The Oddbins May auction confirmed the general slow down in secondary wine trade with buyers continuing to seek all styles of wines at bargain prices. Clearance rates for May were on average but prices realised were still tending towards the bottom end of the published guides.
The market continues to be in oversupply, especially in the premium and current vintage end, yet demand for well cellared aged stock continues to be healthy. Buyers are still tending towards full bodied reds, especially if made from shiraz, over other wine styles.
The good news is that Oddbins expects this buyers market to continue well into remaining months of 2005. The choice of wine, from basic drinkable styles though aged classics and modern collectables has never been wider and appears to remain plentiful supply for some time to come.
The highlights of this month auction include the sale of a magnum of 1979 Grange for a hammer price of $3500, well into the top end of the guide and the sale of the increasingly rare Penfold’s Bin 60A (in less than perfect condition) for $1842. Early Granges from the 1960’s also returned better than expected hammer prices.
Buyers were also keen on modern classics from Clonakilla, Castagna, Hobbs, Torbreck, Greenock Creek and Cullen’s Diana Madelaine cabernet blend. Other strong performers included Jim Barry’s Armagh, Penfold’s Magill Estate and Wolf Blass Black Labels.
Mixed current vintage lots, specialist verticals from Barossa Valley Estate and Wendouree and a small but interesting single malt whisky collection also attracted considerable interest with good clearance rates and prices paid. On the imported front, there was also strong interest in Bordeaux reds and in the sweet whites of Sauternes, red blends from the Rhone Valley and premium New Zealand pinots.
Interestingly, buyers were opting increasingly for lots that had been identified as coming from good cellars with just under half of all tagged lots being sold this auction, in the past the results have been quite inconclusive. The provenance tag is applied to known cellars that meet certain pre-determined criteria.
Surprisingly, the market has moved its attention away from some traditionally strong auction performers, such as Rockford’s Basket Press and Black shiraz, Penfold’s Bin 707, Wendouree blends and Henschke Abbots Prayer and Cyril cabernet. Other slow movers included the wines of Dalwhinnie and the eclectic reserve wines of Noon’s.
Also noticeable was the slow down in clearance rates and prices paid for post 90’s Grange which affected the Oddbins Good Grange Guide, which fell 5pts to 95pts, based mainly on the slackening of hammer prices paid for 1994 and 1998 Grange. The inclusion of a single magnum of 2000 Grange attracted considerable attention from bargain hunters looking to buy prized but controversial item at a rock bottom price. Unfortunately, the bidding was too low for a successful sale.
It’s still a buyers market; as our expectation is that there will be continued and plentiful supply of both commercial premium and premium Australian reds for the foreseeable future. However, the market for older classic brands and vintages that come from good cellars is expected to remain buoyant. As stated previously, there has never been a better time to buy.
Finally, mention should be made of the much-publicised demise of the Wine Orb and Heritage wine schemes. So far, the collapse of these two large investment schemes has had little impact on the secondary market, as stock has yet to be released back to the owners. And our council for all such investors, is seek careful advice and in the words of Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic”.
Please consider. You may or may not know that the wine auction market is one of the most transparent sales sectors in the Australian market place, as the wine auction trade openly declares what we do, how we do it and importantly, what we charge, as we fully declare our commission, and premium structures. This as you imagine leads us to experiencing considerable criticism, but at least we are open about our pricing policies.
Until our July auction report…we wish you successful bidding.
The Oddbins Team