The wine auctions market in 2023 showed very slight growth compared to 2022. Romanée-Conti dominated

The market for fine wines and collectibles, after years of tumultuous growth, has been experiencing a definite downsizing for some time now, as the Liv-Ex indices reports (as the producers of the leading Italian brands told WineNews). Therefore, it is not surprising that the wine auction market is no longer growing as it once did.
Nevertheless, the large bottle formats of those few, giant global brands, especially from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne and Italy, in that order, continue to command dizzying prices, more so when they are auctioned directly from the winery, or from individual private collections. Sotheby’s auction house, whose wine division is one of the world leaders in the sector, revealed the strong and clear trend in its 2023 “Wine & Spirits Market Report”. The auction house was founded in 1744 in London, but now its headquarters are in New York. Sotheby’s wine auctions reached a new record in 2023, raising 159 million US dollars in 70 auctions (including “charity” auctions, of which the largest wine auction is the Hospice de Beaune, in Burgundy). The amount raised was substantially in line with the 158 million US dollars raised in 2022 (66 catalogues), and practically triple the 58 million US dollars in 2013 (but only 24 auctions.
“In just one extraordinary week in 2023, they sold as much in wine and spirits as in all of 2013”, Nick Pegna, Global Head of Sotheby’s Wine & Spirits, emphasized. The individual producers that dominated the auction market of Sotheby’s, net of the singular case of Hospice de Beaune (at 25 million US dollars and 17% of the share), were Domaine de la Romanée-Conti leads at the top (21 million US dollars in total awards, 13% of the total), ahead of Domaine Leroy (11 million US dollars), Petrus (6), and Armand Rousseau (5 million US dollars). Then followed, between 1.5 and 2 million US dollars each, Krug, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Latour, and Château Haut Brion, in an all-French domain. The individual territories, considering that Burgundy leads, as mentioned, and in Bordeaux Petrus dominated (at 25% of the Region's market share), ahead of Lafite and Mouton Rothschild, while the Champagne ranking placed Krug the absolute leader of the denomination, holding 38% of the awards relating to the great French bubbles, ahead of Dom Pérignon and Salon, at 18% each, in the first three positions.
Italian wines: Masseto was the leader at 26% of the total Italian awards, followed by Sassicaia and Gaja at 14% each, then Giacomo Conterno, Bruno Giacosa, Giuseppe Rinaldi, Giuseppe Quintarelli, Antinori and Romano dal Forno, together with the 10 Italian “blue chips”, worth 84% of the auctions linked to Italian wines.
Regarding the areas of origin of the buyers at Sotheby’s, however, 42% of the turnover is in the hands of Asian buyers (especially from Hong Kong, at 22 million US dollars), 33% Europeans (France definitely ahead of everyone, at 23 million US dollars, the United Kingdom in third place at 5, behind even Denmark, 6 million US dollars), while the Americas reached 25% (and the USA is the leader, at 25 million US dollars). . The top lots of 2023 were amazing. For instance, the 5 magnums of Romanée-Conti 1999 sold for 275.000 US dollars in New York, the Matusalem of Romanéé-Conti 1991 sold for 255.400 US dollars in Hong Kong as well as the 12 bottles of Chevalier Montrachet 2028 of Domaine d’Auvenay, which sold for 240.655 US dollars. That was just a few pennies more than the 10 bottles of Vosne Romanée Cros Parantoux 1999 by Henri Jayer, sold for 240.413 US dollars.
Finally, the Sotheby’s report focused on two other interesting points. On one hand, growth of the top collectible spirits, which reached 33 million US dollars in sales, compared to just 4 million US dollars in 2017. This achievement was also due to the record-breaking bottle of The Macallan 1926, and its label signed by Valerio Adami, which sold for 2.7 million US dollars. On the other hand, the market shares of Sotheby’s retail wine sales channel, where Bordeaux was in the lead at 37%, ahead of Burgundy (25%), Champagne (13%), Italy (7%) and the USA (6 %). The top most important producers were, in order: Château Mouton Rothschild, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Dom Pérignon, Sotheby's Own Label, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Haut Brion, Château Margaux, Maison Krug, Petrus, Château Latour, Ornellaia, Masseto, Château Cheval Blanc, Domaine & Maison Leroy, Château Lynch-Bages and Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüe.