How Young Wine Drinkers Are Changing the Collectors Market
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As we trade our beachwear for light sweaters and white wine glasses for deep-bowled stemware, it’s time to think about replenishing our cellars with the treasures to be had on the auction market. While it sometimes seems that bottles from the same handful of producers are available at astronomical prices on a rotating basis, younger buyers and more diverse wine offerings are driving a changing market—one that doesn’t look only to the strongholds inside Burgundy and Bordeaux.
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As Adam Bilbey, global head of wine and spirits at Christie’s, points out, “There is more great wine being made today than ever before, at a huge variety of price points. That’s good for everyone.” As opposed to a previous generation of buyers who focused on a small subset of regions and producers, “collectors are far more equipped and knowledgeable nowadays, and are open to tasting and buying wines from anywhere in the world,” he says. Right now Bilbey sees movement toward Piedmont—the home of Barolo and Barbaresco—as well as Champagne, the Jura, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from California, and, yes, still Burgundy.
However, it’s not always the Burgundy of old. Bilbey says younger generations taking over estates in the region have a “different interpretation of viticulture and vinification, which might connect to the collectors of today more.” He mentions producers such as Thibaud Clerget, Alvina Pernot, Charles Lachaux, and Pierre Vincent Girardin, and says the same thing is happening with classic Barolo estates like Cantina Bartolo Mascarello and Giuseppe Rinaldi. Bilbey says he is seeing a plethora of younger buyers, a theme that is echoed by Nick Pegna, Sotheby’s global head of wine and spirits. “We have seen a distinct increase in the 40s and below age group buying from us,” Pegna says. “In 2019, they made up only 33 percent of our buyers, and now they make up 57 percent.” Pegna notes a decline in buyers over 60 years of age, who have decreased from 31 percent of Sotheby’s wine client base in 2019 to 16 percent today.
Sotheby’s has also seen a steady climb in its online bidding, which hints at a younger demographic getting in on the action. “In 2019, only 23 percent of bidders placed bids online,” Pegna says. “Today, that figure is 72 precent.” There’s also been a geographic shift in the house’s client base. Pegna reports that in 2019 it had bidders from 50 countries, which increased to 70 different nations last year. Similar to Christie’s, Sotheby’s is also seeing growing excitement in Champagne, especially bottles from Krug and Dom Pérignon. “We have seen a substantial increase in Champagne buying,” Pegna says. “Krug entered our top 10 producer list, as the first Champagne to do so in 2023, and we sold over $2 million of it at auction in 2023. The interest in Champagne links closely to the growth in our younger demographic.” Pegna also mentioned Burgundy’s Domaine Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay as having surged in the last year, with sales of both doubling from 2022 to 2023.
Bonhams has seen a youth movement, too, with its global head of wine and spirits Amayès Aouli saying a younger cohort is driving the market right now. On top of that, he has also noticed a shift toward Italy at the auction house. “Piedmont and Tuscany are good examples of continuous growth in terms of popularity, knowledge, and prices,” Aouli says. Additionally, Bonham’s clients have gravitated toward the Loire Valley and Chablis, both of which make sense as prices for certain Burgundy producers still spiral out of control. Chablis has always been a more accessible alternative to whites from the C?te-d’Or, and both Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire offer choice to those seeking elegant whites from a legacy French region.
Wine lover and philanthropist Jim Finkel, who has been collecting since the 1980s, tells Robb Report that he is slightly shifting his focus from Burgundy and Bordeaux toward Barolo and Riesling, the latter mostly from Germany and Alsace. And when it comes to producers that he adores, he doesn’t feel the need to stick to just the highest-end offerings. “I am convinced their overall quality even extends to the entry level wine and provides great value,” he says. Finkel isn’t buying much at auction either, preferring his status as a private client of a few high-end producers and a couple of top London wine merchants. And like fellow aficionados of his generation, he’s mainly reducing his collection at this point. That’s putting younger buyers even more in the driver seat of the current collector’s market.
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