First of all, an apology for last auctions Highlights flyer: I admit it, my French is appalling but what can you expect when you learn the language from a label on a bottle! When you think about it, it’s a bit like my English; I think I picked it up from the back of a cornflakes packet. But you must admit it did attract some considerable attention!
So this leads us to our W552 mid winter sale, where sunny days on the French Riviera and Bastille Day celebrations certainly encouraged good clearances and interest shown in wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley and the tete cuvees of Champagne. Overall, the July sale was a big one for this little company, with over 2,500 lots on offer that featured many budget mixed case lots as well as a good spread of collectables from Penfolds, Henschke, Blass, Rockford’s, Noon’s, Greenock Creek etc.
Clearance rates for the catalogue were on average but sadly for vendors, buyers were still looking for bargains, as the bidding still tended towards the bottom end of the published guides. However, from this sale, we did have an indication that the reported softening in the market place might have bottomed out, as the dollar spend per buyer was up 8% on May’s auction but was still slightly below our overall 2005 average. Our expectation is that market will remain a buyer’s paradise in the short term, as supply outstrips demand.
The big ticket item this month was the sale of a half bottle of 1952 Penfold’s shiraz that had been passed by the Penfold’s Clinic, for a hammer price of $4,500 while an intriguing and historic bottle of 1958 Henschke Dry Red Pressings, at mid high shoulder, achieved a hammer price of $120. Other historical gems that attracted buyer interest were the two offerings of early Yalumba brandies and a damaged 1971 Hill of Grace.
On the imported front clearances and prices paid were strong with, Ch Lafite 1982 achieving an auction high of $805; while a double magnum of ’79 Leoville Las Cases fetching $565 and the equally fantastic 2000 DRC Romanee St Vivant achieving a hammer price of $600. With Champagne, good hammer prices were achieved for the Krug 90 and the rarely seen 1988 Krug Clos du Mesnil.
Buyers were also attracted to our multiple offerings of budget mixed case reds and whites as well as established favourites from Greenock Creek, Clonakilla, Kangarilla Rd, Saltram, Wolf Blass, Torbreck, and the cabernets of Wynns Coonawarra Estate and Zema Estate.
Also attracting notable attention were offerings of Mildara’s 98 Stoddart Trophy winning cabernet, Tyrrell’s Vat 1 semillon, Jim Barry’s The Armagh, ’96 Leeuwin Estate cabernets, Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock shiraz and the single offering of Rockford’s Basket Press shiraz 1999 in half bottles, which fetched a respectable $24 a bottle, well above the published price guide. Quality Australian sparkling whites from the likes of Arras, Bay of Fires, Clover Hill and Pirie also produced clearance rates.
Every auction has its surprises and W552 was no exception, with a return of interest in Fox Creek Reserve shiraz and Burge’s Meshach, Noon’s Eclipse and good clearances of Rockford ’97 Basket Press shiraz. And mention has to be made of the quite considerable interest shown in the single signed magnum of Cooper’s 1999 vintage ale. Tim Cooper’s signature obviously has a lot of pulling power in the secondary market!
With every auction Oddbins is able to identify certain offerings that have been stored in highly favourable conditions or as we say in the trade, those cellars that have a know provenance. This is a feature that we recently introduced to our catalogue as an additional service to our subscribers and we have been monitoring its progress to see if it actually makes a difference to our buyers purchasing habits.
From this auction, we were able to ascertain that the provenance tagged clearance rate was 40%, the same as W551, indicating that while the tag is an important factor in influencing consumers purchasing habits. A factor yes, but the not most important..
Clearance of Penfold’s wines, the dominant lot listing, this auction was slightly down on last months auction but there was pleasing return of buyers to post 1990 (modern) Grange with both good and imperfect Grange offerings clearing well above last months rate. The veteran Grange category (pre 1980) remains as ever, quite strong as demand in this instance clearly outstrips supply.
Buyers were also particularly interested in Penfold’s Bin’s 128, 389, 407, 707, 90A, St Henri and early Yattarna. However, the spotlight did come off the likes of Bin 28’s, Grange 86 & 90, Magill Estate and RWT shiraz, especially from the post 1990 vintages.
The Oddbins Good Grange Index rose 8pts to 97 pts based on good clearance rates and prices paid for 1994 and 1996 Grange. 1986 and 1990 Grange remained quiet as we can see from the graph presented below, the trend line down slightly due mainly to 2005’s softening in prices.
We have been asked on many occasions as to how we arrive at the Odd bins Good Grange Index? So as a matter of interest, here’s a brief explanation of how we achieve the OGGI
The Oddbins Good Grange Index is one of a number of indicative tools used by Oddbins to monitor the state of the market for Australia's most collectable wine, Penfolds Bin 95 Grange. By monitoring four recent but important vintages of Grange, we hope to gain an insight into the performance of not only these four important vintages but by association, the overall health of the entire Grange market. The assumption being that if the good Granges are doing well, so must the rest of the portfolio.
The four key vintages monitored are 1986, 90, 94 and 96, technically we should also be monitoring the famed 1971 vintage as well, but due to this wines general scarcity, we decided to leave it out of the index. In the future we also envisage that the 1998 vintage should also be included in the Index's calculation, but only when it's pricing settles down.
The index is achieved by Weighted Relative Price Index method (Yamane, Statistics: An Introductory Analysis, Harper & Row, 1969), a method very similar to but cruder than the ABS's Consumer price Index, that is a weighted average of realised prices.
We admit that it is a crude indication and it really should be used in conjunction with our published price guides and realised prices.
We have reported previously that the market place has been quite volatile over the last 6 months, as buyer’s moods at times, swing quite erratically, between producers, vintages, grape varieties and styles of wines on offer at auction. And because of this volatility, we advise current and future vendors to have patience, as it may take 2 to 3 auctions to fully clear their stock.
With the W552 auction, buyers interest moved away from established producers such as Bannockburn, Charles Cimicky, Dalwhinnie, Mountadam, Leconfield, Rosemount and Tollana. There was also a general lack of buying of sparkling reds and wines that were described as being in a less than perfect condition.
And more specifically, clearance rates were also low for Elderton’s flagship Command shiraz, Henschke Cyril cabernets, Noon’s Reserve shiraz and cabernet, E&E Black Pepper and quite a lot of cabernets from the Coonawarra.
And our collective pity goes out to the poor collector who proudly declared to us that he had a rare bottle of 1957 Grange and asked how much it was worth. We first asked how it had been stored, to which he replied that it had been stored standing up! When told that it could have be worth in excess of $18,000 if it was in good condition, the silence coming from this collector was quite deafening!
Until W553, all of us at Oddbins Wine Auctions wish you strong bidding.
From Graham Wright and the ever reliable but excitable team at Oddbins.