Wine investment: Fierce bidding for rare vintages in Avery sale
‘Last treasures’ from the Avery family’s private cellar featured rare Bordeaux, Burgundy and California, while Sotheby’s puts limited edition Ornellaia 2021 wines under the hammer. Plus reflections on Bordeaux 2023.
Rare Bordeaux, Burgundy and California wines have featured in a Christie’s auction of ‘last treasures’ from the Avery family’s private cellar.
All lots offered in the London-based auction found buyers, said Christie’s, with total sales reaching £2.57m, including buyer’s premium. Bottles in the collection were acquired by different generations of the family that is behind historic Bristol-based wine merchant Averys, and the auction was a follow-up to a similar sale held in 2016.
Top lots this time around included Burgundy wines from the 1940s. Two bottles of Clos de Tart, Grand Cru 1945 sold for £43,750, including buyer’s premium, against a pre-sale high estimate of just £3,000, Christie’s said. One magnum (1.5 litre) of Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé, Cuvée Vieilles Vignes Musigny Grand Cru 1947 sold for £23,750 (high estimate: £8,000).
From Bordeaux, a magnum of the legendary Château Latour 1961 sold for £25,000 (high e: £6,000), and a 12-bottle lot of Petrus 1990 in its original wooden case sold for £37,500 (high e: £30,000).
Rare bottles of decades-old Napa Valley Cabernet also went under the hammer. Two six-bottle lots of Heitz Cellar, Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1974 each sold for £22,500 (high e per lot: £10,000, pictured left). Six bottles of Joseph Phelps, Insignia 1975 fetched £5,250 (high e: £4,800), and three bottles of Inglenook, Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 1955 sold for £4,000 (high e: £3,000).
Sotheby’s Super Tuscan sale puts spotlight on Ornellaia
Limited-edition Ornellaia 2021 wines have been auctioned by Sotheby’s in the latest instalment in the Super Tuscan winery’s Vendemmia d’Artista limited-edition label program.
Italian artist Marinella Senatore designed labels inspired by the theme ‘La Generosità’ for Ornellaia 2021 (Decanter 97pts), from a highly rated vintage in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast.
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A nine-litre salmanazar bottle of the wine sold for £16,250 via Sotheby’s, including buyer’s premium (pre-sale estimate: £15,000- £40,000). The lot also included an overnight stay and dinner at the Ornellaia estate. Also, a one-off ‘vertical’ case featuring Ornellaia wines from the 10 Vendemmia d’Artista vintages 2012 to 2021 inclusive sold for £6,875 (high e: £2,600).
The 12-bottle case included two extra bottles of Ornellaia 2012 and 2021 with ‘classic’ labels. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Mind’s Eye sensory programme of The Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation.
Reflections on Bordeaux 2023
Lower prices for Bordeaux 2023 en primeur wines haven’t automatically translated into stellar sales, despite some success stories, early analysis has suggested.
Amid a challenging fine wine market, ‘ex-négociant’ release prices (€ per bottle) on many Bordeaux 2023 wines fell more than 20% versus the 2022 vintage en primeur campaign last year (see graphic below), and some dropped more than 30%, said Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade.
Several top wines were available in the UK at significantly below 2022 vintage release prices, and were also cheaper than current prices for the highly regarded 2019 and 2020 vintages, showed data from Bordeaux Index’s LiveTrade online trading platform (see chart below).
This aided consumer demand. Thomas Parker MW, buyer at Farr Vintners, said of Mouton Rothschild 2023 (Decanter 98-100pts): ‘We have had interest as it is a lower price than any other vintage on the market.’
There were mixed reports about overall en primeur sales, however. Consultancy group Wine Lister said in early June: ‘Feedback from the trade indicates a lacklustre reception [to the campaign], with consumers less willing to spend money apart from on a cherished brand or a very good deal.’
Other opportunities
Still, it reported ‘decent sales’ for several wines released ‘significantly below current market prices for back-vintages, including the all-important 2019’.
LiveTrade CEO Matthew O’Connell said: ‘Most wines haven’t required allocation and have been quite readily available to buy.’
Although prices dropped back to ‘more sensible’ levels, he said that at least one other strongly rated, recent vintage was often available in a ‘similar [price] zone’.
Secondary market prices for Bordeaux wines have been falling. Liv-ex’s Bordeaux 500 sub-index dropped 13.4% in value in 12 months to 31 May.
Liv-ex highlighted that Bordeaux’s 2011 vintage was released en primeur into a falling market, with year-on-year price discounts, and has since risen in price. Yet, it added: ‘The question remains whether the Bordeaux 2023s are priced low enough to perform similarly to the 2011s.’
Some Bordeaux wines carry with them a reputation for swift price rises, post-release. Wine Lister said Lafleur, Les Carmes Haut-Brion and Carruades de Lafite showed the biggest average returns across five vintages spanning 2018 to 2022.
The Bordeaux Index view
Fine wine & spirits specialist Bordeaux Index kindly sponsors this section of Decanter, and provides its view on the market here every issue. It can be found at bordeauxindex.com.
The Bordeaux en primeur campaign has drawn to a close, having primarily seen buying from focused collectors rather than a broader universe. Pricing for this high-quality (though perhaps not ‘benchmark’ level) 2023 vintage was substantially down on release prices for 2022 (as much as 40% in some cases).
This must be seen in the context of very high 2022 prices and also the Bordeaux market being down 15% in the intervening period (more in some younger vintages) on lower activity levels, such that overall for many releases a recent strong vintage (eg, 2018/2019/2020/2022) was cheaper and physically available.
A favourably received Bordeaux en primeur campaign (the last frenzied example of which we saw for the 2019 vintage, released in 2020) tends to be followed by a sharp uptick in market activity for other Bordeaux vintages. It will be interesting to see how things evolve on this front during the remainder of 2024, but it may be a case of missed opportunity on this front.
We continue to believe that Bordeaux is underpriced relative to other regions, but it is often the case that a catalyst is required for prices to start rising – in the current subdued market, this is particularly pertinent.
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Chris Mercer is a Bristol-based freelance editor and journalist who spent nearly four years as digital editor of Decanter.com, having previously been Decanter’s news editor across online and print.
He has written about, and reported on, the wine and food sectors for more than 10 years for both consumer and trade media.
Chris first became interested in the wine world while living in Languedoc-Roussillon after completing a journalism Masters in the UK. These days, his love of wine commonly tests his budgeting skills.
Beyond wine, Chris also has an MSc in food policy and has a particular interest in sustainability issues. He has also been a food judge at the UK’s Great Taste Awards.