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Disappointing result for the Hospices de Beaune sale
The world’s oldest wine auction, the Hospices de Beaune sale which is held each November, raised just under €14 million euros ($14.7 million) for charity – around €11 million less than last year.
Despite star power from Hollywood stars including Eva Longoria and Jean Russo, ‘The Crown’s Dominic West and French actor Zabou Breitman, at Sunday’s auction in Beaune, the sale apparently failed to live up to expectations, despite a drastically reduced yield this year.
The Hospices de Beaune’s vineyard manager Ludivine Griveau told AFP that the wet weather had slashed the harvest by around 50% – as a result, there were only 438 (or 445?) lots in this year’s sale, comprising 51 cuvées and including 321 red wines and 117 white wines, along with three 114L “feullettes” (half a”pièce”). This compared to the 753 barrels in the 2023 sale.
Last year, the sale raised its second highest total ever, with an aggregate total of €25.1million (US$27.4million).
The top lot, a barrel of first-growth Beaune wine – which is equivalent to 288 bottles – sold for €360,000 (plus a donation of €100,000), which will go toward
Speaking to news agency AFP, Guillaume Koch, the director of the Hospices said that while there wouldn’t be an overall record this year, he hoped that they were “not far from setting a new record for the average price per lot sold.”
The 164th edition of the famous auction, which has been running since 1794, however did mark an historic moment being the first fully certified organic vintage produced.
The results followed the muted figures at the Hospices lesser-known rival auction in March, the Hospices de Nuits sale, which saw a 36% decline on the previous year’s record sum, down from €3.6m to €2,281,500 (£1.94m), despite the 2023 being an “exceptional” vintage.
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