The 64th Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges wine auction takes place on Sunday 9th March 2025 starting at 3pm at Château du Clos de Vougeot. For the first time, iDealwine has organised the auction. The wines from the 2024 vintage have turned out to be of high quality. There’s just one problem – there’s not much of it due to low yields. To add an additional reason to take part in the auction of what will be rare wines, bottles from older vintages will also be going under the hammer on the day.
A new auctioneer at the helm
The directors of the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges have chosen a new auctioneer to organise their annual auction during which the estate’s wines are sold. Bringing down the hammer in 2025 will be iDealwine. The auction will be led by Cyrille Jomand, CEO of iDealwine, accompanied by Alexandre Giquello, IWA’s partner auctioneer.
“It’s an honour for iDealwine to organise the auction and the whole team enthusiastically jumped into the project. What better way to celebrate our 25th anniversary than to help reveal “Burgundy’s best kept secret” to the world?” Cyrille Jomand, CEO of iDealwine and certified auctioneer
A quality vintage that’ll be rare
The 64th edition of this auction is dedicated to the 2024 vintage, a superb year with wines typical of the Burgundian style – balanced and full of finesse bringing together great purity, freshness, intense fruitiness and a beautiful silkiness. The vintage will go down in history due to the low amount of grapes harvested. The average yield across the estate was 9.5hl/ha whereas this figure is normally around 30hl/ha. Only 36.5 pièces – or barrels – were produced, filled with 15 different wines (please see the list of pièces in the appendix for more information), all of which are begin put up for auction. A pièce holds 228 litres of wine, which is equivalent to about 288 bottles.
An auction to finance a good cause
“The money raised at the wine auction goes directly to the Hospices and finances local investment projects. At the end of 2024, we started a new rehabilitation programme at the Nuits-Saint-Georges site despite the different problems we had been facing. Thanks to our perseverance and the funds raised from the auctions, we are able to maintain our momentum.” Guillaume Koch, Director of the Hospices Civils de Beaune (to which the Hospices de Nuits is attached, while still retaining its autonomy concerning the wine estate).
The charity pièce in aid of the association Coucou nous voilou
Following tradition, a charity pièce – or pièce de charité in French – is sold in aid of another charitable cause. And for the first time, the wine will be a white one, more specifically Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Terres Blanches. It’s a rare wine from the appellation as Chardonnay is only planted on about 5% of it. Buying this pièce works a little different as it is not sold through the auction so to speak but rather, buyers put their name down, stating how many bottles they wish to buy, with the money raised going to the association Coucou nous voilou in 2025. Founded by Marc Salem, the charity works to brighten the lives of children and teenagers in hospital through trips, games, murals, etc.. At the auction, it will be represented by French singer and actress Chantal Ladesou and champion figure skater Philippe Candeloro.
Bottles from older vintages auctioned for the first time
To compensate for the small number of barrels up for auction this years, 240 bottles and 120 magnums of different wines produced by the Domaine des Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges will also be auctioned for the first time. Coming from vintages from 2005 to 2017, the wines will be split into lots of 1, 2, 3 or 6 bottles.
How to take part in the Hospices de Nuits?
Professionals and private individuals can take part in this auction.
The auction will take place at Château du Clos de Vougeot from 3pm on Sunday 9 March. To do so, it’s imperative to register in advance (registration closes on Thursday 6 March 2025 at 23:59 (French time)).
What are the steps I need to take to buy wine?
- Register for the auction
- Place bids, win lots and pay
- Entrust the pièce to a Burgundian wine merchant who will mature the wine (please see the catalogue for the list)
- Personalise the bottles (choice of bottle sizes and add names to label)
- Receive the bottles (around the beginning of 2026)
Please note that you can group together with one or more people to buy a pièce together. The bottles will be divided between buyers who can each have their own personalised labels.
Take part in person at the château
To sign up, please fill in the registration form and send an email to hdn@idealwine.com to provide a piece of identity, bank documents (IBAN), proof of address and a business registration such as a Kbis (the last document for professional buyers only).
Place a purchase request or place bids over the phone
For buyers that cannot be present in Burgundy themselves on the day, iDealwine can place bids on their behalf according to their instructions. Purchase requests and bids over the telephone have to be made in writing before the auction through the form and sent along with the required legal paperwork (piece of identity, bank documents (IBAN), proof of address and a business registration document such as a Kbis for professional buyers. The requests have to be sent by 23:59 (French time) on Thursday 6 March 2025 at the latest. The buyer needs to state if the purchase request is enough or whether they wish to be called during the auction.
Bid online on Drouot Live
To bid online, the bidder needs to register in advance on the drouot.com website (create an account online before 23:59 (French time) on Thursday 6 March 2025) and contact iDealwine to validate participation. Please send an email to hdn@idealwine.com to provide a piece of identity, bank documents (IBAN), proof of address and a business registration such as a Kbis for professional buyers.
Example of the final price of a pièce
The following fees payable by the buyer will be added to the hammer price:
- IWA commission: 6% excl. VAT of the hammer price (or 7.2% incl. VAT)
- Barrel fee: €869.00 exuding VAT (or €1042.80 including VAT) per pièce lot // €445.00 excluding VAT or (€534.00 including VAT) per feuillette lot
- Fees relating to maturation, bottle, and if applicable, personalisation are decided by each business who age the wine and these will also need to be added.
An example for a pièce bought for €10,000 at auction:
- Hammer price: €10,000 at the gavel
- Buyer’s fees (6% excluding VAT): €600
- Barrel fee: €869 excluding VAT
- Maturation and bottling fee (as an example): €3,000 excluding VAT
- Total price of a pièce = €14,469 excluding VAT
- Total price per bottle (288) = €50.20 excluding VAT (or €60.24 including VAT)
