You don’t have to be a plutocrat bidding incredible sums for cases (or
even bottles) of investment grade Bordeaux and Burgundy to take part in a wine
auction. Because every auction will feature hundreds of affordable, interesting
and even excellent lots that the rest of us can afford to bid on. And for this
we can largely thank the three Ds of Death, Debt and Divorce.
In the case of Death, private collections that lie in dank cellars and dark
cupboards are disposed of by the family of the deceased. Debt frequently causes
successful businessmen to unload the wine collection they accumulated when the
going was good. These guys often buy more wine than they can ever drink, sometimes
without even knowing what they are buying. As for Divorce, why shouldn’t it be you who ends up with the wine when the
assets are split?
(Of course, Death,
Debt and Divorce, or combinations thereof, can also ensue from buying rather too
much wine at auction, but we need not dwell on that).
Another reason why
auctions are a good hunting ground is that many lots come from shops and merchants who send
perfectly good wines to auction because they need to free up space in their
premises. Many of these wines will be hitting their optimum drinking window as you
catch the eye of the auctioneer.
Bargains galore
Much of my cellar
– such as it is – has been sourced in this way. Where else could I have picked
up a few bottles of the
mercurial Marc Tempé’s 1999 Mambourg Vendage Tardive for just £9 per bottle
(including commission)? Or three bottles of ageless 1989 Domaine la Roquette
for £20 each? Or, to go up a level or two, a 12-bottle case of
Tardieu-Laurent’s better cuvees from 2004 for half the market price? And just
recently I bought a mixed case of 12 different bottles of Bordeaux going back
to 1961 for less than £10 a bottle including commission. Thus far, all the
bottles have been very good.
Those are just a
few of the gems I have taken home over the last 20 years and I would encourage
anyone to negotiate the risks, rituals and rewards of wine auctions. However, I
have made my share of mistakes and I often see the over-optimistic and
under-researched spending good money on bad lots. So, how does one go about walking
away with excellent low- to mid-priced lots alongside one or two more expensive
bottles?
Online or on-site?
There are wine
auctions taking place all over the world on any given day, and they all allow
you to bid online. The catalogues are available to download in advance and you
can often continue to bid on unsold lots for some days after the official
auction date. However, it is not cost-effective to have low- or mid-level purchases
shipped from the other side of the world. And for all the wonders of the
internet I much prefer to attend the auction in person. It makes for a very
civilised day out and you can sample some of the wines in the pre-tasting. Even
better, I know of at least one auction house that supplies you with complimentary
food and wine all day, Las Vegas-style.
The catalogue
The auction catalogue
will provide a detailed description of the appearance of the wine and the
condition of the capsule and label etc. Perhaps most importantly, the ullage
will be noted as an indication of how much of the wine has evaporated over
time. The general rule (or belief) here is that the lower the ullage (or ‘fill
level’), the more likely it is that the wine will have deteriorated.
However, catalogue
descriptions are by no means an infallible guide to the quality of the wine. Youngish
bottles of excellent appearance from good producers can be poor, while ancient bottles
that appear to have been rescued from a landfill site can be wonderful. All auction
houses will allow you to inspect the goods prior to the auction. Ultimately, it’s
a case of caveat emptor, although experience
with different wine types and vintages will help you to make fewer mistakes
over time and pick up that great case of 1980s Madiran that nobody else has
spotted.
Do the research
Always do as much
research as possible before deciding which lots to bid on, especially if you
don’t have a deep knowledge of the producer and/or appellation pertaining to a specific
lot. Prior to the auction I will spend a few hours consulting various books and
websites, or friends who know more about a given wine than I do.
In this respect John
Livingstone-Learmonth’s book The Wines Of
The Northern Rhone is a remarkably accurate guide to the quality and
drinking life of wines made 15 to 20 years ago. James Halliday is a good guide
when it comes to Australian wine. Online forums such as Cellar Tracker can be
useful although reviews are often contradictory, and standard references such
as Robert Parker and Hugh Johnson help to build up a picture of whether or not
to bid. Above all, I have spent many years attending blind tastings of old
wines going back to the 1920s. This has given me a good knowledge of vintage Bordeaux,
along with experience of older wines from the Rhone, Burgundy, Italy, Spain and
elsewhere.
Maximising your chances
Your tastes will
not be mine. However, having bought countless lots from around the world, vintages
ranging from 1937 to 2015, and bottles priced from £4 pounds to £150, I can
offer a few guidelines that will increase your odds of drinking happily, not
spitting angrily.
Good value reds
Powerful, tannic reds
from places like Madiran, Cahors, Puglia, and Portugal invariably remain
drinkable and even wonderful for many decades. They are often available for
just a few pounds per bottle.
At a slightly
higher price level I have been investigating wines from some of the better
Languedoc and Australian producers (particularly those under screwcap) from the
early noughties, with very positive results. In principle, tannic reds from
anywhere are usually worth a punt.
Good value whites
Obviously, dry
whites tend to lack longevity, but Riesling is a glorious exception and you can
usually find cheap lots of German wines from the 1980s and earlier that are still
very nice to drink. Sweet whites can last forever but the more celebrated ones will
be expensive. On the other hand, it is often possible to buy wonderful 1980s/90s
late harvest Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer from Germany and Alsace,
not to mention Coteaux du Layon, for next to nothing.
Burgundy
If it’s more than
a few years old and affordable, beware. Even if it’s less than a few years old
and affordable, beware. If it’s from a famous producer, beware. If it’s from a
producer you’ve never heard of, beware. The debtor’s jails and psychiatric
clinics are full of people whose dreams have been destroyed over many years of
purchasing Burgundy at auction.
Do as much research
as you can and, unless money is no object, restrict purchases to wines that are
less than 10 years old for reds and even younger vintages for whites.
Rhone
Syrah from the
Northern Rhone can remain in very good shape for 30 or 40 years, and can often be bought
quite inexpensively. I will never forget a case of 1979 Gerin Cote-Rotie that
only cost a few pounds per bottle. A recent bottle of 1983 Cornas from Delas
was excellent, and you can usually rely on the better producers from across all
appellations.
In the Southern
Rhone good examples of Chateauneuf du Pape from good vintages can last for 50
years or more and be eminently affordable. They might even come in those woozy old CdP bottles. Elsewhere in this region, it is best to
stick to more recent vintages unless you have specialized knowledge of certain producers
from appellations such as Gigondas and Vacqueryas.
Bordeaux
There are very few
bargains to be had but keep an eye out for right bank satellites from the last 15
years or so. In terms of very old vintages i.e. pre-1960, chateau that you’ve
never heard of are just as likely to be drinkable as famous estates and can
sometimes be bought for pennies. Dry Bordeaux whites can be fickle and often
begin to fade after just a few years so caution and careful research are
advised. The dessert wines from Sauternes, Barsac and their satellites last
forever and you can find enjoyable bottles that are 50 years old for a few
pounds.
Italy
It is possible to
find good value Barolo and Barbaresco from less prestigious producers but stick
to relatively recent vintages. That said, if you spot some ‘Spanne’ (an old local
name for Nebbiolo) from the 1960s and it’s not too expensive, give it a go. Be
very careful at all price levels in Tuscany as Sangiovese rarely ages well,
although I encountered a very nice 1993 Brunello in a pre-tasting recently.
Reds from the Aglianico and Primitivo grapes in Campania and Puglia respectively
are big, dark and tannic, good value and still drinkable for many years after
bottling.
Spain
Red Rioja
invariably lasts for decades and will not break the banco. Good reds from
Priorat and Penedes can also go on and on but will be more expensive.
Very old wines
Some people are
irresistibly attracted to old wines. (For the purposes of this article we can define
‘old’ as pre-1980.) I am one of these people.
Others think such wines
are a bizarre indication of necrophilia over oenophilia. It’s a big subject and
unless you have a detailed knowledge of aging and vintages as they relate to
different wine regions, appellations and producers you should be careful. For
instance, that case of old Bordeaux might look like good value at £100 – until
you realise that all the bottles are from 1973 and 1974 (two very bad vintages.)
Spread your bets and go for an inexpensive mixed lot of different chateau and
decent vintages – you don’t want to end up with 12 undrinkable bottles of the
same wine.
Good bottles in mixed cases
The professionals
and the rich prefer to buy perfect, six- or twelve-bottle cases of the best wines.
This sometimes enables the rest of us to find, hidden in mixed cases, small
hauls of marquee wines at lower than market prices. I have enjoyed the top
cuvees of Cavallotto, Clape and Domenico Clerico, among others, in this way.
Understanding the catalogue
Every lot in the
auction catalogue will feature the name(s) of the producer(s), the cuvee(s),
the vintage(s) and appellation(s) etc. This will be accompanied by a series of
initials that provide a detailed description of every single bottle within the
lot. A glossary of these initials will be found in the catalogue.
Here I list a few
of the standard descriptors, along with my alternative versions, in amused affection
and tribute to wine auction houses everywhere.
OWC: Own Wooden Case/Own Wooden Coffin
WC: Wooden Case/Was Chablis
BC: Below Cork/Before Christ
FL: Faded Label/Feeling Lucky?
SOS: Signs of Seepage/Some Old Sauvignon
WISL: Wine Stained Label/Will I Still Love It Tomorrow?
LL: Loose Label/Litigation Likely
NL: Nicked Label/Not Likely
TS: Top Shoulder/Tough Sell
DC: Depressed Cork/Disappointed Customer
SDC: Slightly Depressed Cork/Seriously Disappointed Customer
TL: Torn Label/Total Lunacy
TAL: Tattered Label/Tannins Lacking
PC: Protruding Cork/Previously Chianti
HTMS: High-to-Mid-Shoulder/Hit and Miss
VHS: Very-High-Shoulder/Vinegar Hardly Surprising
MS: Mid-Shoulder/Might Survive
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