How about all the direct from Chateau offerings that Acker routinely offers. I’d say pretty unique.
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I’ve had some really good 2003s recently. It’s not my vintage style (at all) — but, the very top wines from the vintage are in good form, IMO. And, I had a bottle of 2002 Pichon Baron last night that was the best it had ever been and showing no sign of decline.
Why next week? All my wines went live this week…
The auction is on Thursday and Friday. We need the lots to close before we can analyze the data.
I got wine-searcher notifications about magnums of the 2008 Cristal the weekend before 3/21/22. That week on wine-searcher the only retail sales I saw showed bottles in NY, FL, & CA priced between $999 - $1299. That was the first time I saw releases of the 2008 Cristal in Magnums. I understand that my notes and my timing may be “off”, but those were the advertised prices as soon as they showed up on wine-searcher. If you bought from Grapes the Wine Co. that week it could be had for as low as $850…but that required a case purchase. You have some serious inside access that a lot of people not ITB do not have…I suspect you saw or had access to it for a much lower price because of your connections. Multiple retailers were charging $1000 or more during the week of 3/21/22; that is a fact not an opinion. Please do not misunderstand my disagreement with your opinion as disrespect. I have great respect for you, your palate, and your work.
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My lots were just in the weekly auction last week.
As far as the state of the market, we actually did pretty well - hammer was 14.1% above low estimates. Almost nothing hammered at the min bid. Last year we hammered at 9.4% above low estimates. However, as I mentioned previously, the low estimates were about 25% lower than I saw last year, so I think we’re still down ~20% from last year. But that’s at least 10% better than I feared. And overall the number of passes was fairly stable - 16% of lots compared to 13% last year.
Ah, got it.
I was looking at the live sale for La Paulee.
W-S: Napa Wine Auction Prices Plummet
https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2024/02/napa-wine-auction-prices-plummet
A few funny stories at the end of the article as well.
This is no reflection of the wine market. This doesn’t shock me in the least either.
Of the whole? No. Of this part of the market? Yes.
Where exactly do these wines fit in the wine market?
These are California wines that are exclusively for the trade that have an incredibly inverted secondary market value. With the lone exception being Sun Spot from Shafer, all of these wines mean nothing to the average collector. If you went to sell any or most of these, you would be lucky to get back 25 cents on the dollar. These wines do not represent an investment at all.
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So people paying inflated values for say a house in '08 that they couldn’t afford weren’t part of the housing market?
Anytime wine is being bought or sold makes it part of the “wine market”.
Sort of, but wholesale is very different from retail. This indicates hesitation on the wholesale side, which may or may not actually be warranted and may or may not directly apply to the retail market. There’s lots of fear in the marketplace about an economic downturn and retailers don’t want to be stuck with wine in 6 months they can’t sell. So it makes sense they would be less bullish on these wines.
And, as the author stated, perhaps holding out for '23. That is a sentiment I’ve seen on here many times when talking about some of the higher-end Napa offerings.
Yes, but those people were buying real houses.
I’m not trying to imply that these are fake wines either, my point is that these are a tiny subset of a wine that is somehow made out to be the “better cuvee”, but that does not translate into what is quite often a 3-5X higher market price. I mean, who’s spending $800 (and that’s what the retail is paying, not what the client is paying) for Alpha Omega?? That’s more than other actual cult wines like Colgin or Eisele.
I think entirely too much is made about this auction, and does not correlate to the secondary wine market.
I will say this, wine retail has taken a pretty bad hit in the last year or so. I think if there is anything to take away from this, it’s that retail is down.
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Makes the record-setting BerserkerDay 15 even more impactful - I was quite fearful we’d not be up from prior years given the state of the market (heck, there are half a dozen various threads on how bad the market is, just here on WB)
Love this story.
Anyway. Douglas Wood of Woodwinters Wine & Whiskies in Stirling, Scotland was in full Highland dress, including kilt. A friend came up and offered to take his photo. “Hold up your paddle,” the photographer said. He did. The auctioneer saw it and registered it as a $7000 bid. Wood was hoping to be outbid, but nope: he will walk away with 60 bottles of William Harrison Rutherford Red Table Wine 2022. (Like most PNV wines, the wine has not been bottled yet and will not be in Scotland until next year.)
“I just hope it’s red because I fucking hate Napa white wine,” Wood said. “It reduces my ability for the ones I really want.”
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Keep in mind, Berserker Day is full of great deals AND great wine.
The stores that I know are doing well and growing are offering a more interesting subset of wines, and much higher quality wines that often beat their price point. And generally at a higher price point too. I see too many retailers competing in the same space. Selling a 91-point NZ Sauvignon Blanc for $14.99. Everyone has those! Be different. I think that is what is hurting a lot of retailers. Their conventional marketing is too much of the same old, same old.
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Word on the street in NYC’s backyard is that retail is way down…
Many factors at play here, I believe…