Bordeaux bounce at Zachy’s

As the autumn auction season draws to a close Jeff Zacharia, president of Zachy’s auction house, speaks to db revealing his insights on the future of Bordeaux.

Some of the Bordeaux gems at Zachy’s Holiday Auction

“Our clients have both comfort and confidence with Bordeaux as it has been the mainstay of the wine auction market. Many of our buyers are now looking at Bordeaux as a good opportunity to buy right as prices seems to have bottomed out and will most certainly be going up at some point soon,” said Zacharia.

Zachy’s marketing and PR manager, Santosh Varghese, added that interest in Bordeaux had been: “gaining momentum in our auctions this past year – both in our live sales and our internet auctions.” Among vintages performing strongly, he mentioned: 1982, ’89, 2000, ’03, ’05 and ’06, adding: “We find our clients are willing to pay a premium for older vintages with exceptional provenance.” This was proved by a record-breaking US$245,000 bid for eight bottles of Château L’Evangile 1947 from California heart surgeon, Dr Aziz Khan’s collection at Zachy’s 2013 Fall auction. This was over twelve times the high estimate.

Bidding was more restrained for Bordeaux at last week’s Holiday Auction, though an Impèriale of Château Lynch Bages 1989 and a bottle of Château Pétrus both went for US$4,410 – comfortably above their high estimates. The most expensive Bordeaux lot was a case of Château Lafite Rothschild 1982, knocked down for US$34,300, against a low estimate of US$30,000.

Yet the limelight was stolen by the Italians with “feverish bidding” for a collection from Antinori’s private cellars which realised US$303,628 against a pre-sale estimate of US$183,000 – 275,750. The Antinori Charity Lot to benefit the UN’s World Food programme also did well, selling for US$22,000, three times its high estimate.

Part of Antinori’s private cellar collection