Christie's Strongly Believes in Online Wine Auctions | The Finest

A bottle of 1990 Roman?e Conti (right, est ?10,000-12,000), 1967 ch?teau Yquem (center, est ?650-850) and two bottles of 1999 ch?teau Margaux (left, est ?400-500) at Christie?s first European online auction

SOURCE: Egmont Labadie @ artinfo.com

Christie?s first European online wine auction, bidding in euros, started from June 13 and will run through June 25. ?We were motivated by the success of our first online auctions held in the United States in which 95 percent lots sold,? explained Guillaume Gu?d?, International Business Director of the wine department, ?and also by the strong presence of online buyers at the other sales through our Christie?s Live system.?

Since they believe in the future of online sales, the staff at Christie?s employed the necessary means to gain the trust of buyers about the quality of the wines put up for auction. According to Michael Ganne, Head of Continental Europe for wine, ?We pay visits to the cellars to see how wines have been stored, and if there is a doubt, we don?t take the wines, the same way we do for our standard catalogues.?

Moreover, Christie?s staff intends to go further and deploy an ambitious global online strategy, as David Elswood, International Director of Wine in Europe and Asia, told BLOUIN ARTINFO.

Will you also organize such a sale for the United Kingdom?

Yes. There is already an American one, bidding in dollars, there is the European one, bidding in euros, and there will be a London sale, bidding in pounds. So there will always be a Christie?s online sale, at anytime of the year. As New York closes, Europe will open, when Europe closes, UK will open.

How many online sales will you hold in each region annually?

Each sale is roughly two weeks, and so we will have eight sales in each region at the time we get to a full program, which will be probably at the end of the year 2014. In 2013 we will already have three online sales in Europe in June, October and December; there will be one in New York in December and in London in November. At this point we will have one per month everywhere, and it will gradually become two per month, as things develop. But this is a question of getting technology right and working!

Why do you start with Europe before Hong Kong?

Hong Kong is different for an online sale, people who work for us in Hong Kong and Asia said that buyers there do not really trust the internet for purchasing yet. America is very advanced, so that is where we started. Europe and the UK are probably pretty strong on the Internet now, but in Asia people don?t buy things online the way we do, buying our flights, our holidays, our books?The figures of online sales growth in Asia are tiny. We probably would wait another two years in Asia, and spend that time refining the process in Europe and America.

Why do you hold this online sale during the Vinexpo week?

We have been stakeholders of Vinexpo from the very beginning in 1981. Normally we had a live sale there, but when we stopped that, it became a bit more difficult, because we got nothing to talk about, we have a catalogue maybe, maybe sometimes we have some wines to taste?So it?s perfect for us to talk about this new online sale, the first one in Europe during Vinexpo!

This first European online auction features 670 lots. The highlights include: seven vintages of Roman?e Conti Grand Cru (est ?6,000-12,000 per bottle), nine bottles of 1989 ch?teau Lafite (est ?6,500-7,500), and a magnum of 1989 ch?teau Petrus (est ?5,000-6,000). But French wines are not the only ones; there is also a wide array of bottles from Italy, Portugal including Madera, Hungary and the United States.

As for the most prestigious names, following estates are present: ch?teau Lafite (31 lots from 1958 to 2005), ch?teau Latour (29 lots, 1937-2001), ch?teau Margaux (17 lots, 1958-2000), ch?teau Mouton Rothschild (14 lots, 1961-2000), ch?teau Haut Brion and Mission Haut Brion (25 lots 1970-2005), ch?teau Petrus (14 lots, 1970-2006), ch?teau d?Yquem (26 lots, 1949-1997), and the Domaine de la Roman?e Conti (35 lots, 1965-2001).

Source: http://www.thefinest.com/christies-strongly-believes-in-online-wine-auctions/

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