For The Love Of Port

I don't record every UK auction price for port, (and some houses do not publish auction results) but I check most of them against my database to the extent that I can now produce a reasonably sound estimate for any given VP lot offered in the Uk - subject of course to the occasional antics of those who bid first and think later..

The estimates published in the auction catalogues are more likely to be based on the vendor's reserve price (low estimate being often one bid above the reserve) then to be based on the wisdom and experience of the auctioneer.

It is not uncommon for wines to go unsold, because the vendor is often resolved (initially, at least) to recover his original outlay and storage costs.

Sometimes, however, the vendor gets lucky because someone hasn't done their homework and assumes that a buy at low estimate has got to be a good deal..

I'm not going to publish my database of prices, not least because I am constantly updating it, but if anyone wants to check what they should bid or find out what their surplus stock is likely to realise, then feel free to PM me.

Tom

Tom,

Thanks for that. Sounds good.

Alan

Thank you.

Tom-

I don't know if you keep an eye on any US auctions, but I'm curious to get your thoughts on the recent prices for ports from the last auction at The Chicago Wine Company. The hammer prices are here (you can search the page for "port" to find the stuff WE care about):

https://ssl6.cniweb.net/tcwc/378ham.htm

I plan to acquire my cellar full of port somewhat slowly and think that some of these auctions may be a way to do so in addition to keeping an eye on the retail market.

Very interested in your thoughts. Feel free to PM me if you like.

Cheers,
Rich G.

Scanning through those results, the gulf between UK and US prices was less noticeable than usual - but then, we are now in the dizzy heights of $2/£.

To save me trawling through the detail, is their a buyers premium to add to those prices?

- Always ask yourself.. - who's selling? - and why??

Tom

I have purchased from TCWC one time and had a good experience with them, I can say they do not charge a buyer's premium, so the hammer prices listed are accurate--for those interested in American prices, they have a pretty extensive history of hammer prices on ports. In fact, though I have not done it myself, I do think they have some downloadable and searchable database of all their past hammer prices--might be good information to those interested.

As a separate note, I noticed that HDH wine, also in Chicago had a big auction this weekend, and while they didn't have many ports in the lot, I saw the hammer prices today--1931 Noval went for 3800 I think, not a cheap drink.