Zachys opens DC office – with a twist

US auction house and retailer Zachys has opened a new office in Washington DC having noticed an increase in activity in the region.

The company’s president Jeff Zacharia has said that a noticeable rise in online and phone traffic from the DC area showed there was “demand for a premium wine retailer and auction house in the market.”

As reported by the Washington Post, however, the new office is neither a traditional wine shop nor auction premise.

Rather, the office, part of a 17,000 square foot warehouse (a former forensics lab apparently), will be used to store clients’ wines – both their personal collections and any they which to consign to future auctions – and an area for tastings and masterclasses.

The reason for this is that ground rent prices in the DC area are too prohibitive to run a bricks and mortar shop in downtown.

Customers will not be able to walk into the new premises and buy a bottle, they will have to call ahead in order to put wines into storage, pick up anything they want from wines already stored there or take delivery of an order.

The offices will also hold regular tastings with visiting producers and there will be an area for those who wish to remote bid on auctions taking place in New York.