Eat, drink and bid
Zachys re-entered the wine auction business with an unusual but successful format for the sale that occurred this weekend according to this New York Times story (registration required). Who says the economy isn't doing so well?!
In New York, which has displaced London as the wine auction capital, five houses now compete internationally for cellars and buyers. With absentee bidders' purchases strong and the economy weak, auction floors can be sleepy. Daniel's dining room, with merchants' agents and sommeliers seeking good buys, ranged from perhaps 40 to 80 percent full.
Charles Klatskin, a prominent New Jersey collector, said, "The most important thing here is the provenance" — the sources of the lots and established history and soundness of storage conditions.
...The top earner, a case of 1945 Château Mouton-Rothschild, a red Bordeaux estimated at $75,000, fetched $87,000 from an American buyer. Six magnums of 1990 Romane-Conti from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, red Burgundy estimated at $65,000, brought $69,600. Twelve bottles of 1982 Château Pétrus, a blue-chip Pomerol, estimated at $22,000, earned $25,520.