Bonhams celebrates ‘stellar’ year

Auction house Bonhams has hailed a “stellar” year for its fine wine department after making £6 million over seven auctions.

The year has been the house’s most successful year to date in what the head of the department, Richard Harvey MW, has called a “remarkably busy…year.”

Looking back he recalled the year: “July saw the highest earning Fine Wine sale in our history taking more than £1,250,000, and demand for Romanée-Conti 1988 has been exceptional – we auctioned five cases in 2016 at an average of £123,375 per case.

“The other major talking point has been the renewed interest in Bordeaux. Over the spring and summer, Bonhams sold an outstanding collection of claret, originally bought en primeur, for a total of more than £1,500,000.”

Looking forward to 2017 he continued: “Demand for the top wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux will almost certainly remain very strong. Champagne – for many years a special feature of Bonhams Fine Wine auctions – continues to go from strength to strength. In our December sale, for example, a case of Dom Pérignon 1971 sold for £4,935 and six magnums of Pol Roger Cuvée Winston Churchill made £4,465. Port and Madeira also both sold notably well in this week’s sale.”