09 Sep August 2026 Post-Auction and Markets Report
Starting with our bi-monthly headline live auction, August 2026 was an exciting month for us at The Wine Auction Room and featured three auctions and a buy-now event following the live auction:
August Rare & Fine Wine Live Auction (Tues 4 August)
August Buy Now (Weds 5 August)
The Italian Job (Weds 12 – Mon 17 August)
Single Vendor: The Cellar of an Englishman (Weds 26 – Mon 31 August)
These closed on 682 bottles across 421 lots with six sales of $1000 or more per bottle. Over winter, we saw over 10% of lots close at or above high estimates.
Our top five sales for August 2026 were:
2007 Tenuta dell’Ornellaia 3000ml, Bolgheri at $1880
2004 Penfolds Bin 60A 1500ml, Coonawarra and Barossa at $1645
2003 Château Lafite Rothschild 1er Cru Classé, Pauillac (2) at $1586.25 each
1999 Penfolds Grange Bin 95 1500ml, South Australia at $1292.50
2007 Masseto Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, Bolgheri at $1175
1995 Château Latour 1er Cru Classé, Pauillac at $1175
New Zealand
After a few months of quite significant international sales, New Zealand is back on top with a whopping 53% of sales in August, in part due to our single vendor auction which exclusively featured New Zealand wines. Our very top sale was a bottle of 2016 Bell Hill LIMEWORKS Chardonnay which sold for $634.5 (an increase of over 22% on our last sale of this wine in April), followed by multiple vintages of Destiny Bay Magna Praemia (selling for between $340.75 and $634.50 per bottle) and both Bell Hill Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (all selling around the $300 mark).
Total price aside, we saw extremely strong results for a wide range of wines including multiple vintages of Waiheke’s Te Whau The Point, Devotus Reserve and Estate Pinot Noir, 2010 Stonyridge Larose, the aforementioned Bell Hill and wines from Puriri Hills, Squawking Magpie, Vidal, Novum, Sacred Hill and Passage Rock.
Australia
In August 2026, Australian wine made up 3% of sales with our very top sales being the magnums of Penfolds Bin 60A and Grange mentioned in our top overall sales, followed by several vintages of Grange in 750ml bottle format. There was significant interest in some vintage Australian wines with a bottle of 1982 Wynns Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon selling for $141, 76% above high estimate.
Italy
With our second annual The Italian Job Auction being hosted in August, Italian wine sales represented 17.5% of our sales. While our very top two sales (as mentioned above) were for iconic Super Tuscans, the following eight of our top sales were all for top-flight Barolo from lauded producers Bruno Giacoas, Giuseppe Rinaldi, Gaja and Conterno; selling between $400 and $600 a bottle. There was also strong demand for wines from Produttori del Barbaresco, Cappellano, Tenta di Trinoro and Cepparello, the celebrated wine of Tuscan estate Isole e Olena.
Spain
While there were only a handful of Spanish sales in August, a pair of 2020 CVNE Grand Reserva Rioja performed extremely well with the Imperial bottling selling at $188 (45% above high estimate) and the Vina Real bottling selling at $176.50, 96% above high estimate.
France
French wine sales made up 23% of sales in August with First Growth Bordeaux dominating our top sales, helped along by Prestige Cuvée Champagne and white Burgundy. Our top sale, two bottles of ‘03 Lafite sold 32% above high estimate at $1586.25 and we also saw strong sales for less expensive wines including a ‘14 Domaine Charles Audoin Marsannay ‘Les Favieres’ which sold for $105.75 (also 32% above high estimate) and multiple bottles of Cru Beaujoalis from a collector in Wellington.
Market News
The 25 Most Expensive Wines in 2026 – WineCap has just published a list of the top 25 most expensive wines in the world looking at the average case price across recent vintages with 24 of the listings being from Burgundy (15th place goes to Northern Rhone icon ‘Ermitage Cathelin from Jean Louis Chave) and 17 of those listings being from either Domaine Leroy or Domaine d’Auvenay, both owned and run by nonagenerian Lalou Bize-Leroy. Likewise, while reds outnumber whites on the list, three of the top four most expensive wines are white wines as is the top-listed New World wine, Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc which came 28th place.
Want to know which wines are top performers? – Liv-Ex has just published a list (sorry, yes another list) outlining the 20 most consistent top performers of the last year. Just over ½ the list is made up of Bordeaux with wines like ‘05 and ‘15 Mouton leading the charge with Champagne also being well represented. Other inclusions are 2023 Lefaive Macon Verze, 2013 Opus One and Domaine de la Grande des Pères Rouge from the Languedoc.
Demand is increasing in Asia, Europe and the USA – Vinum has just reported that for the first time in five years, wine imports to Hong Kong have increased in both value (up by 20%) and by volume (up by 4%), the delta between these two figures is also illustrative of the demand for high-end fine wine in this important market. Likewise, Liv-Ex is also reporting that as of the start of September, the total value of secondary trades increased 56% week-on-week with strong demand coming from buyers in the USA and Europe with Bordeaux and Burgundy purchase values increasing by Bordeaux and 36.7% and 31.0% over the same period.
Looking ahead…
This week is the Hawke’s Bay Wine Auction, NZ’s oldest Charity Wine Auction with 100% of proceeds raised going to support Cranford Hospice who provide vital end of life care to the people of Hawke’s Bay. Once again it is an honour to be contributing with the wine industry community as a Gold Sponsor and facilitating live online bidding. Please bid generously!
Starting next week we have a run of exciting auctions; our annual Spring Clean kicks things off with reduced buyers premium followed by our 6th and final Burgundy & Beyond Auction (which also has reduced premiums, largely due to the nature of the amazing wines on offer). Our penultimate Live auction of the year is in early October which features a stellar lineup.
As mentioned, it’s spring! Which may inspire you to have your own spring clean of your cellar. If you’ve got this far you’ll already have an idea of what has been performing well at auction recently. If you’re hanging onto things for a while longer, there is no better time to move those precious bottles into temperature controlled storage at the Wine Storage Room. Ask us why not all wine storage is created equal!
