Have a look at our ranking of wines that received the highest bids in 2020. Do you know them all? Have you been lucky enough to try any? For once, the top place bottle was a bit of a surprise…

An intense and dynamic year despite the global crisis

For iDealwine and the auction market more broadly, 2020 was a rich and intense year in spite of a global context marked by the pandemic and its extensive effects on the economy. We want to thank you again for your support during this time!

40 auctions were held at iDealwine.com over the course of the year, including six private collections (sales dedicated to the exceptional cellar of one particular seller). Over 175,000 bottle went under the hammer (+4%), as part of 93,000 lots (+12%), for a total of over €23 million, which is an increase of 8%. Cyrille Jomand, iDealwine’s CEO, explains ‘The products put up for auction saw a huge success, with unprecedented rates of bottles sold per sale. The market turned out to be dynamic this year, allowing us to comfortably secure our position as a leader in online auctions. The only obstacle came from a sourcing perspective, since the lockdown and its restrictions prevented us from offering as many bottles as we’d have liked to during the spring.’

At the same time, sales of fixed price wines (those that come directly from domains), saw an even stronger acceleration of 46%. Both auction and fixed price sales combined, iDealwine’s total sales figure for 2020 amounts to €33 million, a 15% increase on 2019.

Burgundy heads up the highest-priced bottles – A Musigny from Domaine Leroy on top

Burgundy has been making steady progress over the years in our rankings of the top 50 lots and bottles, and the trend shows no sign of slowing. 36 of the highest-priced lots are from this prestigious region (compared to last year’s 29), and 39 of the highest-priced bottles, which is four more than in 2019. Indeed, the top spot in both tables has been taken by Burgundians: the highest bid we saw last year was for a 2001 Musigny from Domaine Leroy, which was sold for €17,499. The top lot was a 12-bottle 1990 assortment from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, this for €53,172. This is the first time that a bottle from Domaine Leroy has got gold at the podium, pushing Romanée-Conti from its usual spot (the only other exceptions being a 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle by Paul Jaboulet and a 50-Year-Old The Balvenie single malt scotch whisky from the Banffshire distillery). Aside from these emblematic names, Domaines Georges Roumier, Leflaive, Auvenay (also owned by Lalou Bize-Leroy) and Liger-Belair also stand out.

Bordeaux, holding on with some superb signatures

Bordeaux’s share of the top spots in our ranking has been diminishing for several years now, since many of the highest prices from this classic region don’t quite match those we see in Burgundy. Still, it takes up 8 places in the ranking of top bottles. This is likely due to our decision not to scale prices to a 750ml bottle, Bordeaux being a great producer of large formats; 7 of the bottles placed are magnums and 1 is an imperial.

Thanks to its global reputation, Bordeaux has still managed to distinguish itself by marrying high prices (especially for the Premiers crus classés) with a certain quantity: 13 of our highest-priced lots are from Bordeaux with, for example, a 6-bottle lot of 2000 Château Mouton-Rothschild which sold for €9,701.

Aside from Burgundy and Bordeaux, we find one bottle from the Rhône, a 1990 bottle of Jean-Louis Chave’s Cathelin cuvée at €6,140. There is also a 1959 Dom Pérignon rosé at €5,526, and a Louis XIII Rémy Martin Rare Cask Cognac at €16,578.

Here are the tables in full:

Top 50 highest-priced lots of 2020

Top 50 highest-priced bottles of 2020 (scaled to 75cl)