Wine investment: Legendary wines shine at auction
Fine wine classics have shone at auctions this autumn and the Super Tuscans continue to perform well.
Legendary wines have gone under the hammer during the auction houses’ autumn sales season, from Hong Kong to the US.
Château Mouton Rothschild 1945, a Decanter Wine Legend, was the top-selling lot at the Christie’s Epic Cellar II auction in Hong Kong in early October. Twelve bottles in their original wooden case (OWC) sold for HK$1.25m (£123,321), including buyer’s premium (pre-sale high estimate: HK$1.1m).
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Romanée-Conti 1990 achieved the second highest price, at HK$937,500 for six bottles (OWC; high e: HK$900,000).
Despite reports of cautious buyer sentiment across the market, US auction house Hart Davis Hart said its two-day auction in late September was 100% sold: all 3,174 lots found buyers.
France’s 1961 red wine vintage was a highlight: 12 bottles of Château Figeac 1961 sold for US$19,120 (£14,622; high e:$8,500), and one bottle of Paul Jaboulet Aîné’s lauded Hermitage, La Chapelle 1961 sold for $8,365 (high e: $6,500).
Also in the US, Sotheby’s recently offered its latest instalment of The Epicurean’s Atlas series, featuring wines from collector Pierre Chen. Several white Burgundy lots starred, including 12 bottles of Coche-Dury, Meursault Perrières 1999, which sold for $50,000 (high e: $50,000).
In the UK, meanwhile, merchant Berry Bros & Rudd announced that it will hold wine and spirits auctions for collectors worldwide, beginning in autumn 2024.
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NB: final sale prices include buyer’s premium.
Premium wine and spirit releases
From top Champagne to luxury Japanese whisky, several fine wine and spirits launches of significance have been announced in recent weeks.
Rare Champagne is releasing its 2012 vintage, as reported by Decanter‘s Champagne correspondent, Tom Hewson, who gave it a score of 96-points.
The 2012 is an excellent year and Rare’s cellar master, Emilien Boutillat, likened the wine to the celebrated 2002 vintage.
Elsewhere, Champagne Louis Roederer said it was releasing five vintages of ‘Late Release Rosé Vintage’, from 1995 to 1999, after more than 20 years of ageing in its cellars.
The wines carry a recommended retail price of £315 per bottle, said Roederer-owned distributor Maisons Marques & Domaines in the UK.
In spirits, House of Suntory said it was releasing 400 bottles of ‘ultra-luxury’ Hibiki 40 Year Old Japanese whisky at US$35,000 per bottle.
Top Super Tuscans stay strong
Prices for top Super Tuscans have been relatively resilient in a challenging fine wine market, suggests new data.
An index of Sassicaia, Tignanello, Ornellaia and Solaia wines has fallen 6% since peaking around the end of 2022, having risen strongly in the prior five years, said international merchant Bordeaux Index, based on executed transaction data.
It said the broader market, meanwhile, has fallen 20% since prices peaked two years ago (see chart below). ‘[Super Tuscan] prices have come off less than for some other regions,’ observed Matthew O’Connell, CEO of Bordeaux Index’s LiveTrade online trading platform.
Data from Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, also shows its Italy 100 index – tracking Super Tuscan and Piedmont wines – dropped 9.6% in two years to 30 September, while the broader Liv-ex 1000 fell 22%.
O’Connell said fairly limited supplies and ongoing demand have underpinned pricing on top-tier SuperTuscans. ‘It’s like the situation with a few [Bordeaux] Super Seconds,’ he said. ‘There’s good brand recognition, including among new entrants to the wine market.’
He also highlighted the wines’ strong presence on restaurant lists.
O’Connell added that the best vintages can command big premiums. The 2021-vintage wines, released this year with hallowed 100-point scores in some cases, could be worth watching closely in this context.
It’s early days, though. Liv-ex said Sassicaia 2021 traded at £3,114 (12x75cl in bond) in March, but recent trading activity ‘indicates it may be stabilising around the £2,500-£2,600 mark, flat on its ex-London release price’.
Most Liv-ex fine wine indices declined by small degrees in September, suggesting the market remains in choppy waters.
Alex Turnbull, head of private and online sales at London-based merchant Jeroboams, said: ‘After Bordeaux, Tuscany was our second biggest-selling region in September by value.
‘A string of excellent vintages, high scores and genuine value in release prices has led wines like Ornellaia, Masseto and Solaia to sell out quickly on release and remain on strict allocation.’
Turnbull also highlighted growing demand for other SuperTuscan wines. O’Connell said active trading revolves around a tight-knit group of top names, however.
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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.
Super Tuscans have enjoyed a great increase in market awareness and demand over the last decade – this was especially pronounced during 2020 and 2022 when the prices of Sassicaia, Solaia, Ornellaia and Tignanello rose by more than 60%. The subsequent retracement in pricing has been less than 10%.
The ‘brand’ following for these wines is high and this likely explains both the scale of the uptick and the resilience of this category in the recent market downturn.
Perhaps the missing piece of the puzzle is that available volumes are of course small, for there are only these four names with such buyer awareness, and restaurants and similar establishments take a substantial quantity from the marketplace soon after release.
So far so good, but the strength of the brand following for this small group is a more balanced point for the rest of the SuperTuscan category where demand has not followed, despite the high quality to be found here.
This applies to Super Tuscans (international blends) as well as top Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino wines, with only very few exceptions. There is still remarkable value to be found in those categories.
Disclaimer: Decanter’s Marketwatch pages are published for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Wine prices may vary and they can go down as well as up. Seek independent advice where necessary and be aware that wine investment is unregulated in several markets, including the UK.
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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.