Wine lovers take part in the Hospices de Beaune sale, eastern France, December 13, 2020 (AFP/Archives/PHILIPPE DESMAZES)
The Hospices de Beaune wine sale, an annual meeting of luxury and charity, put an end to its frantic race for records on Sunday, despite the sponsorship of cult actor Thierry Lhermitte, who came to push the stakes against the biggest buyers around the world.
The speaking talent and humor of Thierry Lhermitte, the actor in the favorite film “Les Bronzés”, supported by the other sponsor of the sale, Michel Cymes, doctor and host of health programs on the small screen, does not were not enough to boost the bidding for the star lot, sold for “only” 350,000 euros (excluding costs), or 1,215 euros per bottle.
As is tradition, the auction had reserved a piece (as a barrel is called in Burgundy) for a particular cause.
Last year, this barrel, then reserved for the children’s cause, was sold for 810,000 euros, or more than 2,800 euros per bottle.
For this 163rd edition, it is to “aging well” that the benefit of this exceptional cask goes, both in terms of the content (a Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru) and the container: the “piece” was shaped in a 220-year-old oak tree used in the reconstruction of the spire of Notre-Dame de Paris.
Wine barrels before the Hospices de Beaune sale on November 20, 2022 (AFP/Archives/JEFF PACHOUD)
The proceeds from this “charity coin” or “presidents’ coin” will be donated to two associations: the Foundation for Medical Research (FRM, sponsored by Thierry Lhermitte) and the Initiative for Research on Longevity in Health (IRLB, supported by Michel Cymes).
Once the piece was sold, the bidding continued at a frantic pace, with numbered plates rising in the crowd of some 800 buyers from Europe, America and increasingly Asia, in the hope of putting get your hands on a prestigious Pommard, Corton or other Meursault.
“10,000, 14,000, 18,000…”, the dizzying figures parade in the mouth of the commissioner, under the Halles of the “capital” of Burgundy wines, Beaune (Côte d’Or), opposite the Hôtel-Dieu medieval with glazed tiles, cradle of the Hospices born in 1443, recalling the succession of records known in recent years by the oldest charitable wine auction in the world, born in 1849.
– Fewer barrels –
From 2018 to 2022, the average price of a “coin” more than doubled, going from 16,849 to 35,980 euros.
However, what is presented is only an early wine, which has just come out of the harvest. To the auctioned price, we must add the auction commissions but also the cost of aging in barrels, for one to two years, then bottling.
This is not slowing down ever-increasing demand: in 2022, the sale had garnered nearly 29 million euros, more than double the 2018 record (14 million).
“Burgundy wine, despite the price, is always at the top, it’s the best in the world!”, assures AFP Cikuni Taneyama, a Japanese who is at his 5th auction in Beaune.
“Worldwide, everyone likes Burgundy,” adds David Hu, a Chinese based in Paris who imports for Asia. “Prices have increased a lot. It’s still interesting but we have to think about the price now,” he admits.
The 2023 vintage, while generous, provided fewer barrels than in 2022 – 753 compared to 817 – which seems to make it difficult to set a new total revenue record.
“The harvest was very generous but we sorted very drastically because not all the grapes were suitable,” explained Ludivine Griveau, manager of the Hospices wine estate, which covers 60 hectares.
The smaller number of lots could, however, further push the average price of the piece, under the keen enthusiasm of enthusiasts, all the more difficult to curb as it is a good cause.
“We come as much for the wines as for the charity,” assures the Chinese David Hu.
The revenue generated is in fact intended for the conservation of heritage such as the medieval Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune, but also for the modernization of the equipment of the four hospitals and six nursing homes that the Hospices have, or a thousand beds.
The institute receives no state aid for these expenses, entirely financed by the vines entrusted as legacies and donations to the establishment since its founding in 1443.
© 2023 AFP
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