12 Mar Winestate Magazine: Te Mata Coleraine a stand out performer

Since our last auction sequence we have had only one online auction at Mossgreen-Webbs in New Zealand. The online auction is relatively new for us but as our buyers get used to this format, these auctions are gaining real momentum.

Te Mata Coleraine, recently described by Andy Howard MW in Decanter as New Zealand’s First Growth, continues to be a stand out performer for us and we regularly have several vintages in all our auctions. Not only do we never have issues selling this wine but prices are certainly on the increase. Dry River, another of the iconic New Zealand wines also enjoyed a great deal of success in this last auction with their white wines as buyers saw the value in being able to pick up wines that were well cellared and ready to drink now.

Malt Whisky, very much a growth category for us, also had some good sales with the highlight being a 1962 (distilled) Macallan 25-year-old Anniversary bottling. This is the second bottle of this highly regarded malt we have auctioned recently.

However, it was the wines of France that experienced the majority of sales. Highlights were many with some outstanding wines available. The Rhone featured Guigla La-la’s as well as Chateuneuf’s from Janasse and de la Mordoree. Chateauneuf du Pape is an area that always has a lot of interest. Super star Burgundies from Domaine Roulet and Armand Rousseau (both Chambertin and Clos de Beze) were snapped up but it was the old favourite of Bordeaux that got the bidders going. We had several wines in larger formats with magnums and 3 litre bottlings going well. First Growths, namely Chateaux Latour and Haut Brion with good case sales and second wines from Carruades de Lafite, Clos du Marquis and Les Forts de Latour also doing very well. Case sales in Bordeaux, from both Left and Right Bank, were also very popular in this auction.

In April we had our first live auction at Mossgreen in Melbourne. This proved very successful with a good number of bidders in the room and many absentee bids. A sell through rate of 84% was achieved on the evening and bodes well for the future of this new department within our company.

By the time this is published we would have had our second single vendor auction of the year. This auction has many great wines from a fabulous cellar that includes Screaming Eagle from Napa, numerous vintages of Chateau d’Yquem but is anchored by an outstanding collection of Bordelaise wines including a 1945 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in wonderful condition. I look forward to bringing you the results in the next issue.

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