Averaging about 2.5 lots per minute.
With those levels on the Burlotto, is it fair to say the top is in? The “Everything Bubble” is beyond silly and I suspect some folks are going to get detonated, though those buying at these levels probably have no ceiling and are entirely price agnostic. I do, however, have a case of the 2006 Monvigliero and of the 2015 I would gladly sell for $300/bottle. Who the fk is buying this stuff?
I’m waiting for someone to put up something on commerce corner. “For Sale: any wine I own that sold at hdh this weekend. Price: hammer price without commission”.
I do think the market is seeing an inflection point where Burgundy has moonshot and is unaffordable for the masses and other regions of the world are ripe for people to chase and drive up: i.e. Piedmont, more Rhone (is CDP the next to double/triple in a few years?), Germany. I’m just surprised the death of the restaurant industry hasn’t hit clearing levels as much as one would have expected.
What does the auctioneer mean when he says a bid is from the “commission” bidder?
Book bidder/online pre-bidder
thanks
The estimates I saw were well in line with how the wines were trading. The particular wines I was most interested in are niche and thinly traded (not sure I’ve ever seen them at auction) and went for crazy amounts. Except for the first few cases of 2007 Ca’Mia, Brovia really busted out too (maybe folks were still sleepy?).
Again, I bid 20-25% over high estimate and wasn’t even close and that was on non Burlotto Monviliero lots. I’ve got my eye on a few things tomorrow that are also thinly traded (if at all) so we’ll see. If you think about it, if a couple of folks had to cancel their $250K European vacation, might as well get their buyer to fill the cellar “whatever it takes”.
I think that the ranges were honest and this auction has so far been WTF.
The Brovia lots were surprising. Seemed like a ton of strength across the board on anything Brovia. That was one of the producers I don’t own and was hoping to get some of in this auction but I didn’t come close.
Produttori '08 Rabaja at $160/btl was another surprise. I think Produttori, Rabaja especially absolutely is one of the better wines in the world and deserves to be priced as such, but I’ve never seen recent vintage Produttori go for such a price.
I’ve hit my bid on a few things after all, in the past hour or two - maybe all the crazy bidders have moved on by this point in the auction haha. But what I did buy, was mostly because I really wanted something with perfect provenance and less so a good price. No free lunch.
2013 Vietti Ravera just went for $440 a bottle… $2200 + auction vig… for a 6 pack.
This is all nothing new—online auctions have been running hot with people at home with nothing to do. But this much interest in Italian wines is a bit surprising. Made more sense when things went above retail for the burg auction a couple months back but some of these are a bit more confusing.
I haven’t noticed other posts, which is surprising. I’ve been following this out of morbid curiosity off and on in a busy day. I hoped to do some bottom-feeding, lots 'o luck with that!
Based on skimming through live bids, it looks like most lots are going for ~25 - 50% over high estimates. Provenance I guess is a big factor, along with boredom, cabin fever and lots of money with nowhere to go. It’s not like you can go to Italy with an American passport.
I had my eye on an obscure lot, Appellation not beginning with a ‘B’. Estimate $420 - 650. I was willing to go to $600, went for $850.
I’ve got bids in on a few other hopefully inexpensive, obscure lots tomorrow. But I’m not very hopeful.
Anybody else, watching / bidding / buying?
Dan Kravitz
Posted on a separate thread, don’t know how to merge, but will join my post to this one:
Based on skimming through live bids, it looks like most lots are going for ~25 - 50% over high estimates. Provenance I guess is a big factor, along with boredom, cabin fever and lots of money with nowhere to go. It’s not like you can go to Italy with an American passport.
I had my eye on an obscure lot, Appellation not beginning with a ‘B’. Estimate $420 - 650. I was willing to go to $600, went for $850.
I’ve got bids in on a few other hopefully inexpensive, obscure lots tomorrow. But I’m not very hopeful.
Anybody else, watching / bidding / buying?
Dan Kravitz
Yeah those ferrando lots went high too!
I pre-bid on some produttori 08 Asili but was no where close. I was able to keep my thumb from “accidentally” hitting the bid button as I watched.
Yep, also following. I have won a few but am pretty amazed at what is happening here. Watching carefully I’m seeing a few accounts bidding aggressively on many listings. A few folks (could be ITB folks) are building a cellar out of this.
This is a real barometer reading suggesting that Piedmont (and perhaps other regions) have 1er/Grand Cru-quality production at a fraction of the $ of what is being pumped out of Burgundy. Burgundy is not worth the $ anymore IMO. Not even close for the top producers. I’m very long Brovia and back-vintage Produttori in my cellar, and have been stashing Burlotto for 9+ years before they got hyped. I would put Cavallotto on the list as well (hopefully so the dirtbags out there can bid it up:). Hopefully the new “hip” thing takes some pressure off of Burgundy and thus begins the great rotation.
Don’t let the over high estimate fool you - the all-in prices of HDH auctions tend to fall in the range of other houses. Sotheby’s and Zachys are more likely to be the high. My view on this auction is there hasn’t been a lot of attention given to Italian wine at high profile auction in a while so there’s probably some unlocked demand coming to play.
The art world has gone through a lot of this already. Lots of money chasing wine and, as quantity at high quality goes up in response to the demand, it leads to greater price stratification to help signal the very best from the good.
I think it was expected that things like Stella, Burlotto etc. went crazy sooner or later. There was too much of a gap between the A-tier and the rest in both Piedmont and Tuscany (really Monfortino and Soldera Riserva in a class of their own), and especially in the latter, there’s little continuation of the best producers and very few to fill their shoes. People are hoarding those last vintages, and a new tier of producers is establishing themselves.