Would love to hear your stories about your best auction finds or deals you’ve encountered!
I have nothing to share myself unfortunately as I’ve just started looking into buying wines at auction, but I’m sure there are many people on WB with some great stories!
Wish it was me but just saw someone grabbed a case of Xavier Gerard Mollard for $48 per bottle today! Damn wish I had looked through that auction beforehand.
Which auction was that?
In around 18989 or 1990, I went with a buddy to a liquidation auction for an auto repair garage somewhere between The Cannery and Ghiradelli Square in San Francisco.
He was looking for vintage car parts.
Turns out this garage went down below ground for several levels! That alone was fascinating.
I was sitting there pretending to be interested in the cam shat from an ancient MG or a vintage Jaguar doohickie, when, suddenly, the auctioneer said, “And here I have several cases of wine.”
Holy Crap!
He opened one box and it was full of 1969-1972 German Reislings.
The next box had Bordeaux and Sauterne wines from the early 1950s.
Another had early 1970s Napa…Pinot noirs! (Mondavi and Caymus, included!)
I started to sweat, looking around for signs of recognition from the other attendees…and zilch! Nobody (I mean nobody) there was into wine.
Then, the auctioneer blew it for himself and said, “These all look pretty old.”
He asked for an opening bid and I wanted to slow play it.
Nothing, silence for five seconds. Then, he said, “How about 80 bucks for all four cases?”
I raised my hand like, maybe I’ll make salad dressing.
BAM!
My wife and I still have 3 or 5 of the bottles in the cellar. Every one of the wines has been a winner.
If anybody ever wants to share out last 1973 Caymus Pinot, 1975 Mondavi pinot, a 1972 Reisling, of a 1953 white Bordeaux (whose twin was great,) we will open it for you.
All for less than 2 dollars a bottle.
(This is my auction flex,I still get a jolt of electricity just thinking about that moment of realization when the items appeared.)
This is an extremely good story. A Berserker dream come to life.
Geez, NOW you tell me. I would have hit that 1953 Bordeaux blanc with you last year. It’s a birthyear wine.
Hdh
Utterly saliva dripping out of my mouth onto my desk as I read this. Well done! Wow!
There have been some nice deals yesterday and today.
Unfortunately I’m on a self-imposed buying freeze.
Irresponsible pricing.
It’s yours!
We can make you a better dinner than last time.
My most surprising one was putting a speculatively low absentee bid in for 23 bottles of 1998 Cantina del Pino ‘Ovello’ Barbaresco. IIRC the bid was £190, so I had no expectation of getting the lot. IIRC it was hammered at £100, which with auction fees added came in at just under £5 a bottle.
That’s an interesting comment…but I think you’re definitely right. Then again I’ve found some fantastic geeky wines like this at auction simply because nobody is looking for them (last month got some mags of st Prefert clairette at half of retail) so I’m not complaining. Just not sure why anyone would send that sort of wine to auction.
someone died
I won a mixed lot of a bottle each of 1996 Winston Churchill and 1996 Salon for CAD$400 in 2008. That’s about as good as I’ve had.
Certainly possible. But as to Ian’s point why wouldn’t the auction house set the minimum somewhere at least in the same time zone as retail? Whenever bought it to pick up a deal probably would have paid $70 if that was the cost of entry (frankly I probably would have if I’d seen it!).
Auctions took time to find buyers, so in the early days, once they were allowed in New York in 1994, there were plenty of bargains.
A bottle of Cheval Blanc 1928 was being offered at the end of an auction to an almost an empty room, and no telephone bidders. The auctioneer just wanted to get rid of it, so I bought it for $125 plus vig. A few years later, I opened it for my birthday and it was wonderful.
A couple of bottles of Noval Nacional 1934 were offered at the first Zachys internet auction. I put in a lowball bid and got them. One I opened at a Port weekend, and again it was stunning.
Those are the ones I remember, but I am sure there were others which would now look like a steal.
I’m newer to the auction world so I have no rock-bottom pricing stories. But I’ve bought a lot of fun random stuff. One of my favorites was a few years ago I bought 16 half-btls of ‘94 d’Angerville Ducs for $32/btl. Great wine? No. Satisfying, tasty, mature Volnay for a weeknight. Absolutely. And everyone finds them interesting. I think I have 5 or 6 left.
Come up a day early the next time you’re in Seattle and I’ll find some steak or something to throw on the grill. Bring one of those 1973 Caymus PNs with you! I’ve only had one birth year wine (73 Phelps, which was a stunner) and I’ll make it worth your while 
Overall the pricing seemed soft when I was following along. Unfortunately a few of the lots that I were looking at went live when I wasn’t able to pay close enough attention. The five magnums of monte bello 1x 2013 and 2x 2016/2017 for $1.6K sold at around 5am my time so I wasn’t even awake. Otherwise I don’t know if I would have passed on it. Did pick up a mixed 11 pack of 2013/2016 Produttori for a pretty reasonable price though.
Wish I knew burgundy better, a lot of those lots were falling in the low end of their expected range.