Oddbins Auction & Market ReportW544 - 12/08/2004Our Great Big Fat August Auction…With over 2,800 lots on offer, the Oddbins W544 auction was the largest this company has experienced for quite some time. From what was on offer it appears that both collectors and investors are starting to look for returns on their investments/collections. This was noticeable by the appearance in numbers of the 1996 and 1998 vintage “desirables”, particularly the super premiums from Penfolds. Clearances and turnover from this auction were within expectation but once again buyers are definitely looking for bargains, as the bids were being placed at the lower end of the published price guides. As with the retail wine trade, the secondary market is now a buyers market with very specific needs. So in summary: Australian shiraz is the preferred wine style, the so called poor or lesser vintages are being avoided over the better years with some bottle age, Barossa and McLaren Vale are the preferred wine regions, as consumers are opting for either single and 6 pack lots with a preference for their purchases to come in their original packages, timber cases or presentation boxes and the wines need to be in good condition. Grange…This single wine is essentially the powerhouse behind the Australian secondary market and the current enthusiasm shown by the market place for aged and historic Grange is bordering on the remarkable. Once again record prices were paid for pre 1960 bottlings of Grange: with an imperfect Bin 4 1952 example fetching $5550, a Bin 11 1954 reaching $18500 and a Bin 14 1955 realising $2750. And not only were these significant Grange’s in demand, as good sales results were achieved for pre-1997 vintages. The shallow slump experienced post Christmas 2003 is now definitely over as prices paid for Grange continue on an upward trend. The Oddbins Good Grange Index, our way of monitoring Grange pricing, rose 2pts to 110pts for August, effectively ironing out the small hiccup experienced in June this year. However, there was noticeable lack of interest shown in the two current vintages of Grange, the famed 1998 and 1999’s, as more of these wines become increasingly available to the secondary market. Too early I hear the cry? Could be, so the advice to vendors is, be patient. Further, there was some surprise at the rapidity at which the 1999 vintage arrived on the secondary market. And here’s a tip, if you are unsuccessful at getting the newly released Grange in the retail market, you only have to wait for a short time for it to appear at auction. The Super Cults…This has certainly turned into a very fickle market. We are talking of course about the wines of Torbreck, Wild Duck Estate, Three Rivers style of wines. Essentially there is very limited supply and demand for these wines, which has in the past been driven by the US based collectors, which has created high expectations on the vendor’s behalf. For this auction, this fickleness continued with good demand for Three Rivers, a set of 1990 through 1995 sold on average for $660/bottle, but buyers staying away from other so called super cults. The Dominance Of Shiraz…After spending an entire weekend of tasting nothing but shiraz, it is easy to see why the world loves it…they are big and buxom, soft and supple, sweetly flavoured but have enough tannin and alcohol to add bite and grip to the final product. All other red styles, especially pinot noir, seem to pale into insignificance by comparison. And the current auction climate reinforces this viewpoint, shiraz is king! In light of this trend, there is a warning: be careful if you are thinking of long-term maturation of these wines – high alcohol and sweet, over ripe juice does not necessarily add up to longevity. Always seek advice. Naturally good bargains can be had with moderately aged cabernet and cabernet blends, but if you are still smitten with the current icon of Aussie winemaking, you can pick up excellent examples Clare Valley shiraz at very reasonable prices, such as Tim Adam’s well structured and intensely flavoured Aberfeldy. “A glass of your finest cooking claret, if I may” Horace Rumpole… Sadly, the wines of Burgundy, in particular the grand crus, the Rhone Valley and Italy are proving a little more difficult to sell. Having said that, an offering of a 1999 DRC La Tache fetched $2200. Champagne as always continues to bubble along. What Consumers Liked…A lot of interest was shown in the red wines of Penfolds, Henschke and Wolf Blass; in particular the Penfold’s Bin 707 and St Henri’s, the Hill of Grace and the Blass Black Label. There was a pick up in interest in the wines of Cullen and St Halletts Old Block with Rockford’s Basket Press continuing to achieve good pricing and clearance rates. W544 also returned good results for a number of Jimmy Watson trophy winners on offer, including the Chateau Yarrinya cabernet from 1977 and De Bortoli’s GS shiraz from 1996. And as mentioned above, buyers were also highly interested in historic old vintage reds, like the 1955 Michael that fetched $2200. Budget reds priced below $10 per bottle and commercial quantity lots were also highly sort after. Alas, the weather may be too cold for whites, as many class chardonnays and riesling’s were passed in. Ssssh…don’t tell any one, but…The market for the wines of Wendouree appears to have evaporated with a general lack of interest shown in most of the Wendouree stable of wines, with the possible exception of the shiraz from a good year. Why? I can’t adequately answer that. All the ingredients and hallmarks are there for these wines to be classic and collectable. The winery has a proven track record of producing high quality wines from high quality old vine vineyards, there is class winemaking and oak handling and they are notoriously long lived. You can also add to this the fact that they are very highly respected by both wine professionals, including most wine journalists and winemakers and wine aficionados alike. And finally, these wines are very difficult to obtain from the cellar door. So what’s the problem? It may be that they come from Clare or that the wines haven’t been “discovered” by the key American wine writers. So be very quiet, and don’t tell a soul about the amazing wines of A.P. Birk’s Wendouree. |