An Increased Taste for Rare Wines in 2005
Howard Goldberg writing for Decanter has the compilation of auction income for 2005. It appears that auction proceeds are up in 2005 over 2004.
Worldwide Wine Auction Sales Figures for 2005 (with difference over 2004 totals)
Christies: $42.2 Million (+16%)
Zackys: $33.8 Million (+30%)
Sothebys: $29.1 Million (+40%)
Acker Merrall & Condit: $20.9 Million (+9%)
Winebid.com: $20 Million (+25%)
Hart Davis Hart: $9.5 Million (no figure for 2004)
Bonhams & Butterfields: $5.6 Million (+4%)
Morrell & Company: $3.9 Million (even)
Edward Roberts International: $1.6 Million (+7%)
My days doing marketing and tracking auction results at Winebid.com taught me that wine auction results are excellent indicators of the course of the economy. When the economy starts to sink you see prices fall closely in line with the state of the economic decline. As the economy heats up, so do those willing to invest in rare wines.
Interesting….Christies are doing their first online auction in 2006 to conincide with the Vinexpo in Hong Kong….I work for an online auction house in Australia and we are supplying the backend for it…..should be interesting to see how the results pan out considering Christies track record with live auctions.
I’ll be in Hong Kong for Vinexpo…not sure of all the details yet though.
Winebid shows some very strong results..
Dave