Wow, I thought some of the estimates were high but the bids are blowing right through most of the high estimates.
Three bottles of 1991 Drouhin Griottes Chambertin going for $2500? I have a feeling my few pre-auction bids won’t be going anywhere.
Good luck to all of you… I will be doing yard work today.
Uh oh. Oh well with provenance like this you can hardly blame people.
Jay are you sure it’s not mags ?
Not according to the catalog 
29
GRIOTTE CHAMBERTIN 1991 JOSEPH DROUHIN
Griotte Chambertin 1991 Joseph Drouhin
Cote de Nuits, Grand Cru
Lot 29 3 bts (owc)
per lot: USD 700-1000
Yes, the provenance makes it a little more understandable but I’m still pretty amazed.
But the lot of 6 bottles of 1995 Drouhin Corton Bressandes hammered for my bid so the question is whether anyone else had placed an earlier pre-auction bid on the same lot. Fingers crossed…
The less sexy wines are coming at what I think of as more reasonable pricing.
It’s not just wine! I was following Sotheby’s contemporary art auction live yesterday, and most of the lots were selling for above estimates. The Alexander Calder lots were selling as high as 3x high estimates!! The one lot I was following sold for more than 4x high estimate. I tapped out . . . .
Money is flowing . . . .
I thought those Verset estimates seemed low…
Are prices available online ? Does anyone know what the 61 Amoureuses sold for ?
I’m just following the online auction as it goes by. Sorry, I hadn’t bid on any Amoureuses so I didn’t pay attention. Currently up to Lot 461.
A case of 2001 Verset went for $4000 though.
Tempier prices have been going for around 2x high estimate.
A lot of French regional wines, I’m not familiar with many. But they all seem to be going above high estimates. Eg.
Domaine de Trevallon 1994, 12 bottles
High estimate: $500
Sold at: $700
Well, I’m done following the auction. The last lot I had a pre auction bid in on went for nearly twice my bid (I bid just under high estimate).
Their real time bidding system works well. I tried to snag the 1984 Forman with an online bid but was outbid from the floor.
summary
http://view.sothebys-email.com/?j=fe8e1c7275610d7d7c&m=fe9815707063047870&ls=fe3613707164037c761770&l=ff2f15767161&s=fe2915727c66007b721370&jb=ff9a1574&ju=fe27157377640d75711376&r=0
or detailed
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2014/finest-and-rarest-wines-n09114.html#&i=24&fs=salePrice-desc
Prices were high, at least on the lots in which I was interested. In the end I did not submit any bids but would have been successful on 1 of 12. Usually my batting average is considerably higher. I haven’t given much study but casual observation suggests a return to the frenzy of pre-recession times.
MrBigJ
think “ex-cellar”(or really good provenance) is the absolutely price factor today,after all the story about fraud…
and so the price is sometimes “irrational”.
Holy moley!
Lot 292 certainly looks interesting. The extremely rare Krug 1966 Blanc de Blancs pops again. For one of the rarest Krugs ever produced, I continue to find it odd that this bottle pops up so often especially when compared to other Krug vintages/bottlings that are also sought after and were produced in much higher quantities. Odd also that every time this wine is sold the fill is always quite high and the bottle/label is always in very good condition for a wine of this age. I would expect some type of variation, but every time this wine pops up, it always is in top notch condition.
The biggest issue with this bottle is again (like the past) the fact that it is inconsistent with what Krug used for a bottle at the time and is a crown cap bottle with a thin lip (crown cap used for the second fermentation). Krug has confirmed with me that they were still using cork at the time and using only this type of bottle (with a thick lip; similar to a still wine). This means that Krug couldn’t have bottled this. Also quite interesting, the printing/label of the bottle is most similar to the bottle sold at Spectrum auctions in the winter of 2010.
I have a lot of respect for Sotheby’s and they have a very good relationship with Krug, but this bottle doesn’t look right. Maybe some information from the seller and auction house could shed some light as I would love to be proved wrong and have something new to talk about with Krug.
I watch a lot of auctions and this one was an outlier (IMO). Saturday in the city in the winter. Too much interest.
Can you link to the picture Brad? I cannot find an online catalog. Thanks.
The price of contemporary art is just a weird beast, one there is simply too much “investment” money behind it, two it is being used as money laundering tool.
Looking at the result of contemporary art auction is a good way to practice anger management…It is still hard to resist the urge to drink a glass when I see the amount of money people paying for artists like Takashi Murakami and Andy Warhol.