Fine wine buyers are far from tired of top Bordeaux if the offer is right, suggests the result of a rare Sotheby's auction of ex-cellar Chateau Margaux in New York that saw fierce bidding.
Sotheby’s said its Chateau Margaux auction held in New York on Saturday (17 October) fetched $2.77m, nearly double the firm’s pre-sale high estimate of $1.4m.
Buyers from the Americas and Asia bid fiercely for top vintages of Chateau Margaux direct from the Medoc first growth’s cellars, reinforcing opinion within the trade that New York is a resurgent force in the fine wine auction game after several years as clear second best to Hong Kong.
This latest result also offers a dose of perspective to those who decry Bordeaux as unfashionable and out of touch; albeit the auction scene is only one cog in a bigger fine wine trading market.
Chateau Margaux vintages sold during the auction dated from the early 1900s to 2010. A bottle of Margaux 1909 – recorked in 1979 – sold for $9,188, versus a pre-sale high estimate of $2,800.
Of the more recent vintages, many buyers showed interest in Bordeaux 2000. Several 12 bottle lots of Chateau Margaux 2000 were among the most sought after wines and the individual lots sold for $36,750 each against a pre-sale top estimate of $15,000.
Top lot in the auction was a vertical collection of Margaux magnums from 1978 to 2012 inclusive and all signed by the chateau’s managing director, Paul Pontallier. It fetched $67,375, including buyer’s premium, versus a pre-sale high estimate of $50,000.
The purchaser’s details were not revealed, as is standard in the wine auction world.
