It would have been hard to miss recently that iDealwine was the auctioneer for the Hospices de Nuits auction for the first time, which took place on Sunday 9 March at Château du Clos de Vougeot. It even allowed half the team to spend a wonderful weekend in Burgundy. In this article, we’ll take you through the lead up and the big day with our photos.
The auction was a grand success with the average price of a pièce rising by 41% and €856,950 raised for the Hospices de Nuits. We are so proud of the auction itself, and the results. It was a huge honour to have been chosen by Guillaume Koch, the director of the Hospices Civils de Beaune and the Hospices de Nuits Saint-Georges, and an immense pleasure to work with the team at the hospital and winemaking estate.
It’s all in the planning
Preparation for the auction started many months ago, in April 2024 to be exact, when out CEO Cyrille Jomand passed his auctioneer exam. This gave iDealwine the nudge it needed to submit its application to organise the Hospices de Nuits auction. Then we had to wait for to see if we were successful… The good news arrived at the start of July – iDealwine will be bringing down the hammer at the 2025 auction!
Over the months, we worked alongside the teams at the hospitals and wine estate’s director to come up with a running order for the auction and a marketing plan. We even travelled to Burgundy several times to work together in person and to meet the mayor of Nuits-Saint-Georges, Alain Cartron. At the same time, we started to present the estate’s wine around the world at different tastings and events.
The press conference took place on 13 February at Château du Clos de Vougeot. The day, which included a visit the vines and a tasting with Jean-Marc Moron, the estate’s manager, was a good occasion to uncover the excellent quality of the wine.
The auction weekend
Nearly half the iDealwine team (30 people) went to Burgundy for auction.
Some of them stayed in this amazing holiday home, which some eagle-eyed film fans may recognise as the house from Back to Burgundy. The other half of the team stayed in a holiday home belonging to the Bouzereau winemaking family.
The weekend in Burgundy started with a dinner Saturday at the restaurant Auberge du Coteau while Angélique and Cyrille attended a dinner with the press and some clients at Maison Delaunay. It was a chance to start the weekend off right with find Burgundian wine (Hubert Lamy, Sylvain Pataille, Anne Boisson, Thiriet).
In the afternoon, most of the team worked at Château du Clos de Vougeot to have a practice run and finish setting up. Another part of the team accompanied journalists to a tasting at the Domaine des Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges while the final part of the team toured the vineyards on mopeds passing by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
One thing you should if you’re ever in Nuits-Saint-Georges the day before the auction, the semi-marathon blocks off many roads so it’s best not to have somewhere to be…
The day ended with a visit to Domaine Dubuet-Boillot, an iDealwine partner, where Maxime Dubuet-Boillot, the winemaker led us through a tasting of six wines. It was wonderful to discuss all things wine with this highly passionate winemaker!
In the evening, we had organised an informal soirée at the beautiful holiday home we were staying in for winemakers, customers and journalists. We had a lovely time discussing wine with other enthusiasts over beautiful glasses of wine.
The big day
The morning started off quietly with our CEO and auctioneer rising early to go running through the vines.
After the official dinner pour VIP clients at Clos de Vougeot, everyone arrived for the start of the auction which took place in one of the great halls. The auction unfolded wonderfully under the hammers of Mr Jomand and Mr Giquello and concluded with a traditional Burgundian song. It was then time for the iDealwine team to head back to Paris, but not before a little celebration in Burgundy to mark this brilliant event. A super adventure that we’ll never forget!
