Yes
Convenience of purchases.
I’d much rather buy a full case or cases that have any age on them from an auction house than a retailer.
It all depends on what one is buying.
Most CA Cabs are in the toilet right now. Eagle 2016 is holding reasonably well, but there is so much of it that keeps coming to auction that I wonder if it will not start to sink a bit.
High end burgundy is feeling some pressure. I actually turned down an offer of several bottles of 2016 Rouget Parantoux at $960 per because I do not think I would get a decent flip out of it- a year ago it would have been unthinkable to pass on an offer for that wine, but then again it would been offered at a much lower price too). Burgundy is a dangerous game right now with prices at insane levels and now the warning bell from Burghound on brett as the potential premox for red burgundies. The demand is there, but the audience at the top levels is very small making that demand very unstable and unevenly distributed.
Bordeaux is on fire- it got relatively cheap compared to CA and Burgundy and now with such a succession of great vintages, there is strong interest all across the board.
Germany is getting more attention in the auction market now as well, and Schaefer took a 20% jump on the first 2018 Kabinett he released. So things are moving upward in that world- driven heavily by growing interest in Asia in the traditional Pradikats from top producers. Both online and live auctions have a lot more German offerings than in the past overall.
Italy is very strong as well. Champagne doing good, but there is strong resistance to attempts at big price increases for 08s and library selections.
As a couple of people pointed out, the number and presence of online auctions has really soared. But it still cannot keep up fully with demand. And I am seeing demand from all fronts- not any particular country on an overall basis. I do think there are some bubbles out there- high end Burgundy in particular- but generally speaking I think the broader market is seeing a sustainable boost in demand. It will slow eventually, but I do not see prices for most things retreating significantly.
Final note- and this is not directed at anyone who has posted on this thread- but I have been having a lot of trouble lately with people who- to give a sort of generic example- want to buy Roumier for 20% less than auction, but ask near full winesearcher prices in selling their crappy CA Cabs. So take doomsday predictions with a grain of salt- a lot of times they are coming from people who are too wrapped up in finding themselves “bargains” versus bothering to consider the true state of the markets.
On the lower end (i.e., people who are not buying case quantities of Lafite), I think BDX is a bit soft. My unsubstantiated, unscientific theory based on past campaigns, is that people in this category are focused on buying the new hot vintage and saving their dry powder for that rather than buying recent vintage BDX. Picked up 2012 Tertre Rote at $900/case on Sunday, which I was shocked to win. Saw 2005 Clos St. Martin go for $850/case. 2010 La Conseillante go for $115/btl. 2010 Troplong go for $100/btl. (all pre-premium/pre-tax). You add the premium and the tax at 32% and things get a little more pricey, but if I were a seller, I would be extremely disappointed.
Point me to any porcelain with the older, non-cult stuff.
No, the adjustments are coming on the buyers’ side, as noted already.
Sellers are seriously considering venues other than the US for significant collections, though. It’s even tougher choosing a venue for spirits, given taxes in Hong Kong. Selling in London has it’s tax issues as well, complicated by Brexit uncertainty.
Always deals to be had, lest the WineHunter has turned into the LabelHunter. ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
I think the “softness” of the Bordeaux resale market is real, especially as reports start surfacing that 82’ are getting to be past prime. 89, 90 are robust, but there are relative deals to be had elsewhere. It’s just that 2015/16 prices are so inflated that old stocks seem a deal by comparison.
In Burgundy there seem to be fairly few old wines being sold at auction for much less than the retail price of current vintages.
With sales tax added now, and shipping, and ever escalating premiums, the deals are rare.
Just bought 6x2010 Jadot Corton Pougets 1.5L for $1000 all in ($850 hammer), which is a great deal, IMHO but the only deal I got on the most recent Zachys.
Just got 2 X 2009 Taupenot-Merme Chambolle Musigny 1er cru Combe d’Orveau at Zachy’s for $172 including the vig. That probbably doesn’t mean much to most people but it looks like a deal to me because a) I haven’t been in this game long and b) I do a lot of research. My dad, who was an obsessive collector of clocks and watches, says, “There’s no substitute for information. Except money.”
Why would you expect mature burgundy to cost less than the same wine from a current vintage (assuming comparable quality reputation)? That type of arbitrage always seems short-lived, even during steep price run-ups of new releases.
Peter
I’m not talking top year mature Burgundy (90,93,96,99,02,05,09,10, etc), I’m talking , 2004, 2007 and 2011 and 2013, years that inspire a collective “meh”. I would expect the good wines of those vintages to sell for a lot less than equivalent wines from 2012, 2015 and 2016, and the arbitrage seems nearly nonexistent.
Hence my use of the term “most”. 
The good old days wines are as expensive as ever. Even Dunn has finally found some traction and is selling decently well.
I actually have been getting requests for 70s and 80s Cabs lately. Not many- but historically that is not something people asked for.
Prices for older wines from good vintages seem to be strong. This is where auctions have far better and more wines than most retailers.
SQN is softening. Ask Yaacov. Curious to see how Acker does with their auction on wednesday
The NY tax is not 10%
From my invoice from Sunday’s auction - NY tax is 6.625% - add in the 24% buyers premium and the total is 30.625% on top of hammer price.
Makes finding the wines with a sufficient risk premium discount to retail more challenging.
There are occasional values but they seem few and far between these days (and definitely not in Burgundy).
For example someone did a huge Copain sell off on winebid recently with cases of good vintages and vineyards so those were priced very well.
But these days it’s mostly a matter of only bidding if there’s something I really want as opposed to seeing great values.
Maybe I have just been lucky, but the above statement doesn’t reflect my experience. I prefer to buy older vintages through reputable auction houses rather than retail.
6.625% is not NY sales tax, it is NJ sales tax which I assume is where your wines are shipped. Additionally, the sales tax is calculated based on the hammer price plus the buyer’s premium. So, your total is not 30.625% on top of hammer, but 32.215%.
NYC sales tax is 8.875% (not quite 10%, but close) for an effective add-on of 35.005% assuming the buyer’s premium is 24%.
The last Zachys internet auction was far from a disaster. Burgundy was 827 lots out of 1487 (55.5% in total). Total dollars was most likely well over 60%. The Burgundy reserves were very aggressive (low estimate) until Friday when the reserves on non selling wines were reduced by an increment. I already had bids in, but added another lot that had a reduced reserve (ended up losing). I won one lot in total and not a great price. 779 Burgundy lots sold out of 827 even with aggressive reserves. Most of what did not sell were recent vintages or next tier down’s second/third vineyards. Recently royalty has been holding its own, but it is the under card that has seen its prices moving up. The last six months of 2018 you could still find deals on these wines and plenty of older stuff from the 90’s and before. Now 2005 is old. Nothing is falling between the cracks.
I stand corrected - your math is accurate