The 2025 iDealwine Barometer reveals what happened during the 2024 auctions: the leading producers, the wines that were auctioned for the biggest prices, and the stars of today and the future. Here’s a look at the developing trends.
Every year, iDealwine publishes its auction barometer which analyses the previous year’s auction market and unveils the emerging trends. Significant facts, auction records, rankings, and rising stars – the 170 pages of analysis and tips is an irreplaceable guide for wine enthusiasts as they manage their collections.
2024 – A record year for auctions, helped by increased volumes
In 2024, 261,465 bottles (when scaled to 750ml) were auctioned by International Wine Auction, iDealwine’s subsidiary, with a 17.7% surge in volume.
These auction results generated €39.1 million, an increase of 15% and a record for iDealwine auctions. Wine enthusiasts from 59 countries contributed to these results. iDealwine continues to expand its international reach with the opening of its new office in New York and a new delivery country – New Zealand, having been delivering to Australia since 2023. The average price auctioned on the website stands at €149 for a standard 750ml bottle, a slight 1.9% drop on 2023.
Fine Spirits Auction, a joint venture between can be iDealwine and La Maison du Whisky and a website dedicated to spirits, recorded €2.1m in sales which can be added to those figures.
The highest-priced wines of 2024 (taxes and fees included): The majestic Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
- The most sought-after producer at auction last year was Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – 639 bottles (or other formats scaled to 750ml) went under the hammer (+65%) fetching €2.65 million (+74%) for an average price of €4,142 per standard bottle (up 6%).
- The highest-priced lot of the year was a 12-bottle mixed case of 1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, which sold for €62,375.
- The highest-priced bottle of the year was a bottle of 2020 Romanée-Conti from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, auctioned for €20,375.
Major market trends in 2024-2025
- Prices fall slightly (the average price drops 1.9%) with strong differences region to region. The average price for Champagne decreased by 16%, while this same statistic for Roussillon grew by 24%. The regions that saw the greatest increases were Roussillon (+24%), Beaujolais (+16%), Savoie (+18%), Auvergne (+7 %) and South West France (+15%).
- Burgundy still dominates auctions: While Bordeaux was the top region in terms of the value sold at iDealwine auctions five years ago (2019) with 40% of the value and 44% of the volume, finishing ahead of Burgundy (34% of the value and 23 % of the volume), things have shifted. Since 2020, Burgundy has been in the lead and in 2024, it represented 45.2% of auction value and 27% of the volume. Meanwhile, Bordeaux represents 27% value auction but came out in first place in terms of volume with 32.8%.
- Wine enthusiasts’ choices diversify: The share of smaller regions grew at auction. For example, Jura has gone from recording 2% of the value in 2019 to 2.4% in 2024, becoming the sixth largest region. Other examples include Languedoc and Roussillon going from 1% to 1.7% and Champagne, the fourth largest region, going from 3% to 5.6%. This trend does not just concern French regions as Italy’s share increased from 1% to 1.9%. This diversification mainly comes at a cost for the share in value that Bordeaux and Rhône wine possess at auction. However, this trend does not detract from the value that the 50 most sought-after produces attract. They represent 53% of the total auction value with 19% of the volume. An important point to note is that in each region, the most iconic producers, who experienced a significant rise in the number of their bottles auctioned, saw their average bottle price drop by 3% on average.
- White wine continues to gain traction: Five years ago, red wines made up 77% of the auctioned value but their share was only 70.5% in 2024 as they lost ground to still and sparkling white wine. Several illustrious regions stood out in particular: the Loire Valley (65% of all bottles were white wines), Jura (where this figure was 69%), Alsace (91%) and Savoie (56%). This trend is in line with current drinking habits which have changed to favour white wines.
- Success for organic, biodynamic, and natural wines: The share of organic and biodynamic wine remained stable in 2024 with 28.4% of the volume and 35.6% of the value after having gained ground in recent years. Meanwhile, natural wines saw their share grow slightly from 6.5% to 7.6% of the value and 5.8% to 7.2% of the volume when scaled to 750ml. There are also great regional disparities with those leading the way in organic, biodynamic and natural wine being the Loire, Jura, Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence, Corsica, Alsace, Beaujolais and Savoie.
