A new month, a new season and yes, a new auction. Hot on the heels of our very successful August Rare and Fine Wine auction it is time to spring into our August/September Rare and Fine Wine Online Auction with a diverse assortment of some of the finest wines produced in the world, as well some fantastically valued, properly aged, ready-to-drink wines.
We are always looking internationally to understand how we can change-up our wine auctions. As the leading specialist Rare and Fine Wine auction house our aspiration is to give our buyers more opportunities to bid on the wines you’re looking for. For this online auction, we have decided to let the sale run longer than previously. Normally the online only auctions would run for 5 days with bidders researching and building a ‘wish list’ prior to the sale commencing. We saw that you enjoyed the time, so to streamline things for our wonderful bidders, we have decided to give you the gift of time. Our online auctions will run for an extra 2 weeks starting two Wednesday’s ahead of our usual schedule and will close, as usual, at 7pm on the first Sunday in the month.
As always, this auction is filled with stellar wines from all over the wine producing globe. The New Zealand section starts things off with some great examples of our interpretation of Bordeaux blends. Auckland puffs out its chest with perennial favourites Te Motu, The Antipodean, Destiny Bay, Stonyridge Larose, St Nesbit and the now non-producing (but very highly regarding back in their day) St Jerome. Hawkes Bay is coming hard on the heels with Te Mata Coleraine, Church Road Tom, Mills Reef Elspeth and Craggy Range Sophia.
Craggy Range features well in this auction with Le Sol a shining light in the Syrah section along with Trinity Hill Homage, Mission Jewelstone and Sacred Hill Deerstalker. The Craggy Range Aroha is also dominant in the Pinot Noirs sitting with other notable producers such as Dry River, Ata Rangi, Escarpment all from Martinborough. They all show their wears admirably against a strong Central Otago cartel of Felton Road, Prophet’s Rock, Terra Sancta, Two Paddocks, Burn Cottage and Rippon - many of these wines featuring in the Air New Zealand Fine Wines of NZ program.
If it is aromatics that you are after, this sale offers outstanding selection with some lovely aged Gewurztraminers form our shaky isles as well as aged Rieslings from Alsace and Germany. You’ll recognise many famous names such as Stonecroft and Neudorf rubbing shoulders with Weinbach and Zind Humbrecht from Alsace and over the border to Germany with some of the most amazing value for money wines from Fritz Haag, Dr Loosen, Muller Catoir, Donnhoff and Joh Jos Prum.
There is Italian nobility with Gaja, Biondi Santi, and the two Bolgheri superstars Masseto and Ornellaia along with Zyme Amarone and Cafaggio Chianti.
What’s not to like about Champagne? Mrs Wine Auction Room has certainly come over all a giggle when she saw contributions to this highly desirable selection with Laurent Perrier La Cuvee (in different formats), Alexandra Rose and the multi-vintage Grand Siecle, Gosset vintage along with a great selection of new-wave grower producers who have been lifting the bar in this eponymous region.
The warmth of the wines from the Rhone can be very pleasing at this time of year and we have plenty on offer with Tardieu-Laurent, Chapoutier, Yves Cuilleron and Ferraton from the north and Beaucastel, Janasse, de la Mordoree, Marcoux, Pierre Usseglio, Pegau, Vieux Telegraphe and Clos des Papes from the south.
Burgundy has really been increasing in popularity and it is easy to see why with the likes of Jadot, Mongeard-Mugneret, Arnoux Lachaux and de Vogue from the Cotes de Nuits and Comtes Lafon, AF Gros and Thierry Violot-Guillemard from the Cote de Beaune.
Super-second Chateaux Leoville-Barton, Montrose and Ducru Beaucaillou headline Bordeaux ably supported by second wines from Branaire-Ducru, Beychevelle and Margaux.
Post dinner treats include vintage ports from Taylor’s, Warre’s and Dow’s as well as the very highly regarded Seppelts Para Liqueur from South Australia. But if whisky is your after-dinner tipple check out the Extremely Rare Laphroaig 30 Year Old or the Japanese examples with Suntory, Nikka and Yamazaki.
Finally, as with buying any second-hand goods there can be risk. This risk can be mitigated through reviewing widely available vintage reports, critic reviews, inspecting the detailed photographs for each lot, and setting realistic expectations. The reward however, of a fine wine at its absolute peak of maturity, offering its full range of primary, secondary, and tertiary flavours should be significant enough for most to negate the occasional disappointment. So, if the risk-reward scales are deemed favourable, we have a lovely selection of wines at various stages of maturity available in our current auction.
Best of luck with your bids and don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like to know about any of the wines. Please bid responsibly.
