Sotheby’s Napa Valley Barrel auction raises $1.5million

The annual Collective Napa Valley Barrel Auction, which took place on Friday, raised a total of $1.5 million for the wine region’s philanthropy program.  

According to Sotheby’s, who organised the sale, the auction saw the average lot and case prices selling higher than ever before, and  attracted international collectors through a specially built web app for the show. Although the lion’s share of buyers were from North America, the sale did attract successful bids from collectors from Asia, Europe and Central America, Sotheby’s said.

Jamie Ritchie, Chairman of Sotheby’s wine said he was delighted with the success of the auction, which raised around $1.5m to support children’s health in and around Napa Valley, “an important areas to focus on , particularly at these times”.

This auction was the fourth that Sotheby’s has presented with the Napa Valley Vintners this year and the unique “leader board” format (where ten cases of each wine are sold to the ten highest bidders at different prices) required Sotheby’s to build the technology from scratch in under four months. It was wonderful to see this new platform, with this unique format, in action and understand how close to 600 bidders worked out different bidding strategies. We look forward to further refining the technology and to the next Collective Napa Valley live auction in November.”

Collective Napa Valley is wine industry membership program which raise funds for the good of the Napa Valley community, engaging with vintners and exploring the region through a variety of events online and in person.

The annual sale took place in Raymond Vineyards in Napa on Friday, followed by a weekend of live events including vintner-hosted wine events and experiences, wines tasting from the barrel, and food from local restaurants.