Wednesday wine auction

For those who ignore the commercial noticeboard you may be interested to know that we have a rather nice wine auction running on wednesday. It's going to be another marathon at over 700 lots but there's something to suit all palates and budgets this link will get you where you need to be . I'll start rabbiting on at 10.00, pause for lunch around 1.15 or the end of the bordeaux section, whichever comes first. A brief break for nose-powdering and then onwards to the end. Hope to see as many of you there virtually as possible - who know we might even be able to actually see you for the next one!
 
well Mike as you know I'm happy to help you make room in the cellar for things you don't need anymore and then fill it back up with things you do!

Thanks Peter, fingers crossed for you.

George - behave!
 
Great job Chris - I came away with different lots than originally planned but that's the fun of an auction.
You do a fantastic job of keeping the energy up through that slog.

Was fun to watch the '45 Mouton's go under the hammer too.

Thanks!
 
I found competition quite stiff at first, and all my Champagne/white Burg/Bordeaux bids failed, but for whatever reason the tide changed and I ended up with 2x red Burg, 2x Barolo and 1x red Rhone lots - pretty happy.
 
I found competition quite stiff at first, and all my Champagne/white Burg/Bordeaux bids failed, but for whatever reason the tide changed and I ended up with 2x red Burg, 2x Barolo and 1x red Rhone lots - pretty happy.
Very good. Was busy today so missed most of the ones I was possibly interested in but did make the end to hover over one or two that were maybe just a little high to take a punt.
Some cracking stuff though across the range and fun to watch what I managed.The Chapelle 98 as a six pack I would have loved to try and went for a fair buyers price. Picked up some good stuff in the last one and just tucking into some of those.
8 hours at the table with barely a break is a good effort.
 
Ugh. Tell me about it. Gutted the Meerlust went that high. I think my highest bid was £260, but if I'd have outbid the £300 with a £320 it would have equated to £72 a bottle, I think after the add-ons, for the '06 which I just couldn't commit to. Hopefully there will be other times! :) Great auction though. Well done Chris.
 
Ugh. Tell me about it. Gutted the Meerlust went that high. I think my highest bid was £260, but if I'd have outbid the £300 with a £320 it would have equated to £72 a bottle, I think after the add-ons, for the '06 which I just couldn't commit to. Hopefully there will be other times! :) Great auction though. Well done Chris.
I had a few cheeky bids laughed out of town very quickly. I'm sure some folk picked up a good deal but it seems like a lot of folk get a bit carried away for a wine they want and end up paying over the odds. The younger Rubicon is a prime example going for £180 plus the add-ons and delivery works out at about £37 a bottle. I could very recently pick up a bottle in CostCo for about £21. It always helps to have Wine-Searcher and my spreadsheet handy when thinking about bidding.
 
I had a few cheeky bids laughed out of town very quickly. I'm sure some folk picked up a good deal but it seems like a lot of folk get a bit carried away for a wine they want and end up paying over the odds. The younger Rubicon is a prime example going for £180 plus the add-ons and delivery works out at about £37 a bottle. I could very recently pick up a bottle in CostCo for about £21. It always helps to have Wine-Searcher and my spreadsheet handy when thinking about bidding.
Getting "carried away" is part of the auction experience I think Paul; sometimes sensibility goes out the window and you find yourself in that kind of "buzz / frenzy of just one more bid and its mine mindset". It can be really competitive at times and it is fun. Just the one lot for me yesterday; an under the radar Piedmont lot which I was very happy to secure and which I'm sharing with a fellow Wine Pager. :)
 
That was a lot of fun, and always an event to look forward to, perhaps a symptom of our collective addiction to wine buying and participating in the primeval male ritual of the chase; and congratulations Chris on your marathon effort interspersed with witty patter, which would have impressed the late Terry Wogan. If you did not do this you could be a DJ. Clearly the participation rate, and hence the buy side liquidity, has increased significantly compared to 1-2 years ago, which militates against ruthless opportunists like me. In spite of this liquidity I was quite struck by some of the volatility in the bidding especially Leoville Barton 2003 (£400 for four - gosh..) vs Latour 1995 (£1300 for four - lucky bidder).
 
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I managed to forget about this until Chris was half-way through the white Burgundy, so missed out on the chance to bid on all that PYCM...
Most of the things I was tempted by I was outbid - or the bidding had already exceeded my maximum before I could try; slightly surprised I didn't get outbid on the two lots I did end up with (1 burgundy, 1 Portugal)
 
As the determined bidder on the Meerlust 2006, I was driven by a need to get my hands on some that was mature or approaching maturity. Having drunk the only bottle of 2000 that I had, and only a few 2001 and 2004 left. If you check a lot of the SA wines on wine-searcher, they are just not available, which is why I was gap filling with some of the older mullineux as well. There appears to be no Olerasay (original bottling) available anywhere worldwide and little enough of the Olerasay No2. So whilst you can get a good deal in the auction, I was happy to pay £55 all in per bottle of mature Meerlust, if there is no where else to buy it, then its going to cost you a bit extra.
 
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