Burgundy and Rhone shine at multi-million dollar US auctions
Date£º
2014-11-28 10:57 Source£º
decanter Author:
Chris Mercer Translator:
Talk of Bordeaux's resurgence in the US fine wine market has been placed in context by Sotheby's and Wally's auctions that saw Burgundy and Rhone estates command the top prices.
The cellar of Netscape founder James H Clark. Image credit: Sotheby's
Burgundy fuelled total Wally's sales of US$5.6m in the second part of its Roy Welland Collection auction, held in Los Angeles on 21 and 22 November. It had expected the wines to sell for a maximum $5.5m.
A week earlier, Sotheby's sold almost $2.6m-worth of wine in New York via its auction of the cellar of Netscape founder James H Clark. It had only estimated a maximum sales total of $2m.
Both auction houses had promoted the sales as an opportunity to get first-rate Burgundy, and Sotheby's also marketed the amount of Rhone and Italian fine wines that it had secured from Clark's cellar.
The results suggest that, while several US auction houses have talked up a Bordeaux revival in their salesrooms in the last few weeks, this has not diminished buyers' thirst for top estates from other key regions.
Jamie Ritchie, Sotheby's CEO and president for wine in the Americas and Asia, said the firm saw 'groundbreaking' prices for Rhone wines. As the chart below shows, top lot in the sale was a six-bottle haul of Paul Jaboulet Aine, Hermitage La Chapelle, 1961, which fetched $49,000 - albeit just below its pre-sale high estimate of $50,000.
A particular highlight of the sale was 11 bottles of Guigal, Cote Rotie La Mouline, 1978, which more than doubled the pre-sale high estimate to fetch $24,500.
In the Burgundy-dominated Wally's sale, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti was beaten to top spot by Comte Liger Belair. Twelve bottles of the domaine's La Romanee 2005 fetched $44,000 against a pre-sale high estimate of $36,000.
The next three biggest selling lots were all DRC, but two of those lots - a three-bottle haul of Romanee-Conti 2005 and an assorted case of 1985 wines - failed to beat their pre-sale top estimates. They fetched $43,200 and $40,800 respectively against high estimates of $46,000 and $55,000.
The sale means Wally's has sold around $12m of wine from the cellar of Roy Welland, former owner of the now-closed Cru restaurant in New York. Wally's Auctions president, Michael Jessen, said the total 'exceeds our highest aspirations.'
