The Oddbins W548was an excellent auction for returning staff members, with thoughts of sun, sand, surf and cold riesling still firmly fixed in their short term memories, the auction while quiet, was a welcome return to the post holiday, new working year. Overall, with 2000 lots in the catalogue, the clearance rates were slightly below average with buyers opting for ready to drink reds and whites over long term cellaring Australian reds.
However, this auction also demonstrated that there is still a certain degree of volatility within the secondary market, which has added even more pressure on pricing. And as in the retail sector, consumers are still looking for bargains on the wave of an over supplied market place and continue to prefer South Aussie reds to their interstate rivals.
Auction highlights included an extensive collection of aged Portuguese ports which certainly encouraged spirited bidding and excellent clearance rates, as it is not very often that famous and old names such as Barros, Burmester, Dalva, Feist and Kopke come up in Australian auction houses. Most interest was shown in aged Colheita’s dating back to the 1930’s and 10 and 20 year old tawny ports.
We were also fortunate enough to have good deal of interest shown in lots of Henschke Hill of Grace dating back to the early 1970’s that had undergone the Henschke Quality Assurance Programme. As such, certified wines from Henschke have rarely been seen in the secondary market, hence the added interest in these older Graces.
Good clearance rate can also be reported for Jimmy Watson Trophy Winners, Redman magnums, the premium wines of Jasper Hill and Giaconda, St Hallett Old Block shiraz and d’Arenberg’s Coppermine Roads. There was also a welcome return by buyers to Penfold’s Bin 389, Grosset Polish Hill rieslings and specifically, d’Arenberg’s 1998 The Dead Arm blockbuster shiraz.
But as mentioned above, consumers in this post Christmas period have opted for affordable, drinkable styles with mid priced wines from Wynns, Lehmann, Blass and Hewitson featuring prominently in the sale. Also of interest to subscribers was the extensive collection of Cloudy Bay wines that included the intriguing Te Koko. And in the “woops, got that wrong” category of wine writing, please accept our apologies for the Te Koko review, if fact winemaker intervention is a feature of this style.
Mention should also be made of the small but important collection of single malt whiskies that were offered for sale. An old Talisker, pre- 1980’s Glenfiddich’s and Glenlivet’s and Macallan sherry monsters certainly attracted a great deal of attention. A small market indeed, but one that attracts very knowledgeable bidders.
Collectors and consumers alike avoided the better vintages such as 1986, 1990 and 1996 of Australia’s leading secondary market wine, preferring instead the more reasonably priced mid 1990 offerings. And as was mentioned throughout 2004, collectors of Grange still certainly prefer their purchases to be in perfect condition as many poorly presented examples were passed in, but as we have said before, if you are a buyer with an eye for drinking this most famous Aussie red, then the “imperfect” category is where the bargains are.
Somewhat surprisingly, there was also noticeable downturn in prices offered for the famed 1971 Grange, with a number of lots being passed in. And why, I hear you ask? We suspect a multitude of factors, with the most prominent one being too much supply. So as the car marketers keep telling us, now is the time to buy!
The volatility in the market place was exemplified by the lack of interest shown in normally strong auction performers such as Rockford, Greenock Creek and Noon’s. Other slow moving headline acts included Grant Burge’s Meshach, mid 1990’s Eileen Hardy shiraz, Leeuwin Estate cabernet and Houghton’s Jack Mann.
On the Penfold’s front, there was noticeable quieting down in sales of Penfold’s RWT and Bin 707 while the market for imported wines, including the usually strong Bordeaux market, was also quiet.
With so much activity over the December period along with record Christmas retail spending across Australia, the auction results are somewhat un-surprising and we expect a return to some form of normality in our March auction.
Until then, we wish you strong bidding….
Cheers from the,
The Ever Reliable & Excitable Team at
Oddbins Wine Auctions