The house champagne was readily available in the fridge at €11/bottle. Excellent stuff (with no label). It turned out the landlord owned some plots of land on Côte des Blancs, and instead of simply just collecting cash in return for their grapes from the nearby Nicolas Feuillatte co-op, they were given this special blend which, as long as it was for private consumption in their home, could be offered unlabelled at this very decent price.

One of the great things about visiting wine regions is that you are able to really focus in on one area and expand your knowledge. Some key points that I thought were interesting included:

- The caves underlying Epernay and the Av. de Champagne are extremely long, sometimes several km long in one direction. These can be explored if you go to one of the nearby Champagne houses for a guided tour. We went to Mercier where they offered a very slick corporate presentation. You actually go on a driver less train in their caves, guided by a well dressed LVMH representative, followed by a tasting. Worth a visit.
- Contrary to popular belief there are actually a lot more than just three grape varieties that can be used for Champagne. The most common ones are of course Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, however there are six other varieties that are allowed, although very seldom used: Pinot Blanc, Arbanne, Petit Meslier, Pinot gris (in Champagne named Fromenteau), Pinot de juillet and Pinot rosé. My favourite wine shop in London, The Sampler, has recently started selling a Champagne which includes several of these varieties, Laherte Les Clos from Laherte Freres, Chavot.
- Do you know how to visually distinguish the three main grape varieties before the grapes have developed their final size and colour and by simply looking at the leaves of the vine? I do. The top end of the Chardonnay leaf forms a ‘C’, the Pinot Meunier leaves have white tips (meunier means miller and the white tips look like dust from the white flour with some imagination). Pinot Noir is the one that doesn’t fit these criteria. This was pointed out to us by the wife of a wine grower who offers guided tours
- Insecticides are no longer used in Champagne, so alternative methods are used to protect the vines from threats such as diseases, larvae etc. One innovative solution were a small plastic containers attached to the vine which express the ‘scent’ of female larvae, resulting in that when the male larvae tries to find the female for mating they get very confused and end up not finding their way. I’ve added a picture below to demonstrate.

No doubt this would have lasted for another 10 years, however it was great with barbequed spiced pork and new potatoes.

On the nose we all agreed it reminded us of what can be described as a savoury strawberry compote (possibly with some balsamic vinegar) and well worn leather. On the palate the leather was still accentuated with a clear nuance of liquorice, quite tannic. Great wine in a modern Barbaresco style.

I had been warned about Muscadet before, apparently it is a bit hit and miss, however the Les Doneliers, Muscadet Sèvre et Maine 2009 was bone dry, fresh and salty which proved a great accompaniment with oysters for lunch.

There are mainly red wines from Bordeaux, followed by Burgundy (pretty equal selection of red and white), and then the odd Australian (Grange etc.) and American wines such as Ridge Monte Bello. The weird mature Austrian reds I had been looking forward to are nowhere to be found…

I quickly scan the catalogue for lots around the £200-300 mark, which is the sort of sum I have in mind for my first wine auction experience. Most wines are offered per case of 6 or 12, however there are quite a few cases where single bottles are offered, such as a Chateau Lafite 1998 at £280-£360, and sometimes an odd number of bottles brought together in a lot.

Each collection is briefly described, for instance, one reads: “First growth Claret, Yquem and other fine Bordeaux, removed from excellent continental storage. Lying in Brentford, Middlesex. Offered Duty Paid only”.

In regards to identifying any bargains I’m a bit at a loss. Obviously, being there on the day to see which ones will ‘under-perform’ vis-a-vis the asking price is one thing, but how can I try and analyse the catalogue to find good value and exciting wine? Based on the assumption that lots that are made up of odd number of bottles will cost less, rather than cases of 6 or 12, I identify a couple of interesting ones which I will keep an eye on.

There is also one collection that has been stored in damp conditions so some of the labels are not in perfect condition. The description says: “…while the temperature was ideal, it was rather damp and a proportion of the labels have suffered. The collection is keenly priced to reflect this…”

Since I am buying wine to drink and not as an investment I don’t really care much about the condition of the label as long as the wine hasn’t been affected, however an investor might, and most certainly a restauranteur will. Therefore I decide to spend some more time analysing this collection.

It would also be nice to buy some mature wine which is ready to drink but can be enjoyed over the next 5-10 years or so, so this narrows the search further.

The following wines stick out:

• Château Léoville Las Cases 1986 (St Julien, 2eme Cru Classé). 2 bottles with an asking price of £340-400.
This is a lot of money for two bottles of wine, however a quick search reveals that it seems to be a good bargain. At 1855.com it is available at €369 per bottle (tax included), which may be explained by the 98 Parker score. However a search on wine-searcher.com, which is an aggregator of prices from around the world, offers it for around £200/bottle, which is more in line with the asking price.

• Château Cantenac Brown 2000 (Margaux, 3eme Cru Classé). 12 bottles with an asking price of £260-340.

Intuitively, without having done any research, this seems like good value to me. 2000 was a great Bordeaux vintage, and this is a whole case of wine from a reputable classed growth. While Serena Sutcliffe in her tasting notes says it ‘needs time’ I personally like my wines a bit tannic and don’t mind decanting them. And this will provide me with 12 bottles instead of 2 and it will be interesting to open a bottle each year and see how it develops.

A search on wine-searcher.com list prices from around £30 per bottle. So if I can have this for £260 for a case that would be a bargain, even if I add the 15% sales commission. (However I’m not sure how reliable the prices on these aggregator sites are and if the storage conditions are guaranteed. Does anyone have any experiences to share?)

• Château Pichon Longueville, Lalande (Pauillac, 2eme Cru Classé). 4 bottles in total (86, 88, 89, 97) with an asking price of £240-320.

Again, several of the bottles are ‘heavily soiled’ which could I’m sure be a turn off for some buyers. This would be an interesting ready-to-drink lot which could make me a popular dinner host come autumn. I also like the idea of tasting several vintages of the same wine. The vintages for this lot are not the very best, however this is a top classed growth making wines built to last so I’m sure they will keep well. Interestingly, the oldest of these wines (1986) gets the recommendation ‘keep’ in Decanter’s Vintage Chart, whereas the 1989 and 1997 are recommended to ‘drink now’.

This lot clearly fits my brief, now I just need to hope for the best on the day.

Remembering what the lady at Sotheby’s said about sometimes great bargains can be had towards the end of the auction when online bidders have logged off I turn my attention to the lots listed towards the back of the catalogue. There are some interesting lots here, especially for dessert wines (with the added bonus of making my wife happy), for instance 3 bottles of Ch. Climens 1986 for £120-180 or 12 bottles of Ch Coutet for £340-420.

I can’t wait! So excited!

How would you go about identifying bargains? Please share your experiences.

My friend’s friend was no wine snob at all, nor was he in the wine trade, he was simply there as a private person because he could pick up “bargains that no one else wanted”, “weird mature red wines from Austria that you’ve never heard of” and also he liked the the beautiful venue it was in, he said.

So for some reason this thought came to my mind today and I called Sotheby’s to learn a bit more. A very helpful lady told me that there are essentially three ways you can participate. Either you come there in person, bring a photo id, and register on site. You could also instruct their staff to bid up to a certain sum, called ‘absentee bidding’. Third, you could attend the auction online, something they started with last year and is becoming very popular and also attracts a large international audience.

She asked me what I was looking for in particular and I said that this is the first time I’m doing this and I just wanted to see what the experience was like. If I could pick up a bargain on the way, or have the opportunity to buy some exotic wines that would be difficult to find elsewhere, then that would be bonus. So she patiently took me through the basics.

First, there is a catalogue detailing all the ‘lots’ on offer, with a suggested prices associated with it. Since this was the first time for me she offered to send me one for free, otherwise you have to pay a small amount or download it for free on their website. She mentioned that for this auction they had a case of 1978 La Tache from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti which they expected to sell for £30-40/K, however she quickly pointed out that there are also cases selling for approx £200-250. (according to Decanter’s Fine Wine Tracker the ’78 La Tache sold for £21,850 per case in March 2010)

My friend’s friend also told me that sometimes, especially if they auction some private wine collection etc., you could find half a case of a certain wine. This apparently makes it fall through the cracks in a way so that it doesn’t get picked up by professional buyers, and could therefore represent real bargains. The lady at Sotheby’s also implied that being on site makes it easier to identify bargains, perhaps more so a bit later in the day when some of the online bidders had left the auction.

Second, wines come either as ‘duty paid’ or ‘in bond’. She suggested that for a private person perhaps it would be easier to buy the ‘duty paid’. She offered to discuss specifics once I have had a good look in the catalogue. (some great customer service here!)

Third, and this was nothing you really needed to consider right now, but you would have to arrange for transport and storage. Now, storage is an entire chapter on its own, but since I have recently opened an account with BBR for my first en primeur purchases I thought I would mention this, and she said that many of their clients also work with BBR so they could easily arrange for transport.

Important to bear in mind is that any purchase is subject to a 15% “buyers premium” plus VAT.

So I left the conversation still really excited about the whole thing, but also feeling as if there are people there who can guide me through the process and that you don’t need to be a professional wine buyer to get involved. I’ll let you know once I have received the catalogue and have had a good look.

In the meantime, I would be keen to hear from anyone who have any experience form buying at auction? Have you found any bargains? Any tips or stories you want to share?