This Weekends HDH Auction

I’ve been peaking in periodically today on the HDH auction livestream. A bunch of lots being auctioned today and tomorrow. Started out rather slowly early this morning with most lots going low to mid estimated range. By around 10:30 things started to heat up selling near upper range. A lot of DRC that seems to all be going for midrange of estimates. Maybe a little soft right now.

A few lots that caught me surprised:

(6) mags of '15 Lafarge Chenes est: $1800 - 2800. Sold: $4800
(3) mags Dujac '10 SRV est: $6000 - $9000. Sold: $10000
Mixed lot (18) '14 Laurent Tribut Chablis est: $650 - 950. Sold: $1500.
(12) '14 Ramonet P-M est: $350 - 550, Sold: $1200
(6) '13 A. Ente Bourgogne Blanc est: $600 - 900. Sold: $1200
(3) '14 A. Ente Meursault Clos Ambres est: $1200 - 1800. Sold: $2400 Six other A. Ente lots went for over est.
(3) '10 G. Barthod C-M Chatelots est: $200 - $300. Sold: $650

I have been watching this also. For me at least, there are a lot of head scratchers in this auction.

A number of those lots make sense to me given that ‘10 was a good vintage, ‘14 was a good vintage for whites, ‘15 was a good vintage for reds and Ente has continued to soar. The Lafarge is pretty high, but there was a Clos des Chenes lot in an HDH auction earlier this year that went crazy too.

I think this is a common theme with HDH auctions. Usually starts out slow in the beginning then rockets to crazy prices.

Was watching some champagne lots and all that I was tracking went well above estimate. Hopefully catch some mixed lots tomorrow.

i randomly tuned in just as this came up and was like

I think I finally got what I’ll call a bargain in one of these auctions. 2006 Monprivato for $160/btl including premium. Definitely not as insane price wise in this auction for the Italian wines as the Del Posto auction - partly due to provenance.

Always have the feeling that HDH auctions have a lot of bored rich people who are like “hey I want this wine I’m just gonna click this button till I get it”. All you need is two people like that on a lot before getting a crazy price.

When I look at the prices it doesn’t seem as nuts as it was back in the spring, but maybe that’s just because the runup in wine prices over the last year has been such that we’re numbed to the madness.

Marcus, I agree with you. The pandemic has had some counter intuitive effects. By saying that I may be making a wrong observation of why it is happening. Or at least based on wrong assumptions. Initially I thought is was boredom from staying at home or more time to spend on internet working from home. But I started thinking that maybe people with means have decided to spend money on all kinds of things that they want and see no reason not to do so.

In full disclosure, I have around 20 lots in tomorrow’s auction.

One of my favorite wines ever, 91 Monte Bello, is rapidly approaching $500. :open_mouth:

3 bottles just hammered for $1700.

I have been puzzled watching K&L auctions seeing 2008 Cristal going for $325+/bottle when it’s available in California (in case someone is concerned about shipping) for around $250. Someone at the HDH auction just paid $400/bottle for the 2012 Cristal. Not the rose. It’s available for around $200 ($220-230 in volume) from good, reputable retailers. WTF?

I was also confused by all the 2016 BDX on day 1 going for more than retail (all of which was widely available BDX from many reputable retailers).

early on it looked like a major 2013 dump. I picked up at few lots below the high estimate but very close to it.

Seeing tons of overpriced sales. Some reasonable though. I probably should have pulled the trigger a couple times - bottle prices were good but I don’t need or want to spend for 6 or 12 bottles.

That’s pretty funny because I’ve managed to get quite a bit of 2016 bdx at great prices from HDH auctions in the past year or so. I guess that’s no longer a tenable strategy. A

Why would some pay close to a grand for a case of 2011 Produttori del Barbaresco Montestefano? Pretty easy to find a lot cheaper at so many places.

It seems people are just bidding every lot up to at least the high estimate. I just watched a case of 2014 Produttori Montestefano go for 50% more than what Total Wine is currently priced at. I used to have the same strategy as you for buying my recent vintage BDX.

I’m confused too. I’m tempted to take a drive to Total Wine, buy a bunch of recent release stuff that’s still on the shelf and drive another 18 minutes to the HDH warehouse to drop off wine for auction.

Seriously. I saw a bunch of items where I thought someone with time could exploit the arbitrage opportunities if one has some confidence from looking at recent auctions that the pricing for specific wines has been consistently reaching an inflated level and has a good chance to do so in the next auction.