Sotheby's Wine Auction Achieves Record Results
Sotheby's auction of fine and rare wines including the 2000 Collection on behalf of Bordeaux Winebank on November 13, was a huge success, signaling that the 2000 vintage is living up to its expectations.
Sotheby's sold all but two of the lots for a grand total of $5.4 million, well over the pre-sale estimate of $3.2 million to $4.6 million (estimates do not include the buyer's premium). Bordeaux Winebank's "2000" Collection set six wine auction records.
According to Sotheby's, there was also strong demand for wine from a number of other collections with strong prices for all of the First Growths as well as Burgandy, resulting in 64% of the sold lots achieving prices over the high estimate.
Online bidders were particularly active, with 15% of the lots sold to collectors bidding over the Internet. Nearly half of the lots offered received online bids and 55 people logged onto bid live online, which was the highest ever level of online participation in a Sotheby's Wine auction.
"We were delighted by the success of the sale---the highest value various owner wine sale ever held at Sotheby's New York," says Sotheby's Jamie Ritchie (above), Head of Wine, North America and a Luxist Awards Expert Panelist.
According to Ritchie, the Bordeaux Winebank 2000 Collection led the sale, with collectors from around the world eagerly competing for wines with such excellent provenance. Strong demand led to 94% of the sold lots from the Bordeaux Winebank realizing prices in excess of their high estimates, he added.
Several wine auction records were set on Saturday, including for Haut Brion 2000, La Mission Haut-Brion 2000, Palmer 2000, Cos d'Estournel 2000, Ducru Beaucaillou 2000 and Angélus 2000.
Among the other highlights were three OWC (original wooden case) cases of 12 bottles of Pétrus 2000, which sold for $72,600 per case. Other top sellers were an OWC case of 12 bottles Chateau Lafite 2000 that sold for $36,300 and ten OWC cases of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2000 that sold for $22,990 each.
The second offering of the Bordeaux Winebank "2000" collection will be sold by Sotheby's on January 23 in Hong Kong at the Sotheby's Finest and Rarest Wine auction at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. The Hong Kong sale will feature 128 lots which are expected to sell for HK$8.4 million to HK$12.6 million/US$1.1 million to US$1.6 million (not including the buyer's premium). An almost identical quantity of the 2000 vintage will be offered at the Hong Kong auction, providing buyers with another chance to acquire the gems of 2000, which is considered to be a stunning vintage.
Bordeaux Winebank is the brainchild of Norwegian businessman Henning Thoresen, who spent two decades fine tuning his idea of what constitutes ideal provenance, resulting in the introduction of Bordeaux Winebank's "Five Star Provenance" system. This patented process ensures quality and authenticity and also that all the wines are in perfect condition.
All the Bordeaux Winebank wines featured in the Sotheby's sale were sold within this system, which means they are in their original wood cases, have documented "ex château" provenance, and have always been kept in professional storage in Bordeaux, until being shipped to New York or Hong Kong.
Bordeaux Winebank's wines come with supporting documentation showing the château as the primary or secondary source, a secondary source being a major négociant who purchased the wines through an allocation directly from the château. In addition, all cases sold by Bordeaux Winebank have their own individual certificate of provenance, with each certificate being linked to its case via their Advanced Track and Trace database. Four seals are applied to each case, which is scanned just before the case leaves the warehouse. This then registers the case in the database and creates a corresponding seal, which is then applied to the certificate of provenance. Sotheby's Wine will forward each certificate it receives from Bordeaux Winebank to the purchaser upon delivery.
Bordeaux Winebank is a subsidiary of BWB Group, which includes all of Thoresen's wine ventures in Luxembourg, Norway, France, Singapore and Hong Kong, with an estimated inventory under management of $110 million.
Excellent Bordeaux wines, including those from Chateau Margaux, are also available for purchase by the bottle (some by the case), from the Sotheby's retail wine shop, although they are not Bordeaux Winebank wines.
1. All wines must be sold exclusively in original wooden case (OWC).
2. All wines must have documented "ex château" provenance.
3. All cases must remain in professional storage in Bordeaux since bottling.
4. Professional storage facilities must be temperature and humidity controlled and monitored 24/7.
5. Annual certification of procedures by qualified auditor.
