Missing out my friend.
I’m really not. My cellar is packed to the gills with aged wine I bought on release and have cellared myself. I won’t be around long enough to drink recent releases of ageable wines and have no need to buy more ready-to-drink wines from any source. Basically I am just buying champagne to fill holes these days
Hey, I just followed the party. Was there wine actually being sold vs. consumed at those parties?
Purchased zero from any auction, though have consigned and sold 1 1/2 bottles that way.
I guess it depends what you’re buying, but @Andrew_K and @Brad_England are right. I have an astronomical hit rate on high end bottles because of provenance (except that 76 La Tache ) and at this point I’m willing to pay a significant premium to have a well-documented chain of custody.
Fair enough! I generally focus on recent releases at auction (2020 and younger), but as a relatively young collector it’s been educational for me as I don’t own many wines older than 2014, so it’s been good for purchasing some older one-off bottles to better understand the trajectory of my cellar and inform future buying.
I am ball-parking that about 25% of my purchases in 2024 came from auction. I’ve been going back to the well on 1980s Bordeaux, as I was literally down to bare threads in that category. My so-called hit rate has been pretty good when I use auctions like K&L or buy from preferred retailers that have access to cellars, where I have a higher level of trust on provenance. My WineBid track record this past year has been terrible to the point where I’ve stopped using that platform. I mostly stick to Bordeaux, which seems to be more durable than, say for example, Southern Rhones.
Have you found good prices at idealwine? I’ve found burgundy prices extremely uncompelling. Even winebid seems better.
even thatchers sells some recently released wines at or below idealwine prices!
Depends on the producer, and you have to have patience and commitment. You can set email alerts if there are specific wines and vintages you are looking to source, and I believe the Seller has some power over what the bottle is priced at, so sometimes you have to pass and wait for another listing before it’s price competitively. You also want to be the first person to bid because often you will win wines where you are the only bid. You want to be ok with loosing to a hungry collector that outbids you because that is a recipe for overbidding. I’ve purchased a decent number of Raveneau 1er Crus for $3-$350 range, Duavissat 1er Crus in the $110 - $130 range and Dauvissat Grand Crus in $250 - $300 range.
This is probably my biggest issue with auctions and I have been conditioned to buying winery direct as a California resident. I suspect as I continue to get older and drink down my wines I will circle back for wines I loved that I want to try again or add without cellaring them to a drinkable stage.
I would peg my cellar at 1% or less as auction bottles.
Looks l was looking at fixed price; the auctions look a bit better, 02 Rousseau chambsrtin is reasonably well priced atm if it goes for near that price.
Yeah, the fixed price stuff is typically more expensive. If you buy enough from them they will give you exclusive access to direct producer allocations at fixed prices that are VERY competitive, but they sell out in seconds.
I buy from auctions, usually from large collections, where the owner is known, has acquired the wines from great sources. If you look carefully at the catalogs you should be able to figure it out.
I do buy mostly retail but sourced from Europe, particularly older wines. Prior to the late 1980s, there were very few temperature controlled cellars or warehouses in the US to keep a collection. A large part of the country don’t have basements or cellars. So most of those people buying 1982 Bordeaux had nowhere to store them correctly. And I have seen some pretty awful cellars, even one where the owner boasted about his cooling. It happened to be a modified a/c unit, which cooled but also took away humidity, so the corks all dried up. So if you are buying those kinds of wines here, be they from auction or retail, it is a bit of a crapshoot.
I am not saying that you will get perfect wine if you bring it over from Europe. But your chances are a lot better, and frankly I only deal with merchants I have dealt with over the years, who have good sources and are knowledgeable and trustworthy.
One last thing about auction houses. Given that they charge humongous commissions, almost as much as retail markups, the service is generally lousy. Everything is fine up to the auction, but wrestling the wines out of the buggers takes patience and after a while some bloody mindedness.
50/50. If I could find steals on BDX/Champagne it would probably be closer to 100% auction.
Conversely mine have dropped away entirely.
Auctions were a great way to fast track some mature wines into my collection, and at times also broaden my horizons. Once my retail purchases got some age on them, there was less of a pressing need for buying instant maturity at auction. In addition though, there was a point when bidding was getting beyond what retail was asking, or at least I felt I was better off selectively buying at retail, rather than limiting myself to what was put up for auction.
I occasionally still look, but it’s been a number of years since I’ve bid, let alone won any lots.
The share of my purchases via auction runs 10-15%, almost exclusively from K&L Auctions. Mostly white and red Burgundy, I find the quality of the bottles to be excellent. My perception is that K&L sources a lot of consignments from Bay Area and LA collectors with good temperature control. I always pick up at the store to save on shipping, and find that the wines are usually available within 48 hours of purchase.
One negative from K&L is that quantities are typically 1-2 bottles per lot, unlike the big auction houses where you can find 6-12 bottles per lot. Prices are all over the map, some good deals but also some head scratching prices that are above retail.
My % of auction purchases has increased over the last few years up to about 20%. Mostly Winebid and Spectrum.
I’ve found I really like having the option to backfill. I can’t count the number of times I decided not to drink a bottle I wanted to because it was the last I had of that particular vintage. It’s nice to not worry about that now.
I’m guesstimating but approximately 10% of the 15+ year old bottles I purchase at auction perform poorly from what I think are storage (or shipping) issues.
Probably about 15%. I buy mostly Sauternes and non-Rhone Syrah at auction because the prices are low, the wines are resilient, and they demand more age than my wine buying history has been able to provide. Even if I got 25% duds, the prices would still be good. I’m generally buying Sauternes at 20-40 years and Syrah at 10-20, and have had very few disappointments.
I buy very few other red wines at auction because of provenance concerns, specifically regarding Brett blooms.
I buy a lot of wine at auction and end up with quite a few bad bottles. Some of them are simply too aged and past their drinking window. But, putting those aside, I have purchased a number of bottles – aged, but not too aged, i.e. 2013 Barolo - that are oxidized or stewed.