Lafite 1982 leads Christie’s online auction

Christie’s first online-only fine wine auction has realised US$819,715, with a case of Lafite 1982 being the top lot.

The case was bought by an Asian private collector for US$42,350, who managed to hold his ground against 440 bidders from 29 countries in the two-week long auction.

Bidding in the final moments before the end on Monday 20 August was apparently “very exciting” said the New York head of wine, Per Holmberg, as “bidders around the world logged on to defend their chosen lots. As a result, we saw strong prices throughout the sale, especially for difficult-to-source cult favourites like Domaine Tempier, Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate.”

The auction was the first in a new series of online auctions that Christie’s has planned to run in parallel with its live sales.

Steve Murphy, Christie’s CEO, said: “We are delighted with the wine-buying community’s response to this new auction model. More than 25% of registrants in this sale were completely new to Christie’s, which indicates that wine collectors around the world appreciate both the accessibility of the online-only sales model and the assurance of Christie’s near 250-year history as an auction leader.

“E-commerce is a key part of our growth strategy as a company, and we look forward to expanding this exciting new model even further this fall, as we add more collecting categories to our online-only auction calendar.”

Other sale highlights included a case of 2000 Pétrus which sold for US$26,620, a case of 1982 Latour for US$21,780 and two cases of 2000 Mouton Rothschild which fetched US$16,940 apiece.