AUTUMN WINE AUCTIONS HAVE STARTED WITH A BANG FOR ITALIAN WINES - RECORD NUMBERS FROM SOTHEBY'S IN NEW YORK: 18.375 US DOLLARS FOR 12 BOTTLES OF SASSICAIA 1985. MASSETO, ORNELLAIA, BRUNELLO SOLDERA AND BAROLO GIACOSA ALSO SOLD AT HIGH PRICES

Autumn auctions have started with a bang for Italian wines. Sotheby’s auction in New York on September 26th scored record numbers for Italian wine. A single lot, 12 bottles of the legendary Sassicaia 1985 vintage, reached an almost unprecedented 18.375 US dollars, while another identical lot was sold at 17.150 US dollars, and both were well over the estimates.
It’s a far cry from the 49 thousand US dollars that the Nebuchadnezzar Masseto 2007 Ornellaia reached at a Sotheby's auction in New York, or the even more spectacular 29 million 500 thousand Italian liras for a single bottle of Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 1891, in 2000; in any case, the price Sassicaia reached is truly amazing. The Niccolò Incisa della Rocchetta Bolgheri 1997 vintage with two lots of 12 bottles were sold at 4.900 US dollars while another 12 bottles of the 1982 vintage were sold at 4.288 US dollars (www.sothebys.com).
Bolgheri is now the standard bearer of Italian wines in the auction and the numbers of Masseto that with 12 bottles of 1997 vintage reached 11.638 US dollars.
Another Super Tuscan, Solaia Antinori 1997 vintage, sold at 4.655 US dollars for a lot of 12 bottles, while yet another Tuscan lot of 9 bottles of Brunello Case Basse (Soldera) 1993 sold at 3.185 US dollars. Piedmont wines did very well with the myriad of lots of Gaja, but also with the excellent performance of Bruno Giacosa, whose 6 bottles of Barbaresco Santo Stefano di Neive Reserve 1989 sold for 8.575 US dollars.
Not surprisingly, the top lots were French. The three lots of Ermitage, Cuvée Cathelin Jean-Louis Chave - 12 bottles vintage 1991 at 36.750 US dollars, followed by 9 bottles of the same vintage at 34.300 US dollars, and the Methuselah 1998 at 31.850 US dollars.