Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

I just want to brag to people who understand, so I am going to boast about the little auction score I just made...others can respond with their own

THE SCORE: six half-bottles of 2009 Bouchard Pere & Fils Le Corton for $30 apiece (all in, with commission).

Wine is no longer available in the US and when it was available was about $100 a bottle. I've had several bottles of this wine before and it's terrific stuff, really fruity and seductive for a Corton while still being complex and supple. A true Burgundy winner, not a crap shoot. Will age but drinking great now, not sure these 2009 Burgundies are ever going to shut down.

I already had three full bottles of these and these half bottles are going to be my cellar defenders so I can let the full bottles age.

Wow, that is indeed a score.

Great job! I cant tell you how many deals I got back in the days of Wine Commune like getting 6 bottles of 2002 Lagrange for $25ea or 73' Maycamas cabernet for $75 but these days steals on great wines are few and far between. Within the last few months the best I've done is a 3 bottle lot of Ch Beychevelle (1-77', 2-79') for $98 all in and all were solid. Also, 2 clean bottles of 89' Tetre Roteboeuf for $135ea all in with perfect fills.

Ooh those Wine Commune days especially for Germans. A WC 2004 La Dominique purchased for $13 was showing well last night. Authentic St. Emilion.

not going to say the auction site I use since I'm enjoying the lack of bidding competition, but I will say this...I think the auction sweet spot right now might be more in Burgundies, not Bordeaux. I rarely see Bordeaux for much less than market price, but if you know what Burgundies you like you can find deals. Burgundy is more of a minefield and more confusing than Bordeaux so there is a payoff to knowing what you like, and there have been a string of decent to great Burgundy vintages since 2005. There was a huge Burgundy price runup over the past decade but now prices seem soft, at auctions at least.

In terms of Burgundy vs Bordeaux in France, I find the opposite is true. People are still chasing Burgundy more than Bordeaux. But... every auction is different. I go into an auction with a list of potential buys, but I rarely will go into a bidding war with someone. The best auction strategy is to be willing to give up what you want, and to see what other people don't want.

For example, when I was bidding in the French President's cellar auction, the prices were going for 10x auction estimates. But no one was bidding on the Haut Brion Blancs. I picked them up for under market value. For me, they were the score of the auction. I hadn't planned to target them, they just happened to be the wines that no one wanted.

Nice score on Bouchards.

I think I know which site it is, out of California. You can score rarely when you don't have competition for that particular lot. Sort of overlooked and auction closing on holidays. But I feel most of the sites charge ridiculous commissions these days...

What I should probably do is post the auction site address on all the different wine boards and tell everybody to get over there and bid on my favorite wines, because this site is not doing anything good for my self-control. It seems like they have boosted reserve prices considerably in the last several months to stop sole bidders picking off wines for below market prices, but they haven't plugged all the holes yet and it is tempting me into poor decisions. E.g. I don't need this wine at all and didn't know I wanted it, never tasted a Latriceres Chambertin ever, but here's some bottles at close to half the lowest price on wine-searcher, could be my only chance to ever get a good Chambertin grand cru under $100, so I can't afford NOT to buy them, right? Or that was the logic, anyway.

One of us posting "check out my great auction score!" is like a gambling addict posting on their roulette win...you think you came out ahead, but it will eventually cost you in the long run.