Buying wine from auction is fantastic but it has some advantages and disadvantages. In this article I’ll give you some top tips about the best ways to approach wine auctions.

A major advantage is finding wine you wouldn’t normally find at a retailer or even winery, older vintages, rare cuvées and even extinct wines. Depending on the current market climate some wines can be much more expensive than retail, for example, Selosse, DRC, Sami-Odi and Standish. As a buyer, you must set a price limit and not let your emotions get the better of you, I know this can sometimes be difficult and it’s happened to me before, being caught up in the heat of the moment and not wanting to lose that prized wine!

Remember you’re relying solely on the auction house to vet the wines put to auction. You don’t know how the wine has been stored, unless the auction house states professionally cellared / underground cellar, you don’t know how many hands the wine has passed through to get to you - the wine could have travelled three times around the world and you wouldn’t know!

When I’ve found the wines I’m interested in buying and added them to my watchlist, I wait until the final minutes of the auction before bidding. My theory behind this is, if I start bidding early in the auction I find other people will try and outbid me causing the price to increase at a faster rate, then reaching the amount I’m willing to spend on that particular wine quicker. Two of my wine mates Xavier and Andrew both who bid at auction have a different theory, if there is a wine you must have then just “GO ☢️ NUCLEAR!”

The downsides of buying at auction, we all know there’s nothing worse than spending your hard earned money on a wine from auction only to pull the cork/screw cap revealing the wine is heat affected or corked. This happened to me with a bottle of Tignanello 2008, and that was a seriously sad day…..tipping that money down the drain!

Auctions are extremely competitive and sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t, so when you dabble in the auction market make sure you set a limit.

Always be aware the wine could’ve traveled a great distance or been stored in a tin shed that reaches temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius.

Thanks for reading and have fun buying at wine auctions! If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, picked up some new tips or have some tips for me, please drop me an email. If you have any suggestions of further articles please let me know!