Selling the very rare, collectible wines of the world, Adam Bilbey, SVP, Global Head of Wine & Spirits for Christie’s, has a unique view into the state of the wine collector. Adam maps the thought processes and changes in attitude of buyers and sellers of rare wine globally, and he is seeing “green shoots” in the market by mid-2025.

Detailed Show Notes:

Adam’s background - started w/ Berry Bros out of high school (2000) at Heathrow Airport shop, moved to Hong Kong in 2010 w/ Berry Bros, Sotheby’s in 2015, Christie’s in 2021

Christie’s is known for fine art, and wine is part of the luxury group (jewelry, handbags, cars), which is 20% of sales, and wine is 10-20% of luxury sales

2025 wine auction market

• Christie’s up 2x YOY Aug YTD, big single-owner sales (e.g., Bill Koch)
• Challenging market mid 2022-2024, newer vintage prices dropping more, more supply available
• In a downturn, buyers’ price expectations fall faster than sellers’
• “Green shoots” in 2025, pricing bottoming out

Burgundy has taken share from Bordeaux last 5-6 years, Champagne came up and leveled off, Italy is strong in the US but not in Asia, Burgundy is strong in Asia, but leveled off

Interest in more mature vintages, particularly Bordeaux, is still valued there

Focus on provenance, people won’t bid on poor provenance anymore

• 2-tier pricing, people paying for a premium for a great collection, single-owner sales, they like the story of who owned the wines

With a more global market than ever, people buy from anywhere

• The US has a broader selection
• Everyone buys from the UK
• Asia tends to need more focus (e.g., Burgundy)

Liv-ex shows -10% pricing last year, -20% last 2 years; auction prices move gradually, often lots don’t sell

More Millennials and Gen Z customers (45% 2025 from 30% 2022)

Female customers have been consistent last 4-5 years, a slight dip in the US, and growing in Asia

Younger generations are drinking younger wines, they like the security of younger wines, have a fear of disappointment in older bottles

Online auctions require ease of use

• Christie’s does 2x online auctions vs live
• Live auctions for key moments, key collections
• Various owner sales in online auctions

Provenance is improving with more communication (e.g., purchase & storage records), people working together (merchants, auction houses), and technology (digital microscopes, UV light, carbon dating)

Provenance is critical, as people remember the bad bottles sold to them over the good ones

Believes China will make a comeback in the next 2-4 years

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Making wine is capital-intensive. Making traditional method sparkling wine is even more so. From less juice from the grapes to double fermentation to more expensive bottles and taxes, Weston Eidson of recently launched Westborn Wine describes the differences in sparkling production.

Detailed Show Notes:

Weston’s background: >10 years winemaking in Napa (Silver Ghost), family are wine collectors, interned w/ Jason Moore at Modus Operandi (2012), and acquired extra Chardonnay from Steve Matthiasson

Westborn was founded in 2018, taking “Grand Cru” or single vineyard level fruit for sparkling wine (e.g., Heintz, Ritchie, Durell vineyards)

Partnered w/ Russell Bevan (mentor) and Nathan Reeves (made sparkling in Margaret River)

The goal is to start with high-quality wines and layer on complexity with traditional method aging

Took 4-5 years to find a stride & hone the winemaking process

Initially thought it would be 3 years aging vs 6 for 1st release (2019 1st release; 2018 1st vintage just disgorged mid 2025)

SKUs: vintage, Blanc de Blanc, Rose, Non-vintage

Luxury priced - $100+

Solera method perpetual reserve program, late disgorged release, lead to a lot of capital in inventory

2018: 500 cases; 2025 ~1,000 cases; target ~2,000 cases

Sparkling production costs vs. still wine

• Fruit costs the same (growers love it: less shrivel, gets fruit off earlier - less pest/disease pressure; spreads out the work)
• Press cuts important, ~25% less gallons/ton vs still wine, as they don’t take taille
• Need to make the wine twice: initial fermentation (vin clair), secondary fermentation (bottled with yeast and sugar)
• Custom crush costs are slightly more expensive due to double fermentation
• Bottles are more costly and need to be bought earlier (~$0.15-20 for a standard bottle; ~$1 for sparkling)
• Taxes higher: $2.40/gallon for sparkling wine, $0.07/gallon for still wine <16% abv
• Storage and financing costs are higher

Financing is combined with other brands, which may make it hard to start a sparkling brand as a stand-alone entity

Look at the business plan over 20 20-year time horizon, projecting cash flow positive in 2027 (9 years from founding)

Trends underpinning Westborn strategy: following Michael Cruse w/ grower CA sparkling wine, premiumization, sparkling doing relatively well, sparkling being used beyond celebrations

Take inspiration from Bereche, De Souza (lees stirring in bottle to amp up umami), and Selosse

People looking for experiences have a tasting at The Art Collective Napa Valley

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a cycle that has been happening since the late 1800s. The need for agricultural labor in California is a cycle of bringing in labor and then deporting them when they become too visible. Elaine Chukan Brown, wine writer and author of recently published The Wines of California, describes the history, current situation with new regulations and deportation, and the tension put on vineyard workers’ wages in California and their impacts on the labor market and vineyard workers.

Detailed Show Notes:

The Wines of California covers 3 sections:

• How we got here - the history and what context allowed things to happen
• Where we go - the growing regions and key producers
• What we’re facing - marketing challenges, climate change

Interest in farmworkers started with Salud, a medical program for vineyard workers and their families

• Has mobile and physical clinics
• Successful because it provides care for workers and their families

CA is the largest farm region in the US

• Exports 40% of ag production
• Became nationally relevant in the 1900s, which led to the need for farm labor

Sources of farm labor (in chronological order)

• Indigenous people (until smallpox outbreak and reservations)
• China - exchanged labor for citizenship, after 10-15 years, expelled Chinese with the Chinese Exclusion Act
• Japan
• India
• Black sharecroppers from the South (small group)
• Mango (Philippines)
• Mexico (post WWII) - led to the current H2A program

When labor populations grow and get too big, they are expelled, which has been in ~20-year cycles

H2A Program - temporary work visa program

• Cannot be extended or transferred to another employer
• Employers must provide housing & transportation
• Biases towards big business to deal w/ compliance

FDR (1930s/40s) - Labor Protections Act created worker protections, but excluded agriculture

United Farmworkers (1975) - 1st farmworker protection legislation

Association of Farmers - farm wonders banded together to have more leverage against workers

Ever-growing CA labor regulations create large compliance requirements that end up favoring big business

Current system sets up farm workers’ wages as the only lever for farm owners to maintain profit margins and be economically viable (w/w/o gov’t subsidies)

New CA farmworker overtime pay law - 8 hours/day, 40 hours/week before overtime

• Derived from an office worker’s perspective
• Does not match the seasonal work of agriculture
• Employers have small margins, can’t afford overtime rates
• Workers make less money and need to get 2nd or 3rd jobs
• If workers get injured at 2nd job, workers’ comp does not cover wages of the main job
• Employers need to find more workers to do the same amount of work, and lose the experience and skills of the current workforce

Many crops (e.g., strawberries, peaches) need manual labor and can’t be mechanized

ICE raids & deportations: not a new thing, but what’s new is people with documentation (visas, amnesty recipients, citizens) are being detained and deported

• Creating fear, workers not showing up to work (some regions report a 70% drop in workers)
• Workers not going to farms on main roads (too visible)
• Families choose 1 member to go ot work, the other stays home to take care of the kids
• Historically, when the safety of workers is an issue, workers don’t respond to higher pay

US tariffs increase prices to consumers, decreasing sales; it may take decades for consumers to substitute for domestic wines

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.