Christie's (NY) Auction Dec 8-Madeira

Scott Anaya · Post by **Scott Anaya** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:07 pm

8 Dec Fine Wines and Spirits Featuring an Extraordinary Collection of 18th and 19th Century Madeira

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... leID=21325

Wow....Some awesome reading if even not bidding!

I'll post this same post in the marketplace section too.

Reidar Andersen · Post by **Reidar Andersen** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 4:42 am

Wow !! Wonder who owned thesse bottles ?? And what the prices will be..

Scott, keep us informed....... :!:

Reidar

Marco D. · Post by **Marco D.** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:05 am

Thanks for posting this. Lots of interesting lots of wines I've never seen offered before. Estimated prices are scary!

Julian D. A. Wiseman · Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:33 am

I intend to attend in person. If you do too, then please introduce yourself to any pepper-and-salt 6′2″ Englishmen you see.

Scott Anaya · Post by **Scott Anaya** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:27 pm

I can't attend as I live in Alaska and am in Mexico at the moment! But I did place a few absentee bids......

maybe we can look to Mr wiseman to keep us all posted!?

Julian D. A. Wiseman · Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:37 pm

Hopefully not for the lots I want!

Heather Hathwell · Post by **Heather Hathwell** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:34 pm

The $38K-40K one is especially daunting....

whoever bids and wins on any of these lots is lucky indeed.... I wonder if I can get up the courage to "bottom feed" (is it)? Must be chosen wisely. Heaven forbid one get extraordinarily lucky and win all when one expects to be lucky enough for 1 win.

Scott Anaya · Post by **Scott Anaya** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:35 am

Really good point Heather. Unlke a few other auctions where I am able to put an overall auction total I am willing to spend, Chrisitie's doesn't appear to have that sort of stop-put option. So yeah, if I get all the lots I put bids on, the credit card is gonna take a ding

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 2:27 am

Wow !! Wonder who owned thesse bottles ?? And what the prices will be..

Scott, keep us informed.......

Reidar

Anybody who wins any lots will be extraordinarily fortunate as I can assure you the provenance is excellent and I believe the individual is amongst the top two or three Madeira collectors in the USA. I hope he maximizes his profits. Now I will go back and read the article.

Heather Hathwell · Post by **Heather Hathwell** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:25 pm

OK, so maybe I'm crazy but I could not resist.... I thought I'd try my hand (within reason - I'm no auction regular and I am certainly no Rockefeller).... but I could be on my death bed before any of this particularly fabulous stuff comes up again..... and so I wait for 12 hours to tick

.... Anyone else who took the plunge and in a similar state of eager anticipation?

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:53 am

I spent the past 5.5 hours with one person from this Forum who had not participated in this thread and we drank through a dozen of the Madeiras that will be sold tomorrow. It was a stellar lineup and I wish I could attend, but sacrifices must be made.

We went through the auction catalogue with a fine tooth comb for Madeira buys and Ports too ... although most of those prices are silly. As I know the seller of all these lots, I hope he does very well and there are few bargains being offered. However, he purchased the vast majority of these bottles over the past few decades and has a stunning cellar to say the least.

I am very excited to see what the prices wind up being for many of the Madeira lots. The only good news is that the Madeiras offered make up a small fraction of this gent's holdings, so if the prices net out well, it is likely that we'd see more of the same in the future.

Good luck to all. Please practice safe bidding and stay within your budgets. Check your emotions at the front door!

Scott Anaya · Post by **Scott Anaya** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 10:25 am

Good luck to all. Please practice safe bidding and stay within your budgets. Check your emotions at the front door!

Roy, Good tips. This is exactly why I put in absentee bids :)

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:29 am

What concerns me here, is that given the consignor's depth and breadth of Madeiras offered at the Christie's auction -- that precedent will be set for future pricing of similar lots.

With an already scarce resource such as old Vintage and Solera method Madeiras, a feeding frenzy stirred by such a rare and deep collection of Madeira bottles being offered, I am afraid of the bar being permanently raised "artificially."

Given some new money and new collectors into Madeira "trophy hunting" (older is better mentality to show off to friends) over the past few years ... the already high estimates shown for the reserve and range of pricing at this auction might just get folks into serious bidding wars over bottles they feel they'll never have access to again.

Time will tell and it is still early in the day, but I hope folks use a modicum of restraint and realize how few bargains are offered and keep within reasonable ranges.

Until last night, I was unaware of the 30%++ upcharge

(20% buyer's premium and 10% taxation ... not to mention the additional cost of shipping and insurance) at Christie's nowadays. Therefore, as an example: a $500 bottle of Malmsey would actually cost over $650 all in, and hopefully bidders do not use the age old "jedi mind game" of intentionally ignoring the 30% add ons, as a means to justify the price of bidding up a specific lot. Those that have played the game understand the dynamics of what can go through the head of a *player* that is out to WIN a specific lot.

Reidar Andersen · Post by **Reidar Andersen** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:04 pm

ROY, THANKS FOR AN EXCELLENT POSTING....... :!: :!:

REIDAR

Heather Hathwell · Post by **Heather Hathwell** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:54 pm

I, too, did absentee. And no, I did not win anything as the items went well beyond the estimate. C'est la vie. I appreciate Roy's most recent post on this. I realize it is just going to make it extremely difficult for people like me and probably many of you to procure a special bottle and tuck away for an amazing occasion, for a near nirvana experience. It is difficult already with prices where they are and so few unusual bottles. I saw an article somewhere that seemed intended to draw in history buffs to the auction for the sake of the history (that hint of a trophy for trophy sake) rather than an interest in madeira.

I was intrigued by Roy's other post on Solera also (I was priced out of one). I enjoy a Solera, and so long as it was bottled sufficiently long ago that the most recent vintage has at least a little age on it, fine by me. I just would not want something that was 95% very recent vintages and a drop or two of old as I may as well just track down some really fabulous non-vintage "extra reserva" type stuff that's maybe 30 years old or more and save some money. I realize I potentially risk exposing an insufficient knowledge of precise solera methods by the assumption it can be that kind of ratio, but I welcome any necessary correction.
But in any case, it is indeed a sad state of affairs if even the orphan child is well out of reach now in the auction world and thereafter in the world at large.

Reidar Andersen · Post by **Reidar Andersen** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:05 pm

When will the prices be posted ? Soon going to bed here in Norway .......

Heather Hathwell · Post by **Heather Hathwell** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:29 pm

Should be within 24 hours after. I did call this morning to enquire after a couple (following are hammer prices I was told, before the add-ons of premium etc):

Lot 0011 (Catherine Banks, 1 bottle, 1805) $1600 (vs estimate $750-1000)

Lot 0012 (1805 Terrantez, 1 bottle) $1900 (vs estimate $750-1000)

Lot 0017 (Extra Malmsey Solera 1808, 3 bottles) $1500 (vs estimate of $750-1000)

Lot 0039 (The Mexican, 1841, 1 bottle) $1100 (vs estimate of $750-1000)

I had hoped to win that solera but it wasn't to be. Lucky whoever won any of these, in any case!

Scott Anaya · Post by **Scott Anaya** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:40 am

Roy et al.,

What concerns me here, is that given the consignor's depth and breadth of Madeiras offered at the Christie's auction -- that precedent will be set for future pricing of similar lots.

This is exactly why I put some bids in this auction. I'm not sure the bar is being raised artificially, although i can see why this case could be made. The same happens with any newly "discovered" wine region. It is happening with Champagne. It hasn't happened with the Rhone too bad yet, which is why I am stocking up on some of those wines before they go thru the roof.

I mean the same pricing is happening all over in the wine world. Back with the 2000 Bordeaux, I knew the prices were "artificially" high with all the new money looking for trophy's. But it's a different world with the ever increasing luxury world getting richer and richer and buying more and more wine driving up prices in the process. The high end restaurants have no limit to what they will procure for their cellar.

Most of the reason I buy any trophy wines, old Madeira included, is that I know that when i drink them, especially if I drink them 20+ years from now, I will have been glad I took a financial strain when i was younger to procure those bottles. Because I can tell ya, I am not likely going to be paying $2,000 for those Bordeaux or Madeira bottles in 2030 or even what some of these bottles already go for now! And thus will never get to taste some of these true historical classics.

Opening a 19th century Madeira for a group of uber excited wine drinking friends and having them be as amazed as I at how fresh these things taste 150+ years later is truly an experience I hope to continue to have throughout my life. So I gotta buy now, 'cause we don't have the lottery in Alaska!

Plus I hope to be able to leverage my great bottles for off-lines where I get to taste even more...I know I will have to pony up!

This precise thread is something I think about all the tme when I am buying any wine of stature in the marketplace. And sometimes I feel I was born just about 5-7 years too late for being able to purchase higher end wines. But I soldier on with minimum or smart value bids in differing auctions, and every now again, usually in August and December's elections I get lucky when no one else is paying attention to those things while it is holiday.

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:44 pm

Have you all seen the final pricing of the lots? If you are interested in a specific lot number, post it here and I'd be happy to share. I have it in a .pdf and unfortunately can't copy the whole thing here.

Alan Gardner · Post by **Alan Gardner** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:15 pm

Or you can go here:
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... leID=21325

Click on the "Lot Details" and it will take you to a full description of that lot and the price realized.

For The Love Of Port