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Zachys: market sees ‘growing confidence’ as auction sales top US$63 million

Fine wine auctioneer Zachys saw total sales of just over US$63 million across 51 auctions in 2024 – rising to around $100m including retail sales – it has announced.

According to Zachy’s president Jeff Zacharia, and Charles Antin, global head of auction sales, the market has steadily improved throughout 2024, leading it to increase the number of sales to 51. It also noted “a steady increase in bidders”, with more than 600 new clients taking part in its auctions and were more than 2,100 unique buyers from over 30 countries.

“Both factors signal a growing confidence in the wine auction market for whichever side of the rostrum you’re on,” the report said.

The auction house sold 36,454 lots across its sales, with Burgundy, Bordeaux, and California together accounting for nearly 80% of annual sales by value. Within this, 9,748 of the total lots sold were Burgundian wines, which together realised $24.65million. The top lots of 2024 were all Burgundy, it added, “showing yet again just how in-demand the finest and rarest wines from this region are”, with this year’s top lot, a 12-bottle case of Vosne-Romanée Cros Parantoux Reserve Henri Jayer 1996 going for US$137,500.

Meanwhile Bordeaux came in at second place in value terms, with 7,449 lots in total achieving $18.31million, with sale prices coming in at ~30% over the low estimate. This was followed by California, which raised $ 9.427million across 8779 lots, an average of $1,073 per bottle.

It also noted success on retail sales, which is often overlooked but “is telling about the market”.

“Our recent Lafite-direct offer was over $1.5 million in sales including several 6-figure and mid 5-figure sales. We also just did a six-figure Chartreuse private sale,” the report said.

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Other notable successes included Japan entering the top 10 regions due to demand for rare Japanese whiskies such as Karuizawa, with rare Tequila, Bourbon, and Grappa also “sparked heated bidding wars”.

Asia critical

Hong Kong remains a critical locale for Zachys, “with fervent in-room bidding” the report noted, as it acted as “gateway” to the Far East and Oceania – not only China, but Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, The Philippines, and even Australia.

Indeed Hong Kong was the sale site for over half of Zachys’ top 20 lots, notably in sales such as The Enchanting Collection, The Magnate’s Cellar, and Quintessential Karuizawa.

The looming tariffs, which was likely to result in reciprocal tariffs was likely to prompt international buyers to “shift their bidding to venues that won’t result in exorbitant import taxes to take possession of their winnings”. That means that even more eyes will be focused on Hong Kong in the coming months.

Online sales also performed well, with the zCollection platform seeing 32 sales, achieving more than US$10m for the fifth year in a row.

Zachy’s president Jeff Zacharia noted that the last few auctions of 2024 “have shown positive trends as we move into 2025; the classics are all up and we’ve seen great traction on the retail side and with rare specialty items,” he noted, while the tariffs and deregulation on the horizon was setting the stage “for auction prices to soar yet again”.

 

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