per bottle.
I’ve been tempted to sell a few based on what I’ve seen. Really trying to hold off, but it is hard to resist.
Might be a bubble in that no one is actually drinking what they are buying and selling. Kind of like real estate investors selling properties to one another.
This one I don’t get. A single bottle of 2010 Castillo Ygay hammered at K&L for $230, so $242 with premium. They sell it for $175 on the website. Why??
Bought by someone that doesn’t share the typical WB’s obsessive compulsive behavior of always searching for the best price?
It’s literally the same website. Search for the bottle on K&L and you would’ve seen the auction and retail listings about an inch apart on your screen.
I definitely think this is a part of it. And everyone playing is incentivized to keep the gravy train rolling full speed ahead.
Why do you think people are not drinking these wines? They are. You can read tasting notes on Cellartracker, look at Instagram and other sites.
Dyslexia leads to problems, only kidding. I didn’t know they were side by side.
Shhhh! People might uncover the conspiracy.
I’ve seen this tons of times on WineBid too. A quick search of Wine Searcher often finds certain bottles being sold at the initial price before any bids from retailers. Often more than one.
Similarly I’ve seen popular wines like LdH Reservas being sold for healthy premiums just months after they were available after they were readily available at retail. These are not hard to find wines.