Fine Wine in the Pandemic

The Fine Wine auction market has done something quite remarkable during the pandemic, it has actually flourished. According to the Wine Market Journal, a company that tracks and provides indices for the auction market, the market has suffered only small dips in some segments (most notably in Burgundy) but,” through May 20, observations for our broad market indices offer little evidence that the global pandemic is having any undue effect on wine prices fetched at auction.”

Strikingly, in the middle of the lockdown across most of the world, leading auctioneers Hart Davis Hart in Chicago held a sale of Fine Burgundy that was 100% sold and grossed $7.6 million USD. Highlights included an assortment case of 1996 Domaine de la Romanee Conti selling for $41,825 USD. Closer to home, Toronto auctioneers, Waddington’s, had their most successful sale ever ending in March, with sell through rates approaching 98%.

Auction markets for Fine Wine, Fine Art and luxury goods can be fickle and often there is a lag behind the rest of the economy. However, while top prices may not be achieved on a per item basis, in harder economic times, volume increases and compensates for slightly lower overall prices realized.

In Ontario and British Columbia, the two top wine producing provinces in Canada, producers and wine agents have become extremely creative in getting wine to market and directly to consumers. Free delivery across the country, curbside pick up with agents, restaurants and wineries offering mixed, curated offerings have become the norm in order to mitigate somewhat the loss of the hospitality sector. What this will mean for regulators across the country post pandemic will be very interesting, as the genie is (pun intended), literally out of the bottle.

So what does this actually all mean? Primarily it tells us that wine consumers will not let a pandemic get in the way of accessing their passionate pursuit of Fine Wine. It tells us the auction market and the wine industry is resilient and creative and that when we arrive at whatever the new normal is, we will have new channels available to purchase great wines and hopefully a breadth of options and opportunities to explore new wine, new producers and new terroir.