When I was 23, back in 1985, I attended The KQED (SF-Based PBS) Wine Auctions…I remember them auctioning off 1945 DRC, in straw packed wooden crates, for incredibly (in today’s $) cheap prices.
Also, about 20 years ago, I tried to get a chance at The Doris Duke Wine Auction…just fabulous stuff…but my ex-wife forbade me.
Maybe not the greatest but I have had a few memorable auction experiences:
Acker auction at Cru when Laurent Ponsot stormed the podium to protest the fake bottles of his wine that Rudy had consigned;
Acker auction at Cru when Rob Rosannia took over the auctioning duties - I don’t remember why or if that was the same auction as the one above, but I am sure that Rob thought he did a great job;
Acker auction at Cru when some random guy off the street started came in and started yelling at everyone. Thankfully Josh Nadel was able to convince the guy to leave;
Bloomsbury/Sokolin auction during the financial crisis that very few people new about and prices were ridiculously low. I picked up '89/'90 Haut Brian and La Miss among others. It was so bad at one point the auctioneer accepted a bid increment of $100 over my last bid when the increments were up to $500 at that level. I threatened to leave if he did not reject that bid, which he did. So the other guy bid the proper increment and won the lot.
Acker Auction at Le Bernardin, when I set my one and only world record - for a case of '82 Latour. It was from the Golden Cellar of all places, but thankfully the 11 bottles I have drunk so far have been spot on.
Zachy’s auction at the Four Seasons and I was sitting at a table with the Champagne crew, and a seemingly sweet, older couple whom none of knew sat down at our table and introduced themselves and then proceeded to unmask their wines which were worth about $15 each. I guess they were hoping to trade for '88 Clos de Mesnil, but someone from Zachy’s caught on and let them know that they had sat at the wrong table.
Zachy’s auction at Del Posto and there was some sort of buffet setup for either apps or deserts and I went up to the table where Joe Bastianich was serving and Mario Batali was standing next them. Joe had just lost a lot of weight and I said “Joe you look great” to which he replied “Thanks” and then Mario said “Yeah, but it has not helped him get laid.” In the context of everything that has since come out about Mario, that comment now seems a bit foreboding. I do remember sitting with Mark Golodetz that night and he will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe he brought an '94 Chave or Rayas that was drinking great.
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Graham Lyons cellar. Wow.
I forgot about those. There were some fine pickings there, I recall getting '82 Gruaud, and Imperial of '82 Talbot and an Imperial of '78 Mondavi Reserve as well as a bunch of old Johannesburg Rieslings from the '70’s and '80’s from Phelps and Mondavi. All have drunk great. There was so much other great stuff that I wish I knew enough about to bid on the time.
I also recall the Don Stott, Wolfgang Gruenwald and Roy Whelan auctions were pretty epic too.
But Lyons was the absolute best provenance I have seen or heard of. I’m not surprised everything has drunk well for you. It has for us.
So true.
An easy question for me. It’s the Central Coast Wine Classic that went on for 33 years, missing one year out of the 34 year time span.
It was headed up by Archie McLaren who did a stupendous job in organizing and promoting Central Coast wineries ands related industries. The event ranged from 3-5 days, was usually held in July and usually ion Avilla Beach with venues in Pismo and Shell Beach.
The live and silent auctions were held on Saturdays starting at noon and typically ending around 5. Early bird specials attracted those who wanted to check out the auction lots and enjoy a Continental breakfast buffet along with Mimosas and other options in the early am.
Reserved tables enabled a group of us to set up our own auction lot within an auction in that all of us took fantastic wines to share to the envy of all who noticed the amazing lineup year after year and would stop by for pours.
The table we sat at usually included a core group of Jim Clendenen, Bob Lindquist and Frank Ostini and SOs along with special guests like Emeril Lagasse, Roy Yamaguchi, Larry Stone, Charlie Trotter, Michael Mina, Dominique Lafon, Mel Knox, John Alban, Burt Williams, Doug Margerum, Patrick Will and many others.
It was truly an amazing experience filled with educational seminars and symposiums, rare wine tastings, special dinners by special chefs and an incredible array of wines from around the globe as well as seeing, meeting and sharing the passion with so many others.
I miss it deeply and feel blessed to have had such a wondrous occasion over so many years.
The Christies auctions in the late 80’s early 90’s when Michael Broadbent was the auctioneer and also led the pre auction tastings.
So many fun auctions. The first auctions in NYin the early nineties were fun, because there were a large number of bidders who did not know the market.
There was one ten lot parcel of Latour at Christie’s , where the prices per case ranged from the first few at $17k to less than $3k at the end. It was retailing at the low end ten blocks away at the time. Just as there was plenty of overbidding, there were many bargains. Internet killed all that.
But the most memorable was Morrell’s post 9/11 auction Grapes of Grief. An incredible occasion with producers and collectors from Manhattan to Turkey donating some amazing lots. Logistically it was not easy for Morrell to put it together, as many lots had not arrived by the auction. Raised a ton of money.
The KQED wine auctions back in the 80s were fun. I managed to win a few lots most years. Probably the most interesting were magnums of '69 and '70 Chalone Pinot Noir.
We were also regular attendees at the annual Peninsula Center for the Blind’s wine auction and dinner held at an estate in Woodside. Even in the mid-late 80s, there were plenty of examples of Silicon Valley execs with way too much money, based on some of the winning bids … but it was for a good cause. We usually scored some good bottles at the silent auction. It was mostly “interesting” bottles that didn’t attract too much attention. I remember buying several older vintages of School House Pinot Noir, for example. We did manage to pick up an '85 La Tache and a double mag of 1980 Mouton … unfortunately both long gone.
Scott,
At the '85 KQED auction, that I mentioned, I spoke with School House founder John Gantner. He was a patient, elderly gentleman…given my youth at the time.
Way back. Way way back. I went to a Heart’s Delight charity auction in DC and scored a case of wonderful 1975 and 1976 German auslese from great producers. I still have one left! I think it was their first auction.
I was never a frequent auction buyer, but I have one story. Once upon a time in the late '90s or early '00s, Selkirk’s (well-known auctioneers here of antiques and art) decided to get into wine auctions. Missouri law did not require them to partner with a retailer like NY law did but it had one protectionist quirk - all wines sold had to be 10 years old or older. They only held two auctions and then folded their tent. I assume because hammer prices were disappointing, but many locals here got some good bargains.
I was unable to attend the first one but I was able to go to the tasting and it was amazing to walk around for free and taste old Cheval Blanc and the like. Terrific. My wine budget was much more limited then, but I had a friend bid for me on a couple of lots, one of which I won at a total bargain price (I don’t remember the actual dollars, just that it was a bargain) - a 3L of 1988 Le Pergole Torte. I may have even been the only bidder, as the Bordeaux lots got most of the attention. A few weeks later, he brings it by my office and it is in an OWC. Not one of those fancy ones with hinges or a sliding lid, just shut with staples. Of course, I’m too much of a kid not to pry the lid off and look at the precious, so I did.
That night, I had a bunch of exhibit binders or something I had to bring home with me. So I’m carrying the binders with the loose-lidded OWC on top, approaching my car in the parking garage. The binders, being binders, of course are not perfectly level, and the parking garage floor, being a parking garage floor, isn’t level either. But this is long before key-fob-remote trunk openers and I need to set my cargo down to get my keys out and open my trunk. So I carefully squat, bending at the knees, keeping my load level, to set everything down on the ground so I can do so. But between the binder and the floor and my technique, something goes wrong and the OWC both falls off the top of the stack (probably less than a foot to the ground at this point) and rotates 90º while doing so, with the no-longer-stapled-on lid falling right off. No breakage, thankfully, but the bottle then proceeds to roll out of the case and down the slope of the parking garage away from me. I chased it down, returned it safely to the OWC, and thence to the trunk and the cellar. It was our wedding vintage, so we opened it 10+ years later for our 25th and it was delightful, if still on the young side.
I’ve never rolled a 3L since.
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Heublein put on these auction/ tastings in the 70s.
They were selling Bouchard at the time so they opened wines from the 19 th century. Everyone else was at the Ch Latour table so I had free run for a while.
JeanTroisgros came over for the one at the end of the decade so I ended up having lunch with him, Dick Graff abd Becky Wasserman at Cecilia Chiang’s restaurant.
I remember in the early days of online auctions in Sydney (langtons Auctions) a couple of bidders put big kill bids on the same lot of penfolds, it sold for $10001 per bottle (world record for the wine at the time). We opened one the night after the auction and laughed about it ( it was corked).
I was at this auction in 1994 at Christies in London; take a look at this single lot that sold for GBP200k!
some the bottle quantities are mind blowing. All from single cellar in the UK from someone in the trade
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Not the greatest for the usual reasons but some years ago I was in NYC and there happened to be an Acker auction at Marea. So I went and as usual all kinds of crazy wines were being poured. I happened to walk past the live streaming camera to go to the bathroom. Within minutes my phone lit up. I was getting texts from my wine buddies who were following the auction online asking if I was at the auction. I was weirded out wondering how do they know I am at the auction. They all saw me on the stream. A good laugh.
The other was at an Acker auction in Hong Kong. We put on a big Barolo tasting at a wine fair and Acker happened to be doing an auction on one of the afternoons. Big hitters in attendance and I just marveled at the hammer prices. But there was a half case lot of 1955 Latour that came up and for some reason there was not much action so I grabbed it at a stupid low price. My best friend who is of the 1955 vintage enjoyed his birth year wine for six years. Damn good wine BTW.
He did not storm the podium. I was sitting at his table right across from him. When the lot came up John Kapon said that it was pulled at the request of the domain. I remember Rudy storming out and muttering something like “its Burgundy”. The other crazy thing I remember is Jefery Levy being absolutely wasted and standing up to bid and practically falling down. He must have spent several hundred thousand or more, and I remember thinking it was irresponsible of Acker to allow him to keep bidding. Of course he is friends with Kapon.
Watching Rudy Kurniawan hold up his paddle for a lot of Sine Qua Non at Hospice du Rhone and never lowering it. I think he paid around $16K, but I could be wrong.
I am sure I had a lot to drink at that point, so your recollection is probably better than mine. I did not mean storm as in running, but I recall he walked briskly towards the podium (or maybe he just stood up in front of his table) and was saying something that caused a pause in the auction at that moment, yes? I believe he was wearing a white-ish suit? We did not know who he was or even Rudy at the time, so it was all a WTF moment for my table. I have great respect for what Laurent did to make sure that wine was not auctioned.