Australian Wine Investors

Australian wine imports increased significantly while exports fell last year – and there was a marked increase in the value of domestic wine sales.

While the volume of Australian wine sold in the domestic market fell by 1.5%, the value of domestic sales surged by 9.8%, prompting some winemakers to welcome what is certainly an increase in quality of the domestic product.
At the same time, Australia imported more wine than ever: 67m litres worth AU$470.7m, an increase of 4.2% in volume and 2.6% in value compared with the year before.
Exports last year fell: 746.6m litres were exported worth AU$1.9bn, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday show.
Although the official figures for the year have just come out, the situation has been known about for months, and prompted one Wine Australia spokesman to joke that any Australian caught drinking foreign wine ‘should have his strides pulled down’.
But most winemakers seem unfazed by the increase in imports. Speaking to Decanter.com at the Wine Australia tastings in London last month, Accolade CEO Troy Christensen and Corey Ryan of McWilliams both said more imports were good for Australian consumers and therefore good for Australian wine.
The more Rioja an Australian drinks, Ryan said, the more they would get a taste for Tempranillo, which Australia grows extensively.
Margaret River Wine Industry Association president Nigel Gallop told the West Australian newspaper that as a region they were unworried.
‘The Australian industry now tends to focus more on quality and perhaps people are looking offshore for the cheaper stuff. My suspicion is that cheap wine is being imported for the cask market.’
The current strength of the Australian dollar has made the country an attractive prospect for imports, and a correspondingly difficult sell for those trying to export Australian wine.
There is also some optimism that the grape glut is easing: inventories of wine fell 3.5% to 1.66bn litres.
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No time like the present

The annual Premiere Napa Valley charity wine auction raised a record total of US$3.1m, breaking through the US$3m barrier for the first time.

Bidding for Lot No 1, Pine Ridge Vineyards

In total, 64 successful bidders bought 200 lots, containing a total of 1,495 cases of wine. The total taken was 31% up on last year.

Lots sold at an average case price of just over US$2,000, 34% up on 2011 and another record.
The lots were dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends, with wines from Ovid Napa Valley, Joseph Phelps and Duckhorn Vineyards among the top-earning items.
About 1,000 people attended the event, organised by Napa Valley Vintners, including representatives of 88 retailers, 84 restaurants, 86 distributors and importers, and 100 media.
Proceeds from the auction, first held in 1997, are used to fund initiatives and programmes to promote the wines of Napa Valley, including educational programmes and environmental projects.
Although it is a charity auction with lots attracting correspondingly high bids, Premiere Napa Valley, like Burgundy's Hospices de Beaune and other major charity events, is considered to be a barometer of the health of the market.
‘The result of this auction is a true measure of the market,’ said Premiere Napa Valley 2012 chair and Pine Ridge Vineyards CEO Erle Martin.
‘The buyers for these wines would not have put forth this kind of investment if they didn’t feel – with real security – that they could sell these wines.’
Held on Saturday at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St Helena, the auction coincided with the 8th annual Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley.


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Wine worth as much as $8.3 million, including a 300-bottle collection of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild spanning every year from 1981 to 2005, is scheduled for sale at Christie’s in Hong Kong this week.
The London-based house estimates the 25 cases of the Bordeaux first-growth wine, which it says have been kept in pristine condition, may fetch as much as HK$4.5 million ($575,400), or almost $2,000 per bottle. At that price, it would be the most expensive single lot of wine auctioned this year.
Demand from Asian collectors and investors has helped boost values of investment-grade vintages as wine has rebounded from losses sustained during the 2008 financial crisis. The Liv-ex 100 fine wine index has held on to the 6.8 percent gain it made in the first quarter of this year amid volatility in other markets, and is up 19.3 percent over the past 12 months.
“I’m struck each time I go to mainland China by the groundswell of demand,” Charles Curtis, Christie’s head of wine sales for Asia, said in a telephone interview from New York. “There’s nothing but upside to this trend.”
Christie’s is also offering a 3-liter jeroboam of Romanee- Conti DRC 1971 Burgundy which it says may sell for as much as HK$320,000.
A six-liter imperial of Lafite 2003 carries a high estimate of HK$100,000 while six bottles of 1911 Moet & Chandon Champagne are also being included as a single charity lot, with the potential to fetch as much as HK$500,000. The auction is taking place on Sept. 3 and Sept. 4.

Lafite Imperials

At a separate Hong Kong sale being mounted by New York- based house Zachys on Sept. 9 and Sept. 10, a collection of Lafite imperials covering the years 1995 to 2003 is up for sale, along with Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from a California collector.
Bonhams in London will feature two lots of Romanee-Conti Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Burgundy in its Sept. 8 sale. One, comprising 12 bottles of the 1990 vintage, carries an estimate of as much as 120,000 pounds ($196,500) while 12 bottles of the 1988 carry a top estimate of 80,000 pounds.
At Sotheby’s (BID) London sale on Sept. 14, Romanee-Conti and Lafite also top the bill. Two cases of Romanee-Conti 1988 DRC are on offer at a top estimate of 70,000 pounds each while two cases of Lafite are also on sale carrying a top estimate of 40,000 pounds. The auction also features Lafite 1986 and Chateau Latour 1982.

New York

Hong Kong, now the world’s largest wine auction center, will also see a sale by Acker Merrall & Condit, including a 12- bottle case of Romanee-Conti 1990 DRC estimated to fetch up to $HK1.6 million, while New York will have sales by Acker, Zachys and Christie’s. Hart Davis Hart will hold a Chicago sale.
Wine totaling $224.8 million has been sold by the five largest auction houses so far this year, compared with their combined sales of $354 million for the whole of 2010.
Auction sales of mature wines may be bolstered after Chinese and other buyers balked at price rises of as much as 80 percent being asked for Bordeaux’s new vintage offered “en primeur,” while still in barrels, said dealers.

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September Sales

Following is a list of global wine sales scheduled during September. Dates may be subject to revision, and links are to auction house sale catalogues where available.

Sept. 3:      Christie’s, Hong Kong
Sept. 4:      Christie’s, Hong Kong
Sept. 8:      Bonhams, London
Sept. 8/9:    Christie’s, London
Sept. 10:     Sotheby’s, New York
Sept. 10:     Acker Merrall & Condit, New York
Sept. 9/10:   Zachys, Hong Kong
Sept. 14:     Sotheby’s, London
Sept. 16:     Acker Merrall & Condit, Hong Kong
Sept. 17:     Acker Merrall & Condit, Hong Kong
Sept. 17:     Hart Davis Hart, Chicago
Sept. 22:     Christie’s, Paris
Sept. 22:     Zachys, New York
Sept. 24:     Christie’s, New York
Sept. 24/25:  Spectrum, Hong Kong

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East vs West

There has been an overwhelming demand for the 2010 vintage. Margaux has been deemed “wine of the vintage” and so is performing extremely well. So too are a number of Second growth’s such as the Montrose and the Pontet Canet which were both rated highly by Robert Parker “the man with the million dollar nose.”

One of the factors driving En Primeur wine is that we have seen a big change in the buying habits of China. In previous years the Chinese tended to stick to bottled wines, however up to 68% of the 2010 vintage released in the last few months have found themselves in the hands of Hong Kong’s elite.

With such a huge demand from the Far East wine prices are on the up and there is NO sign of them stopping!

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