The Oddbins September 20th auction was certainly a big one; with over 2,700 lots on offer it certainly was a case of wines for every palate and every purse. The catalogue was substantially expanded by the presence of a rather interesting cellar that was subject to a fire and the inclusion of a big number of semi-commercial, (that is, there lots of them) fully packaged and current vintage reds and whites. However, this sale was slightly skewed by the withdrawal of a number of key lots for the forthcoming live Tasting Australia auction, to be held on October 20.
September also saw a number of intriguing and interesting lots being offered for sale: from the newly released 2003 Wendouree shiraz to an ancient but amazingly pristine 1955 Ch Gillette French sticky and one of the biggest fizz bottles we have seen in a long time, a Nebuchadnezzar of Moet.
And what is a Nebuchadnezzar? It’s 15 litres or 20 bottles of joy in one big container. And out of interest, the French have only ever used this tem in relation to the wines of Champagne, not Bordeaux. So what is the full list of Champagne sizes? There’s…
Magnums (2 bottles)
Jeroboams (4 bottles)
Rehoboams (6 bottles)
Methuselahs (8 bottles)
Salmanazars (12 bottles)
Balthazars (16 bottles)
And the big chap mentioned above.
The stars of this auction are certainly one of the most intriguing selections I have seen for some time. The above mention Moet et Chandon Nebuchadnezzar fetched a hammer price of $1015, while a perfectly drinkable DRC La Tache 97 achieved $890, then there was the famed 1990 Ch d’Yquem achieving $800, while an extraordinarily rare Ch Gillette 55 and in pristine condition reached a remarkable $505 (and if anybody knows the story about this Chateaux, please drop me a line), a Torbreck RunRig 96 falling for $300, while an exotic Ringland Randall’s Hill shiraz fell for $250 and finally, a brand new vintage of 2003 Wendouree Shiraz achieved a very respectable $65 per bottle.
Other good auction achievers this month included offerings from our commercial and semi-commercial offerings and our mixed lots of current vintage whites. The Fire Sale items achieved a 100% success rate even after warnings of possible heat and water damage. Other good sales were found with older, classic Australian fortifieds and cabernets and shiraz from the good vintages and the wines of Bordeaux, Champagne and Sauternes.
Specific interest was also show in the wines on offer from Noon’s, Wolf Blass and Rosemount, while cabernets from Wynn’s including the John Riddoch also sold well. Penfold’s Bins 389 and 707, Magill, RWT and St Henri’s and two Barossa heavy weights, BVE’s Black Pepper shiraz and the Command from Elderton also achieved good hammer prices in this sale.
Inevitably, consumers were slow to take a number of normally popular auction wines, such as Cullen’s super premium cabernet blends, Grosset Watervale rieslings, Henschke Cyril & Abbotts Prayers, the reds of Mountadam and surprisingly the cabernets from Seppelt’s famed Dorrien vineyard. Needless to say, the auction market like the stock market is all about swings and roundabouts and no doubt our next auction will tell another but slightly different story.
The Good Grange Index, our way of telling the health of the Grange market was steady at 105 pts due mainly to above average prices paid for the 1990 and 1994 Grange. An interesting feature to have also come out of this auction was an up turn in interest in the 1998 Grange, a wine that has been in oversupply for quite some time. An even better indication of how the Grange market is going will come out of our live Tasting Australia auction, to be held next month.
Another feature of this big auction was the amount of “buy bids” that were submitted by subscribers. This is where the bidder says to auctioneer, “I don’t care what I pay for it, I just want that wine!” Obviously, this is an excellent way of securing that much sought after lot and because of the way we look after our buyers, you will only pay one bidding step above the next highest bidder.
However, the buyer also needs to be aware that the next highest bid may turn out to be very high in which case both the vendor and the auction house will be very delighted indeed. Or even worse still, the next highest bidder may have placed a “buy bid” as well!
So until our October 24th Tasting Australia report, all of us from Oddbins wishes you successful bidding.
Graham Wright & the ever reliable & excitable team at Oddbins.