11 of 12 bottle auction lots

Curious if anyone else stays aways from bidding on 11 of 12 bottle auction lots.

I got burned on an expensive lot of 11 where all of the wine was shot. 75 Egon Müller.

And a 11 bottle lot becomes a 10 bottle lot…

I don’t avoid them, so long as the price is right. I would apply a haircut (inasmuch as bid increments allow) to an 11er.

I’ve read that some people won’t bid on lots of 11 or 5, I presume for this reason.

The standard thinking is that the owner tried one, didn’t like it, and are now selling the rest.

I think it’s more likely that someone bought a case (of maybe a highly rated wine), aged it for a decade, tried a bottle and didn’t like it rather than that the whole case was bad. If I knew I liked the wine, I wouldn’t necessarily avoid that lot. I’m not buying '75 Egon Muller though. Really top bottles there is a premium for whole cases, banded DRC, etc.

That is awful. Is there any remedy? Can you let the auction site know what the seller did? It definitely feels very fishy.

I recently bought a mixed lot of 10 bottles from a member and 4 of them did not look good. I opened one of the bottles with the raised cork and it was shot. Some of them look fine. In this case it was my fault because I didn’t look hard enough and the seller was very upfront and kind. Your situation is very different in my opinion. It appears as though they knew what they were doing. People never cease to surprise me.

There is a logic to avoiding the 11s and 5s, as people have said. It is definitely a known perspective that some people advocate.

I personally don’t really subscribe to it. My thinking is that when one buys a case, there is always the initial temptation to try it. So I am not surprised at all that the prior owner wanted to crack it to see what the wine was all about. That is certainly my reaction when i have a case of something. I’m always keen to try the first bottle quickly. An unopened case is always in my mind. Personally I find it just as likely that someone liked the first bottle perfectly well but never got back to that case because that initial excitement of novelty was gone. Especially with bigger collections and owners who have lots of wine. I know there are folks out there with very very deep cellars, where it might really be hard to find a time to get back to that case for a second bottle, even if the first one was delicious. A solid case is great, but it also means it’s a case the owner never drank out of. I could just as easily ask, how come the previous owner never opened it? Did he know there was something wrong with it?

(Shhhh.) An 11-bottle lot is almost as bad as a 13-bottle lot. Avoid bidding on it.

You can get shafted on any size lot. 1 bottle can be buggered just as easily as 11. Buying wine at auction comes with risk no matter how many bottles are in the lot.

1 Like

Frequent auction consigner as well as buyer. Yes, I avoid 11 bottle lots for that reason. The wines I consign are usually those that have appreciated so much that I can’t justify pulling that cork…college-bound kids and all! The wines I buy are those that I have a curiosity about, so the 2-3 bottle lots are my sweet spot…

Is it usually the case to stay away from a five bottle lot as well? Asking for a friend…

Mentioned upthread several times by aluminium hat worrywarts that yes, you should avoid 5 bottle lots.

It’s funny; coincidentally I was talking to a friend today and discussing some Egon Muller from the seventies and eighties. He told me to avoid them as there were a lot of problems with TCA then. Not sure if your bottles had tca or something else.

Sounds superstitious, like avoiding the 13th floor in the US or the 4th in China. It’s just a number.

Uh, no,
When a product is sold in 12 bottle lots, and someone wants to resell, there is a difference between 11 (or even 10) lots and 7, 5, etc (if original is 6, then 5 …)

When I first started buying at auction, no 11 bottle lots was a mantra, and I totally adhered. But less so now, especially if I have sense of seller’s cellar. If someone with multiple cases of Colgin, Kistler PN , etc is also selling 11 bottle cases of Mayacamas, Mt Eden, ESJ, Togni etc. I just figure they heard others liked and tried and disliked. More for me

[rofl.gif]

I am currently building a 1.5M sqft hospital…no 13th floor. We’ve stopped avoiding them and now just leave that floor out all together. It really throws some people for a loop when your building goes 11, 12, 14, 15.

That said, I don’t buy much in the way of case lots at auction but I do believe in aliens and not walking under ladders so count me in the group of not buying 11’s and 5’s.

TW

Mark - pre 90 I would say I have close to a 50% TCA rate with older Egon Müllers and I must have 50 data points. They definitely had a problem. I have opened some of them from the 60s at Rieslingfeier while sitting with Mr. Muller. It is so sad because when they are on they are stunning wines.

These were just over the hill so I feel like someone could have tried one and then sent them off to auction.

For younger wines I agree this could be the issue. When it comes to older wines I think it increases the risk that someone tried a bottle and discovered the wine was tired / shot. Of course you will never know unless you know and trust the seller.

A silly superstition. Any wine you buy at auction could have been part of an 11 bottle lot that the owner broke up into smaller lots. And any older wine you buy at auction could be shot, regardless of how many bottles were in the lot.

Personally, I’ve never had a bad experience with an 11 bottle lot, and I’ve bought quite a few.