The Drinks Business posted an article about this, highlighting Don’s investigative work and this thread, on the ‘ever-active’ online world of Wine Berserkers
It’s good to see that this has garnered additional publicity prior to the actual auction date.
Interview with Mr. Egan(not about this auction)
http://www.insights.liv-ex.com/2017/11/liv-ex-interview-michael-egan.html?mc_cid=e631305ef8&mc_eid=
nice wine-searcher article about the fraud and auction, too.
Yes, here is the link to Blake Gray’s article for Wine Searcher news. https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2017/11/convicted-fraudster-s-wines-for-sale
Unrelated, but anyone know about the Christies wine Auction that was cancelled yesterday or day before? Saw an FB post from JR about it
Tom,
This was the email that I received:
"Thank you for registering **** to bid at Christie’s in today’s sale “Finest and Rarest Wines from a Superb Collection Part I” (sale number 16211).
Today’s wine auction was being conducted on behalf of a secured creditor of the owners of the private collection offered. Christie’s has just received notice that this debt has now been paid and the creditor is no longer able to proceed so the remaining lots have been withdrawn. We should like to reassure any successful bidders on lots offered prior to this announcement that this in no way affects their successful bids.
We should like to apologise to all those who have taken the time to attend the sale in person, by absentee bids, on the phone and online. This situation was out of our control."
The auction was essentially stopped in the middle of the sale.
There was nothing detailed in the notes, that I saw, that the lots were being offered in this manner.
Unusual to stop mid way! Wonder what happens with Part II in HK coming up soon? Many thanks for your insight Patrick
I bought one lot at the sale, and was told that the wine could not be released until the 27th November.
This was from an absentee bid. I was also trying to follow the sale online including the early lots, and somehow couldn’t. Probably not related to the withdrawal, but what’s not to like about good conspiracy theory between friends?
So basically the wines were being sold to pay off the creditor, then the owners came up with a different way to pay and pulled the wines out of the auction? If so, amazing that it got INTO the auction to reach an agreement.
Day 1 results have been posted. I do not have time to do a full analysis, but can offer some highlights from the 20ish lots I was tracking which I considered the most “blue chip” in nature- namely the Romanee Conti, and certain lots of La Tache and Jayer Parantoux.
For that selection in total, results were 14% below the high estimate (comparing hammer less BP to high estimate.)
Here are some specifics (everything in USD and rounded, BP removed for comparison to high estimate),
Two 12 bottle lots of 1990 La Tache at $67K each with BP, 32% below high estimate
3 bottle lot of 2005 Romanee Conti at $58K with BP, 22% below high estimate
2 bottle lot of 1999 Romanee Conti at $35K with BP, 21% below high estimate
Two 1 magnum lots of 1990 Jayer Parantoux at $48K each with BP, 3% above high estimate
6 magnums of 1996 Jayer Parantoux at $144K with BP, 10% below high estimate
Four 12 bottle lots of 1999 Jayer Parantoux Reserve ranging from $120K to $191K, with the most pristine case at $191K with BP, or 20% above high estimate; and the others anywhere from 10% to 25% below high estimate depending on the number of bottles with reported issues.
The 1999 Parantoux lots tell the tale when it comes to the importance of even minor variances in condition, but all in all there were clearly buyers at the ready for this sale- though from a more universally regarded/trusted collection I would have expected results well over high estimate on average for the cherries.
Many of the results were much, much higher than the estimates.
Maybe they reached a certain point in the midst of the sale where the proceeds exceeded the debt owed.
I just got another reminder of the HK auction. I promptly unsubscribed from their e-mail notifications. Just pure greed at play.
Same here - unsubscribed
Deleted.
Would you mind terribly explaining what about the handling of the situation you found objectionable? From what you’ve written, all I can glean is that they contacted you to obtain payment you did owe them for services they did, in fact, perform. Were they rude or intrusive or something else? It’s difficult to evaluate what happened without more details.
Thanks.
It sounds like he’s unfamiliar with how auctions and/or importing work, and just found a clickbaity thread to latch onto.
Wow, tough crowd. Clickbaity thread? No, I did an advanced search with keyword ’Zachys’ and specifically chose this one. I am very familiar with how auctions work and this had nothing to do with importing wine. Sarah, the issue was how unorganized they were; shipping didn’t talk to customer service and the technology failed. Not what I would expect from an auction house trading in fine wine. An outstanding receivable from 10 months ago, mind you this had nothing to do with me not paying because I was never billed, should be written off as bad debt. Instead it was their error, which I happily cured, but at the cost of doing business with them going forward. Not telling anyone to not do business with Zachys. You do whatever is best for you.
Hi and thanks for sharing. I am still a bit unclear what exactly happened. Did they ship you the wine and forget to bill you? Did they charge you a late fee for non payment? Were they just disorganized? Said differently, how you would have wanted them to handle the situation?
Asking as a Zachys auction customer as well.
Thank you
Alex
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. They shipped the wine, no issues. When I arranged the shipping, they should have sent me the invoice. 10 months later they are obviously reconciling their books and sent me a link for payment. I was shocked when I received the email, I had completely forgot about it, as did they, and had to go back and search old statements and emails to try and find records. Nothing. For the amount in question it shouldn’t have been an issue. If they had shipped me wine I hadn’t paid for, that is a different story. If they had sent me an invoice and I neglected to pay, that would also be a different story. Anyway, that’s the end of it. Don’t need to go on and on.