Every year I donate a large format bottle to a charity that provides health care for undocumented workers. None of the people attending are wine people and I think most of he time the buyer gets a bargain.
This year because of the current situation they are desperate and I am thinking of a fairly serious bottle but
do not want it to go for half it’s value. Any ideas?
Auction it here and donate the $$?
Maybe a cheaper bottle, but take the difference and see if a local restaurant will partner with you and make it a package/special pairing meal?
Agree with Kyle. Sell it and donate the proceeds, and then just donate a normal bottle. Or donate three bottles that you think will pull good prices instead of one that will be over everyone’s head.
Folks have to first understand the value and most people wouldn’t understand why a bottle of wine would cost so much. Sell it here.
For DRCs and First Growths with provenance, we offer the wine at the auction with an estimate from Zacky’s. If no one makes a higher bid we send the wine to Zacky’s. So far the Zacky’s auction price has exceeded their estimate. The donor receives the satisfaction of seeing his or her wine recognized at the auction and the church receives a fair price. Zacky’s has been very easy to work with on these wines. I deliver the wine to LA and they take care of shipping it to NY.
Agreed. And then if you really want, donate a bottle of Champagne, people tend to bid on celebratory-type wines in my experience at these types of auctions.
Great advice here. I’ve been wondering about this situation as well.
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If bidder needs to be physically present, find a board member willing to place the bid, and then alert friends/geeks who might be interested, and put them in touch with board member. With a board member (and you) vouching for bid, should be no issue waiting for check. Should at least get market value (and maybe more, with tax deduction for excess for buyer??? consult your tax lawyer or CPA)
I’d also add not the time for “bottle I think is great.” Time for bottle with high WA/WS scores. As known winegeek I am approached for donations few times a year. I usually donate a dinner set- a white, a red, and either a Champagne or a dessert wine. Worst was when auction director said "my husband and I are wine connoisseurs, and RP rated this wine as DOA/75 " on a wine that I and multiple bdx fans had loved months before. I substituted a bottle of Kistler PN (gift), lot sold for a fortune.
We have done this dozens of times. I can’t think of one time where the bid equaled the value of the bottle(s). Charity auctions rarely bring much value for wine. Experiences seems to be more highly valued.
Broadly speaking- now that auctions are a standard part of an ever growing number of charity events and usually have way too many offerings relative to the number of attendees, I am finding it is very rare that in any one auction items will sell for anywhere near their retail value. Gift certificates tend to do better than specific items, but even then they rarely sell for more than face value (and yet I remember a time when selling for over face was common.) The only safe bet is something very unique that is of wide appeal and easily enjoyed without excessive restrictions or additional effort (i.e. donating a week at a condo somewhere is tough if the buyer has restricted times of use and has to buy their own plane tickets etc.)
Locally, people know I am a “wine guy” and that is what I am usually asked to donate. For events that are not going to have “wine people”, my go-to is a 3L of Veuve Clicquot. Large format Silver Oak is another good choice. A champagne most people know and respect/like, and in a large format not commonly seen. Or I have done baskets with magnums of champagne and chocolates. Packages like that tend to do very well, at least around here.
I love the above ideas!
If you end up selling the wine on site, make a “shelf talker!”
When we donate wine I write up a 1/3 to 1 page (larger font) “talker” describing the wine, quoting various reviews, and mentioning high ratings. It generates enthusiasm and I think generates higher final prices.
One year, we donated 2 bottles of the same wine and the winner got one bottle to keep and the other to pour for the other members of his/her table, to great acclaim and hearty “huzzahs!”
I also choose vintages that may relate to the timing of the event (graduations, etc.) or decade intervals of the year of the auction. 30th, 40th, etc vintage dates do well. Also timing to 21 years prior to the auction date sells well.
Having the bottle there, with us also bidding here, was my favorite idea.
Here are a couple of proven methods to combine an experience and bottles for better result$. It helps to have to be a few wine fans present, but even those with modest interests can step up. You can adjust the wines to the bidding for the first suggestion.
For special causes, I offer to cook at the winning bidder’s home and supply appropriate wines for a tasting party of 6-8 folks. Lamb chops and wild mushroom risotto for the entree has been rather successful. Oh yeah, I make it clear I do not do the cleanup; I have never had an issue. I have doubled my donation for this type of lot as well with the right bidding and can easily raise four figures for two of my evenings and great tasting, but not necessarily expensive bottles–sometimes with wines my palate no longer prefers.
Another successful idea around any wine region is to solicit bottles from a winery and/or have a winery tour for four as part of a package.
I agree that auctioning it here or with Zachy’s/Winebid and donating the money would be the best way to go.
I agree with Tom Reddick and Anton. If you can, find a bottle with brand name appeal to the audience in question. Silver Oak, Dom, Veuve, Cakebread, Opus, etc.
But you’re probably looking to donate from your cellar and not go buy something like that, so see if you have something you can sell with a shelf talker. One time, I put together two WS WOTY bottles as an auction lot, printed out things from the WS site showing that, and they got a pretty good price.
Certainly, selling here and donating the money is the most sure way to get FMV, but I understand that the auction is part of the event, more than just writing them a check. The auction is part of the reason people buy tickets, attend and donate further. So you understandably want to participate in that rather than just auctioning the bottle elsewhere and handing over the proceeds.
If you don’t have anything that is going to realize good value from the audience and don’t want to buy something for that purpose, I would suggest that you put your good bottle up for auction (augmented by any shelf talker you can create for it - “97 points from Robert Parker” or whatever, no matter how distasteful that would be to you in other circumstances), and find another buyer who will value it properly (maybe someone from here, or someone from one of your wine groups), and have someone bid up to that amount as a proxy. For example, Chris Seiber is willing to pay the $300 the bottle is worth and we have a handshake deal before the event, you let people bid on it during the auction, but as you get close to the end, you put the name of your spouse, a friend at the event, whoever at $300, that person buys the bottle, Chris pays you back, etc.
That way, you’ve supported the event and the auction, the charity gets $300 instead of the $180 it was otherwise going to get, and everyone wins (except the guy hoping to steal the bottle for $180). It’s definitely more effort, though.
There are some charity auctions where the bids on wine will exceed FMV. Those charity auctions are in the minority, and typically have spent some years building up their reputation and
clientele to support strong action on auctioning wines.
But for the typical charity auction, there’s a wide variety of items/experiences offered. The average guest at the charity event is not likely to be a wine geek, much less someone who thinks
spending more than $X on a bottle of wine makes any sense. For those types of charity auctions, you’re better offer sending the bottle to a regular auction and donating the proceeds. Or
just donating something else.
It makes sense to ask the charity for a list of results from the last few auctions, and you’ll be able to quickly tell if it’s the kind of event where auctioned wine will do well.
Bruce
This is a hard one for me because I come at it from a different direction—from the motivation to donate the bottle. This is absolutely only my personal feeling about when I do such a thing, but I don’t worry about what it will end up fetching. I decide whether it’s a bottle I’m happy or proud to donate to the cause. Such happened a couple of years ago when I chose to donate a 1986 Lafite to the FallTacular Silent Auction. As a case in point, even in that milieu, with lots and lots of informed buyers, it went for very much less than half market. Much less. The winner knew that and thanked me. And I was happy—because the person who more or less gave the bottle to me, that’s what he would have wanted…that it help raise money, of whatever amount, for a good cause and that the purchaser was appreciative of what they’d gotten. Those are the same things I wanted. So for me, everyone was a winner that day.
A slightly different slant and idea Mark—and one I did for a charity I was on the board of for a number of years. Include it—or choose other bottles—as a different auction item. I batched good food and great wine together to offer up a dinner party for 8 every year. This one was always appreciated by the winner and I had a blast doing it.
Just my 1.5 cents (or whatever our Canadian peso converts to these days).
Mike
Beautiful sentiments, as always, from Mike.
I’ve donated a wine tasting for 12 as an auction item. I provide the wines, we arrange to have it at the bidder’s house, I come arrange it and pour for everyone. But again, you’re likely to receive far less than the value of the wines, unless you’re pouring all $10 wines or something, or unless the bidder is someone who knows you and values what you’re going to do.
Here’s yet another idea: the spread between the FMV and the amount you’re likely to fetch grows as the price of the bottle goes up. So instead of providing a $400 magnum which may only fetch $200 in the auction, donate several less expensive magnums of Bordeaux. A magnum of some 91 point 2008 Bordeaux which is worth $100 might get $100, or more (since the audience there isn’t likely to be able to discern the difference between that and the $400 bottle). Do several different bottles separately. You might not end up leaving as much, or any, value on the table.
If I solicit wine for a charity auction from fellow vintners I bid the wine up to 80% of FMV. Sometimes I end up with the wine. I usually donate it the next year. If a wine goes for 80% of the FMV the winning bidder is happy with a good buy and the vintner does not feel his or her wine was “given away.”