A special charity auction of wines from this year's Decanter World Wine Awards held by Christie's in London has fetched more than £40,000.
David Elswood of Christie’s leads the DWWA auction in London.
Bidders in Christie’s‘ King Street salesroom vied with online buyers from Ireland and China for hundreds of cases split into 65 lots.
All wines were sourced from the 2014 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) and proceeds from the auction will go to international charity WaterAid.
Christie’s’ international head of fine wine, David Elswood, said hammer sales reached £40,280, with all lots sold. The auction house will offer a further 56 lots in an online-only sale on 30 October.
In total, more than 400 cases of wine spanning a record 121 lots are included in the two-part charity auction that forms part of the Wine into Water initiative.
One of the best-performing lots in today’s sale was 48 bottles of Champagne, covering vintage and non-vintage wines from both small growers and Grands Marques, which fetched £1,000 versus a high estimate of £950.
Another lot, encompassing 48 bottles of red Bordeaux from Medoc, Saint-Estephe, Saint-Julien, Margaux, Graves, Pessac-Leognan, Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, fetched £650 versus a pre-sale high estimate of £600.
Other DWWA wines in the sale included mixed lots from the Rhone, Spain and Italy, as well as white Burgundy and Port.
Decanter‘s Publishing director, Sarah Kemp, praised the generosity of buyers. Ahead of the sale, she described her experience of visiting a small village in Zambia in 2012 and meeting a girl named Fenny, who has since benefited from money raised via previous wine sales.
‘Every time you pull the cork on of those bottles, you are helping someone like Fenny,’ she told buyers.
This year’s auction marked the ninth year of partnership between Decanter and WaterAid, the international charity dedicated to providing domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education across Africa and Asia. Since 2005, more than £450,000 has been raised through the Wine into Water initiative.
Written by Decanter.com staff
