BurgundyStreet

Powered by two Sotheby’s auctions, Hong Kong gained further clout in the international auction market last weekend.

Sotheby’s sold 100% of two American collections, generating US$7,889,340, far above the pre-sale high estimate of US$6,130,436.

Ninety-nine percent of buyers were Asians, and 79% of the lots brought prices above the top estimates.

The high point was the record-setting US$93,077 paid for an Imperial (six-litre bottle) of 1982 Château Pétrus.

Serena Sutcliffe MW, who heads Sotheby’s international wine department, said Asian buyers represented 99% of buyers in the 3-4 October sale.

‘Hong Kong has become Sotheby’s most important wine centre, ahead of very successful auctions in New York and London,’ Sutcliffe said.

Sotheby’s introduced live online bidding with a live video and audio feed in its Hong Kong this season; online bidders sought 56% of consignments offered.

The house’s opening autumn auction in New York mirrored the comeback of the blue-chip American market, which experienced low prices during the economic downturn much of the year.

That Aulden Cellars/Sotheby’s sale, on 25-26 September, brought $3,347,798, just beyond the $3.2m projection.

Again 1982 Château Pétrus led the way, with a case fetching $54,450 ($35,000 high estimate).

Zachys realized $4,179,636, a hair over the high estimate, in its 12 September auction. This sum, reflecting 99.3% of lots sold, was the most it has generated in its US auctions since May 2008.

The biggest earner was six bottles of 2005 Romanée-Conti, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (high-estimated at $40,000), which fetched $52,800.

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After initial euphoria, Burgundy producers are predicting 2009 will be a great vintage, but not a classic like 2005.  Winemakers throughout the region are delighted by 2009’s high levels of ripeness, the health of the grapes, and the promising acidity and balance.  The grapes have lower acid levels than in 2005, but high sugar and intense flavours. It will be a ‘perfumed, exotic vintage,’ one winemaker said.

The harvest: interviews with Philippe Prost of Bouchard, and Didier Seguier of William Fevre. Adam Lechmere narrates

‘It has been a vintage of false appearances,’ Christophe Chauvel, a viticulture director for Albert Bichot in Beaune said. ‘You could not rely on visual evidence to pick the grapes, and some people may have picked too early.’  Chauvel said the grapes looked so ripe on 15 August he had ‘almost wanted to harvest as the grapes looked so ripe.’  But the ripening was uneven : ‘2005 was a much easier vintage because the ripening process was more uniform.’

Others agreed. Cote d’Or producer Alex Gambal in Beaune said, ‘Deciding when to pick was the tricky part [in 2009]. Each parcel had to be picked separately; there was no uniformity.’  But as far as conditions go, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the weather could not have been better, giving producers the luxury of picking when they wanted to.  Gambal said that in his 18th season in Burgundy, he does not ‘remember weather that has been this good for this long.’

At William Fevre in Chablis, managing director Stephane Follin-Arbelet said the outlook for 2009 was ‘very promising.’  ‘The grapes are superb, with yields slightly lower than normal.’  At the same time they are cautioning that unlike 2005, ripeness was not uniform and that some grapes may have been picked early, with the risk of not achieving phenolic ripeness.

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September 25, 2009
Panos Kakaviatos in Beaune, and Adam Lechmere

The new name of Bouchard Pere et Fils’ Beaujolais domaine Chateau Poncié will be Villa Ponciago – to reflect its Roman roots.

Chateau Poncié is a 120ha property in Fleurie of which 55ha is planted to the Beaujolais grape Gamay. Poncié itself is a lieu-dit (demarcation) within Fleurie.

Bouchard took over the estate in early 2008 and intends ‘to do the same with Poncié as we did with William Fevre in Chablis,’ managing director Thomas Henriot, son of Bouchard owner Joseph Henriot, told decanter.com, referring to the property it bought in the 1990s and transformed into a premium producer.

Henriot has absolute faith in Poncié, which he says ‘definitely’ contains terroir of premier cru quality.

He cites the fact that before the 1950s, top Beaujolais fetched the same prices as premier grand cru classe and cru classe Burgundy.

Bouchard has begun a 2-3 year research project – alongside a wider Beaujolais classification project – to identify that top terroir, examining soils, topography and microclimates, with a view to requesting premier cru status from appellations body the INAO.

‘The terroir here is specific,’ Henriot says. ‘We’ve tasted a 1929 Chateau Poncié and it’s still a fantastic wine. There’s no reason why we can’t do the same thing today.’

At the same time, Henriot recognises the mixed blessing that was Beaujolais Nouveau, which made the region world-famous, but compromised quality.

To which end, he said, they will stress the Fleurie and Poncié names more than Beaujolais, on the basis that ‘the problem is the reputation of Beaujolais, not the crus.’

The Villa Ponciago name, which Henriot claims dates back to Roman times, is ‘an umbrella name’ which will cover appellations like Brouilly, Moulin-a-Vent and Morgon, if in the future Bouchard decides to expand its holdings.

Henriot said the most important thing was to distiguish the domaine from the rest of Beaujolais. ‘There are a lot of chateaux out there – but only one Villa Ponciago’.

Two wines will be released initially, an appellation Fleurie and a ‘top cuvee, which may keep the Chateau Poncié name’, in May or June of 2010.