Heritage Wine Auctions – 2018
by Abdon FLORES
Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Its Wine department performed rather well in 2018, raising a solid number of 12,7 million.
In the last auction of the year, the Beverly Hills branch had a remarkable wine auction with sell-through rates of 97.3 percent by value and 98.18 percent by lot. The December event reached a final total of $1,692,648, pushing the annual total to $12,769,217 not including private sales.
A couple of Romanée-Conti 1985 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti bottles significantly attracted bidders. They bid until the lot closed at $29,520 to lead the auction. Actually, Romanée-Conti produced the top two results at the auction block, and seven of the top 10. Another pair of bottles from the Burgundy estate, Romanée-Conti 1989 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Bottle (2), prompted active bidding before finishing at $27,060.
One of the most actively pursued among the auction’s top lots, Chateau Petrus 1989 Pomerol Bottle (6) (2) generated a flurry of bids before bringing $23,370, while Chateau Haut Brion Blanc 1989 Pessac-Leognan Bottle (12) kept climbing before selling for $20,910. Three lots, including two from DRC, brought identical results of $19,680: Montrachet 1996 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Bottle (3), Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982 Pauillac Bottle (8) and Romanée-Conti Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Bottle (1).
“This auction was a perfect finish to 2018, which was an exceptionally strong year in wine,” said Heritage Auctions Fine & Rare Wine Director Frank Martell. “This year has featured a strong market, especially in the top-end vintages, and that was reflected in the prices realized in many of the top lots in this sale.”
The next date for wine collectors is on March 15th in Berverly Hills.
