While a far cry from the record set in 2022 of €29,788,500, the average price per barrel sold – €31,540 – represented a small increase from last year’s average, at €30,839 per barrel, even if bids were lower per barrel than the record 2022 sale, when the average price per barrel sold for €35,974.
That less money was raised compared to last year to upkeep the Hospices Civils de Beaune’s hospitals ‘can be fully explained’ by far fewer barrels on offer this year, said Willem Schiks, export manager for Maison François Martenot, a prominent auction buyer.
‘A very good result’ despite lower yields
Although not the lowest number of barrels to go under the hammer – that record was set in 2021, with 356 barrels and five half barrels – the 438 barrels and three half barrels this year amounted to under 60% of the 753 barrels sold in 2023, reflecting the lower yields of the 2024 vintage compared to last year’s generous harvest.
‘A very good result,’ said Nick Pegna, global head of wines & spirits for Sotheby’s, who also stressed ‘mixed wider market conditions’ as a factor.
Célian Ravel d’Estienne, head of wine auction sales, Sotheby’s France, said: ‘Speaking on behalf of myself and our global wine team, we feel very passionate about working with the Hospices and championing both the cause and their wines. This year, we were able to build a successful sale with the wonderful wines from Ludivine despite the climatic challenges faced by the whole Burgundy region, resulting in much lower volumes than the two previous vintages.’
The rather high average price per barrel was driven by a record 354 paddles from 32 countries – compared to last year’s 292. About 40% of the bidders were American, 30% from Asia – including China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia – and the rest mainly from Europe, according to Sotheby’s.
The white wines ‘played a particularly important role,’ according to a Sotheby’s press release, with new record prices such as the Bâtard-Montrachet at €355,000. The auction featured 51 cuvées, including village, premiers, and grands crus, from the Hospices’ 60 hectares of vineyards, which were certified organic in 2024, following a three-year conversion period.
President’s barrel: A record sum for a Premier Cru
The President’s barrel. Credit: Sotheby’s Press Office
In addition to the 51 cuvées, the special charity barrel, the Pièce des Présidents – a Beaune 1er Cru Les Bressandes – was sold for €360,000, which constitutes a record for a Premier Cru as a President’s barrel.
Although very different from the historic record for the President’s barrel – €810,000 for a Corton Grand Cru set at the 2022 auction – it surpassed last year’s hammer price (€350,000) for Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru as Pièce des Présidents.
Proceeds from the barrel – produced from a single plot within the estate that is usually used for four other cuvées (Nicolas Rolin, Guigone de Salins, Dames Hospitalières and Brunet) – will benefit two entities. The first is Médecins Sans Frontières, the international medical humanitarian association that provides medical assistance to people whose health or lives are threatened worldwide. The second, Global Gift Foundation, is a humanitarian non-profit organisation founded in 2013 by Spanish actress María Bravo, to help women and children in vulnerable situations, including for example families from recent floods in Valencia, Spain, said Bravo at the press conference.
Famous faces
Eva Longoria and Zabou Breitman bring the hammer down on the sale of the President’s barrel. Credit: Micha Patault / Courtesy of Sotheby’s Press Office
Famous for roles in Vice and The Crown, among others, English actor Dominic West, who, along with French actress Zabou Breitman, was representing Médecins Sans Frontières, proved especially charismatic, taking over from the Sotheby’s auctioneer to urge higher bids for the President’s barrel. At one point, after bidding €300,000 for himself, West half joked: ‘I might have to sell the house’ when no higher bid initially came. After a bid for €350,000, he offered to take his top off for higher bids – and then threatening to take it off, ‘if you don’t give me 450’.
Eva Longoria, famous for her role in the series Desperate Housewives, who was representing the charity Global Gift Foundation (along with French actor Jean Reno), offered to drink ‘any bottle’ with the person who would bid higher. Finally, the winning €360,000 bid came from Brazilian wine company Anima Vinum, whose owner, Mr Pereira Lino, constructed a museum dedicated to the Hospices de Beaune.
In addition to the bid from Anima Vinum, Francine Picard, of Domaines Famille Picard offered another €100,000 – bringing the total to €460,000 to the two charities featured at the auction – but not for the barrel. ‘I felt so moved when I saw the video for the Global Gift Foundation and the children affected by circumstances outside of their control,’ she said, and, ‘I feel fortunate to have the life I lead, so I felt compelled to help the young who don’t ask for anything with a gesture of support.’
Speaking in Spanish, Longoria told bidders that proceeds would from the sale also would help victims for the recent devastating floods in Spain.
‘It was a very good price for the barrel,’ said Pierre Gernelle, who represents a federation of Burgundy wine houses, and he also underlined the ‘mixed economic circumstances.’
Money raised to upkeep the Hospices Civils de Beaune’s hospitals will also contribute to a €6m construction of a new hospital building of some 15,000 m² on the Beaune hospital site, between the emergency room and the vat room. The new hospital establishment will replace the old hospital building known as ‘H’.
A challenging vintage
The low number of barrels for the sale reflected the low overall yields in Burgundy in 2024, with the overall harvest reaching 1.135 million hectolitres, compared to 1.9 million in 2023 and 1.75 million in 2022.
One day ahead of the sale, Hospices de Beaune estate manager Ludivine Griveau spoke about how extreme rainfall and disease pressure – particularly from mildew – proved challenging. While flowering started well, rains led to poor fecundation (dropping of flowers) and coulure, causing irregular bunches of grapes and lower volume.
The estate resisted mildew pressure from constant rainfall until the end of July, Griveau said, by which times vines especially in Savigny and Corton were affected, but other appellations suffered far less. ‘We had just as much wine from Beaune and Volnay, for example, as we had in 2019’, she said. In terms of alcohol, 2024 is a more ‘Burgundian style’ with natural degrees between 12 and 12.5. In some cases, the estate chaptalised the wines, but many appellations, she stressed, saw no need for adding sugar, listing for example Beaune Blanc 1er Cru Clos des Mouches and Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes among whites and Beaune Les Grèves Pierre Floquet, Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Avaux, and Pommard 1er Cru Les Epenots Dom Goblet among reds.
Industry observers praised the hard work that Griveau and her team put into making successful wines for the Hospices, including the Sundays and holidays needed to treat the vines during steady rainfall. Tasters the day before the auction were astounded by the high quality. ‘I am pleasantly surprised with the 2024s because weather was awful, the yields were terrible, the potential for rot enormous, but the wines are spectacular,’ said wine writer Michael Apstein. ‘The whites are fresh and have great acidity, which amplifies the flavours and finish, and the reds have plushness, the oak is well integrated, and the wines are transparent, with clear differences from site to site.’
Schiks said that conditions were worse in the Côte de Nuits, which partly explains the more successful performance from wines at the Côte de Beaune. ‘I think that the Côte de Nuits was more impacted his year by loss of yields as compared to the Côte de Beaune, and somehow it was more difficult to vinify in the north,’ he said.
