My understanding is they plan to reopen when it’s permitted and safe. Time will tell. They have a lot more wine beyond what’s going here, though likely not as old or rare.
Kind of sad but should be an interesting auction. Provenance of semi recent stuff can’t be beat as these guys have been buying wine on release for past 15-20 years (not just Del Posto but the B&B restaurant group broadly).
I do hope that despite selling off some of the cellar in an auction like this, Del Posto/Babbo will still retain a nice collection of wine when they reopen. Even if the prices weren’t always the lowest these have been two of the best restaurants in the world for Italian wine and you could trust the provenance. The Babbo sommelier team & wine program have been key over the past few years in expanding my love of Italian wine.
I didn’t go to Del Posto all that often because the wine was so expensive (and they refused to do corkage), but there’s little question the food was excellent. They charged a lot, but they weren’t fleecing.
I wonder what all those high end, high rolling places in Vegas that are dependent on whales are doing. Gotta figure some of them are calling up the auction houses too.
Pricing seems ok on some of the burgs. There’s a lot of recent release DRC which depending on demand might not be bad for vintages like 09, 10, 15 and 16.
We went once , after it was open for a year or so. Was a great meal and night . But what sticks out to me most was the little stool on which to lay my wife’s purse/pocketbook!!
Haha, I remember that too! It was always intended as a “we’ve spared no expense” sort of restaurant, but in the first few years it was legitimately really good. I never loved the ambiance, because it felt like Vegas, but was a good place to take people from out of town who didn’t care too much about wine.
There were plenty of bottles on the Del Posto list as of 2019 that were below retail / auction pricing. No shortage of great Barolo that was attractively priced on the list. The food pricing was personally what kept me from going there often.