06 Aug July 2026 Post-Auction and Markets Report
July has been another popular wine-buying month at The Wine Auction Room. It seems our wine loving community really appreciated the single vendor sales presented, which bookended our celebration of all things French
Single Vendor Auction Burgundy and Beyond (Part 5) – Weds 1 July to Mon 6 July
Bastille Day Celebration – Weds 8 July to Mon 13 July
Single Vendor Auction Cellar of Two Passionate Collectors – Weds 22 July to Monday 27 July
These closed on 346 bottles across 302 lots with 22 lots selling for $1000 or over per bottle. For the second month in a row we saw just over 9% of lots close at or above our high estimate. Needless to say with two specialist auctions focusing on the wines of Burgundy and France respectively our July sales are dominated by French wine generally (83% of sales) and Burgundy specifically (40%) so it should come as no surprise that our top five sales were all top-flight Red Burgundy.
Our top five sales for July 2026 were:
2005 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Saint Vivant Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits ($6540)
2010 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Echezeaux Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits ($4700)
2013 Domaine Comte George de Vogüé Musigny Grand Cru Magnum, Côte de Nuits ($2115)
2016 Domaine Vicomte Liger-Belair Vosne Romanee La Colombiere, Côte de Nuits ($1880)*
2010 Domaine Comte George de Vogüé Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru Magnum, Côte de Nuits ($1762.50)
* three bottles, divided between two lots sold at this price.
New Zealand
New Zealand wine made up a mere 6% of our sales in July and had strong results for a range of wines including Felton Road Block 1 Riesling, Kumeu River Maté’s Chardonnay and Kusuda Pinot Noir which was our top sale, a bottle of the 2019 vintage being purchased for $305.50.
Australia and the Americas
Likewise; wines from Australia, the USA and Argentina only made up 3% of sales. This said, there was strong demand for these wines with five wines from two producers (Yalumba and Ridge) selling well above our high estimates.
Germany, Italy and Spain
As with our new-world sales we saw strong demand for old-world wines from outside France with classic Italian wines from Piedmont and Tuscany making up the lion’s share of these sales. We saw strong returns for German Riesling from Selbach Oster and Clemens Busch, and Italian reds from Produttori del Barbaresco (Barbaresco), Pira & Figli (Barolo) and Il Poggione (Brunello di Montalcino).
France
Demand at the very top end of the market remained strongest for Grand Cru Red Burgundy, with excellent results across producers including Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Leroy, Coche-Dury, A.F. Gros, Georges Mugneret-Gibourg, and Armand Rousseau. Buyers also competed strongly for White Burgundy from Roulot, First Growth Bordeaux from Latour and Cheval Blanc, and Champagne from Roses de Jeanne by Cédric Bouchard. A highlight of the sale was a bottle of UR Les Ursules Blanc de Noirs, which achieved $1,223.50, finishing 23% above its high estimate. .
Demand wasn’t confined to the trophy wines. Buyers competed strongly for wines from across France, with many lots achieving prices at or above their high estimates. Standout results came from Bordeaux, including Palmer Alter Ego, Ducru-Beaucaillou, and Gazin, alongside Burgundy producers such as Clos Salomon, Clos des Lambrays, and Leroy’s Aligoté. The Southern Rhône also performed well, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Alain Jaume, Gigondas from Brusset and Château de Saint Cosme, and Rasteau from Domaine la Soumade all attracting strong bidding. In the Loire, Vouvray from Huet and François Chidaine also continued to find enthusiastic buyers.
Market News
Burgundy is on top – and not just at the Wine Auction Room
Liv-Ex is reporting that for the 5th straight week Burgundy has been the highest-performing wine region in the secondary market. Likewise, wines from both core Italian regions (Piedmont and Tuscany) have traded well across July.
Acker Mid Year Report
US auction house Acker has published its quarterly market report and while this is a must read for anyone interested in the investment market here are a few key takeaways:
- Mirroring the recent news from Liv-Ex Acker describes the market recovery as “led by Burgundy”,
- Likewise, wine as an asset class continues to outperform both traditional indices like the S&P 500 but also alternative asset classes like Bitcoin (which fell by 31%), and
- While dominated by Burgundy their top producer list is led by Chave Hermitage, secondary market pricing for which increased by over 40% in the 2026 year to date.
Bordeaux is still performing well…
In an interview with Drinks Business, iDealWine* co-founder Angélique de Lencquesaing said that sales on their platform had seen a 9% increase in value and 19% increase in volume in sales via their platform led by relatively recent Bordeaux vintages.
On a similar note, both Acker and Vinum are boasting extremely positive starts to 2026, and as per our June report we’re also happy with similar positive movement at The Wine Auction Room here in our corner of Aotearoa.
Looking ahead…
If July has confirmed anything it’s that while secondary market demand (both here in NZ and Internationally) is getting stronger (Acker rather ambitious use the term “bull market”), buyers still remain highly selective however they are prepared to compete for top-flight wines with provenance,
We have two more auctions scheduled for August (following this weeks’ incredibly successful Live Auction and Buy Now sale), the first is our second annual dedicated Italian Wine auction, The Italian Job which features the wines of Tuscany, Piedmont and beyond and with a reduced buyers premium of 12.5%.
And then we finish the month with the Single Vendor sale, The Cellar of a Gentleman which coincides with International Cabernet Day and features a truly wonderful selection of NZ Syrah and Bordeaux blends with reserves between $20 and $100.
September brings spring and the Hawke’s Bay Wine Auction for which, once again, we are offering live online bidding and will also be organising open syndicates to allow like-minded winelovers to pool resources to bid on the larger (half- and full-barique) lots and support Hawke’s Bay’s Cranford Hospice.
Spring is also around the corner, and this is an excellent time to do a cellar clearout to see what you may be interested in consigning in an upcoming auction or to move those more precious bottles into temperature controlled storage at the Wine Storage Room.
*iDealWine is a TradeMe like wine sales platform that allows both retailers and consumers (in markets where this is legal) to sell wine at fixed prices or at auction.
