If there’s one part of the wine industry that seems very active during lockdown – at-least, judging by my inbox – then it’s wine auctions.

Sotheby’s are hammering it with practically simultaneous auctions in London, New York and Hong Kong; it’s the former with all those rather rare Domaine des Chézeaux bottles and magnums that I’ll be following the most – The Cointreau Collection – not least because I have quite a bit of those wines myself!

But their other auctions remain far from academic despite wall-to-wall DRC and Roumier in New York, and with so many magnums too, though I particularly loved the juxtaposition of lots 325 and 326 – bottles of Faiveley’s Musigny, next to Drouhin’s Côte de Nuits Villages 🙂

As for Sotheby’s Hong Kong ‘Summit‘ sale, many of the DRC, Rousseau and Dujac bottles are so large, and relatively young, that I seriously doubt that they were ever bought for drinking – and that’s sad.

Of course, it’s not just Sotheby’s and their clients; witness Australian author and critic James Halliday selling off (some/all?) of his collection of DRC. At 80-years-old and a couple of years senior to Aubert de Villaine of the that Vosne-Romanée domaine, this seems nothing more than sense. I just hope that a) I’m still around and b) can still, unaided, operate a corkscrew at the same age!

Enjoy your auction lots!