Susie & Peter / Podcast Episodes  / Season Six / ‘Adrenaline rush’: Wine Auctions & Trends with iDealwine

Summary

This show is brought to you in association with iDealwine. 

It’s not every day the world of wine is described in terms like: ‘adrenaline rush,’ and going ‘crazy’. 

Welcome to the world of online wine auctions, particularly that of iDealwine (sponsors of this show).

iDealwine is a treasure trove not only of wine goodies but also high-tech functionality – so in this episode we explore how these online wine auctions work and why they might be worth trying out if you haven’t already.

Whisper it – but apparently they’re pretty easy, accessible (with prices starting at €1) and…fun.

We talk about all this as well as analyse the wine market trends of today and tomorrow with iDealwine co-founder Angélique de Lencquesaing.

We also hear from iDealwine customer Jordan O’Brien in Toronto as to why we should, in his words, ‘dive right in.’

Along the way we talk hidden gems, Japanese Pinot Noir, 4 o’clock starts, fake wine and 1965 vinegar…

Starring

Angélique de Lencquesaing
Jordan O’Brien

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Transcript

This transcript is AI generated. It’s not perfect.

Susie: Hello, you’re listening to Wine Blast with me, Susie Barrie, and my husband and fellow master of wine, Peter Richards. Welcome to all of you, new listeners and loyal long time listeners! It’s wonderful to have you all as part of our very convivial Wine Blast community.

Peter: Yes, hello and welcome! In this episode we’re discussing the latest trends in wine and how wine auctions are being being revamped and reimagined in the modern digital era. Focusing on the intriguing case study that is iDealwine. Here’s a taster of what’s coming up.

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Auction is really a game for, many, many of our customers. So you can be quiet and decide what you want to do quietly or you can also decide to become crazy. But iDealwine gives you all the tools to make your decision. Buy wines that you would really dream to drink.

Jordan O’Brien: There’s definitely an adrenaline rush, involved with it. It is fun. They’ve perfected that system. Dive right in.

Susie: iDealwine co founder Angelique De Lencquesaing and customer Jordan O’ Brien there, both of whom we’ll be hearing more from in due course. Now we should say right from the start that this episode is sponsored by iDealwine And not only that, but this episode marks the start of iDealwine’s headline sponsorship of Wine Blast for the next few programmes. We’re really excited about this partnership, aren’t we?

Peter: Yeah, we are. you know, firstly, it’s going to help us make Wine Blast even better. but more than that, we are huge fans of what iDealwine do and the way they do it. they’re a proper treasure trove of wine, but in a kind of very modern online way. So it’s really exciting to be able to share that with you guys, you know, our, wine loving global community.

Susie: But as ever, we’re after the interesting stories and golden nuggets of information, insider tips and recommendations, the useful and entertaining stuff, basically. For example, when it comes to online wine auctions, you know, how do they work? What’s good about them? Why are they worth trying out if you maybe haven’t before? Is it true that rather than being stuffy or just the domain of wealthy plutocrats, online wine auctions can actually be pretty accessible and even fun..?

Peter: Fun, fun, fun, fun wine, fun wine, wine fun??!! Revolutionary. I mean, what’s also intriguing about this kind of online marketplace where prices range from €10 to €10,000? Well, it’s actually more like €20,000 plus. But we won’t get into Domaine de la Romanee Conti just yet. what’s interesting is it can tell you a lot about the wine trends of today and tomorrow. iDealwine have just published their report called the iDealwine Barometer, which is an incredibly detailed document that uses huge amounts of data from all across their operations to build a fascinating, picture of what’s hot in the world of wine and what that might mean for the wine world of tomorrow.

Susie: And we’re not just talking top Burgundy and Bordeaux. Those wines, of course, are in the mix. But there’s so much more to it than that. So we’re going to be getting into all of this and more. Do you want to kick us off?

Peter: Oh, okay. Happy to. Always happy to kick off. and I think we should start by talking about trends and forecasts because I find this fascinating. You know, these are not the easiest times for wine. As we explored on our News and Views episode. Generally speaking in wine terms, global consumption, production and trade is falling. And things aren’t helped by a pretty tense geopolitical situation. you get the feeling the world is reshaping itself right now in front of our eyes and ears, and the wine world is doing exactly the same thing.

Susie: So it’s intriguing to try to gaze into the crystal ball to see what the future will look like. And we did just that with Angelique de Lencquesaing, co founder and now managing director of iDealwine also editor of the Barometer Report.

Peter: Now, I started by asking Angelique for the headlines in terms of current market trends that she identifies in the Barometer Report.

Angélique de Lencquesaing: What’s very interesting, with this, secondary market, is that, the trends you see are, the upcoming trends of the whole, the general fine wine markets. For example, we can see, this change in habits, concerning the consumption of wine. The first thing is that, of course, we auction a strong majority of red wines. 70% of the bottles auctions are red wines. But the year before it was 73%. White wines are gaining more and more market, share, at auction. in five years, they grew from 23 to 28% of all the wines that were auctioned. And this is a trend that we see. in general, people are, eating,

00:05:00

Angélique de Lencquesaing: eating, less, big meals, maybe eating less, meat, lighter meals. And with the climate change, it’s hotter. So they want to have, lighter wines. And the white wines, for example, are, more and more, search for. That’s one big trend we notice. the other, trend is that, ah, Burgundy is, stealing the game. It’s Been growing as a region in auctions, from year to year. And now, it represents, one bottle, a little more than one bottle out of four that is auctioned, on iDealwine 27%. And in value, it represents 45% of the whole, sales, that we had last year on the platform. So it seems like the whole world is searching for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, made in Burgundy, but still, it’s not the end of the story for Bordeaux because Bordeaux is still the first, region in volume. And this is due to the fact that most of the wine, the majority, 56% of the Bordeaux wines that are auctioned are at least 20 years old. so, people can find wines with, softer tannins ready, to drink. And this is a question of style of wine. You know, people are. What we, notice is that people are looking for a, ah, new style of wine which is, maybe not as powerful, as strong as they could, have looked for, I would say, 10 or 20 years ago. And another trend is for, organic produced wine. We have, quite a big volume of, certified organics, organic wines or biodynamic wines that are auction. it’s about 28%, of these wines that are, certified. Which is a big proportion if you consider that we have, Most of the wines we, sell. Sell are mature wines. And a big quantity of, wineries changed to organic and converted to organic recently. So we have 28%. And we also have natural wines. A growing proportion. It’s a tiny wine, but it’s a growing proportion of, natural wines. It’s about 7% of the wines that are, auction that are, natural. So it seems like people are more and more interested, by this category of, wines.

Peter: And what about sparkling wine? Because, you mentioned the report. Champagne sales tend to reflect how people are feeling. Obviously, sparkling wine goes beyond Champagne. But, you know, champagne sales are down a couple of years in a row, but they’re still an important part of what you’re doing. How do you see the future for sparkling wine as part of the fine wine market?

Angélique de Lencquesaing: it’s a small. It’s also tiny part of our auctions. It’s about 5%, of what we sell, at auction. But it’s a very, dynamic part of the auctions because we have two categories of Champagnes that are auctioned. on the platforms, you have Champagnes coming from the Big names, big, champagne houses, with quite big volumes. But you also have champagnes that are produced by, winemakers of, very, tiny, vineyards in Champagne, producing cuvees, the way you can see that in Burgundy, for example, a cuvée of champagne that it’s made out of a parcel, specific parcel, which is completely different from what you can see, in a big champagne house who, will produce each year, year after year, the same style of champagne, because they have the style of the house and they want to keep it. so, you also have these tiny producers very often working, organically or even producing natural, champagnes. And I think the two kinds of style of, bottles that you can find at auction are really interesting. And this is what, people are coming, to, look for, on our platform.

Peter: In the report, you highlight Pinot Noir as a star red grape variety, and how its success in Burgundy is sort of propelling sales from elsewhere, even places. Muscadet, Roussillon, Bouget, Switzerland and Champagne. any other places you’d highlight in there or anything interesting in that Pinot Noir trend you’d cite?

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Well, I think I spoke about the change in the style of wine people are looking for. And I think Pinot Noir really answers this quest for, very pure, of course, wines, but also, lighter, silky wines. And then, of course, the Cote de Nuits does not produce enough wine to, satisfy the whole world looking for these wines. So, the wine lovers have started to go more south in Burgundy, looking for Cote de Beaune, great names, and then they came to, Cote Chalonnaise so now you have fantastic producers all over the Burgundy regions. But this was not enough, so they went to Jura because, you also have fantastic Pinot Noirs, in the Jura region. last year, what

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Angélique de Lencquesaing: what we noticed also is, Alsatian Pinot Noir, who, had great success, at auctions. I’m thinking about, Weinbach domain, Alberman, big success for them, at auction, as you said, there is a fantastic producer in Muscadet, Jerome Brethaudote, who found out that there was a parcel, which could be interesting, to grow, Pinot Noir on. And he has this cuvée called Statera, who, I think every Pinot Noir lover wants to taste, Statera nowadays. And, yes, as I said, in Roussillon, in the Roussillon region, You have this famous producer, producer Herve Bizeul from the Clos des Fees, who asked, Jean Yves Bizot, who is one of the most renowned, producers of the Cote de Nuit, of natural wines of the Cote de Nuit, to come and to help him to create a cuvée of a Pinot Noir called Saint Phrase pour Eventail And this cuvée had such a big success also at auction now, it sells for more than €500 the bottle. And then, yes, in other countries like, Switzerland, of course, in, Australia or New Zealand, and as you noticed, even in Champagne, we found a producer who, had this Pinot, Noir Cuvee, which sold for, more than, €300 last year. as I said, you can find anything on iDealwine even a Pinot Noir from Japan.

Peter: What would your advice be for someone trying to identify the regions and producers of the future? So, beyond the established and more expensive classics, the rising stars, as it were.

Angélique de Lencquesaing: If you’re looking for, I, wouldn’t say an investment, but make sure that your seller will, take some value, within the years. I, would advise to, look at the m. Proportion of wines, of each region who was sold through iDealwine and keep this proportion, in the cellar, which means having, about one third of Bordeaux wines, 1/3 of Burgundy wines, maybe 10% of Rhone Valley wines. And then for the rest, I think one of the most important thing is, to buy wines that you would really dream to, drink at one time. You should never buy a wine just because you think that, the price will go up. this is not a good decision to make. You must work on it. you must, read, you must speak with other wine lovers of what they have discovered, what we notice when we have someone who comes to sell, his cellar. The people who make the highest, price value on their cellar are, precisely those who never started their cellar in order to make money. It’s just because they were so much passionate about wine that they bought too much, bottles. But they really search for, the future, icons, and they, So, they found before anyone else that the Clos Rougeard in the Loire Valley was an icon, and they didn’t buy it because it was going to be an icon. They just bought it because they loved the wines that were produced and they knew what they were buying. So my advice would be to, really, read, and. And Try to gain more knowledge about the wine region. So after, when I said that, you don’t always have the time to do that. So, this is why we also publish this Barometer. Because in each region, we identified the wine and the producers on which, bidders have really fought last year, to obtain the bottles. And so for each region, we have a, list of the icons, the wines that you definitely should have, the must haves, of your cellar and the hidden gems that are still unknown of most of the wine lovers, but the wines that you should follow. because we noticed that more and more people are fighting on them.

Peter: And how do you see the future for the fine wine market?

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Well, people are often talking about the wine consumpt, going down. I think last year in the world the consumption of wine went down by a little more than 4%. So people could think that, maybe no one will drink any wine anymore. I think it’s not true. what’s important to know, if I take the example of France, the consumption of wine came down. Drastically, in the, I think, minus 65%, since the 60s, so it can look really huge. But if you look more precisely in the figures, then you

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Angélique de Lencquesaing: will realise that fine wines, in the consumption grew in this period. So, I think people are drinking less but drinking more quality wines and looking for higher, quality wines. They won’t drink at every meal you drink with friends. it’s different times, and different ways of drinking wines. And so this is why you have different styles of wines that are searched for, on the market. And you also have emerging countries drinking wine, more and more wines. it’s a big opportunity to think that now, you have almost 180 countries drinking wine in the world.

Susie: And of course when Angelique’s advice is to read more, to gain more knowledge, what I’m sure she really meant was listen to podcasts like Wine Blast.

Peter: Far be it for us to put words into our mouth, but maybe, maybe that was a given. You know, Wine Blast is the, the font of all knowledge.

Susie: anyway, the big trends, the big trends are the growth of white wines and perhaps lighter reds like Pinot Noir from all around the world, which ties in with the popularity of Burgundy, which of course makes both.

Peter: Yeah. And just in terms of the figures that Angelique mentioned, by the way, in 2024, Burgundy was 45% of iDealwine auction sales by value, but 27% by volume. And Bordeaux was 27% by value and 33% by volume, the largest volume category, incidentally. So Bordeaux used to be biggest for them. 40% value, 44% volume back in 2019, but no longer. Burgundy has surged ahead and now obviously commands a price premium. And yes, also then, 28% of iDealwine auction sales by volume were organic or biodynamic in 2024. That sounds a lot. It’s probably because a lot of the top estates these days are just organic or biodynamic.

Susie: Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting about how organic, biodynamic and natural wines are on the up. And Champagne benefiting from a positive power struggle between traditional houses and upstart growers and micro producers. You know, I see that Selosse was in iDealwine’s top 50 best selling producers from last year at number 14.

Peter: Yeah, really interesting. And I think the next one was Dom perignon at number 40. So it’s an intriguing list, that one. You know, their top 50 producers did account for 53% of sales by value last year. Really interesting. But, you know, there are so many trends that can be teased out here. What I found interesting was that Angelique was quite bullish, you know, saying it’s not about wine losing its mojo, it’s just a time of transition to a different way of doing things. So, yes, you know, white and sparkling wine continue to gain traction. The growth of natural wine, that kind of thing. In, the report, they also identify their clients looking beyond Bordeaux and Burgundy to buy more from different regions like Jura and Languedot, Roussillon and Champagne, you know, and outside France, too. Italy has doubled its market share, for instance. So they may be growing from small bases, but they’re notable trends.

Susie: M. Now, I think one thing that’s intriguing about the Barometer report is that they not only explore all the. The current trends and prices, but they go region by region and give forecasts based on what’s happening. You know, identifying regions or styles or producers that are on the up. And they have a watch list for every region, as Angelique said, which includes icons and must haves, but also hidden gems and attractive prices, which is great if you’re perhaps interested in certain styles or regions, but don’t really know where to start.

Peter: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it really is an intriguing read. but. But time marches on and we move on. coming up, we’re hearing just how and why online auctions can be worthwhile. And fun and a great idea for big birthday presents, even if they might come with a health warning. To recap, so far, key wine trends as identified by iDealwine include the growth of white and sparkling wine, the rise of organic, biodynamic and natural wine, and Pinot Noir from Burgundy all the way to Japan. With all of this, it pays to be in the know.

Susie: So we wanted to move on to the topic of wine auctions specifically, which we find intriguing. We’ve never been ones for frequenting the auction houses, it has to be said, but, maybe we’ve been missing out because since we’ve started to learn more about iDealwine online auctions, we’ve become more and more intrigued.

Peter: Yeah, we have now, perhaps at this stage we should give a bit more background. iDealwine is a French company founded in 2000 when three wine loving colleagues who’d worked together at the Paris Stock Exchange founded an online wine exchange. Auctions have always been at the heart of their business and on account of their professional backgrounds, they wanted to

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Peter: take advantage of being online to provide their customers not only with up to date information about all the wines, but also total transparency on pricing. Hence coming up with with Cote des Vins, a, regularly updated price database.

Susie: So over the years their business has evolved. In addition to auctions, they now offer a fixed price list supplied by a network of around a thousand partner vineyards, plus private sellers where prices start from €10. And, the average sale price is €70 incidentally. So effectively an online wine merchant in that sense. They also buy wines from customers and offer cellarage and cellar management services, including wine ratings, authentication and valuations.

Peter: They now have offices in Paris, Bordeaux, Hong Kong and New York and serve a community of 650,000 wine lovers across 120 countries. That’s not bad, is it? They’ve just added Australia and New Zealand to the 40 strong list of countries they deliver to. And have also recently taken on the Hospices de Nuits St Georges auction a prestigious Burgundian charity auction. That of course makes perfect sense given iDealwine is a proudly French company.

Susie: So on the subject of auctions, iDealwine holds around 48 a year for every month. last year they sold more than 260,000 bottles at auction to nearly 60 countries. A record year for them. So we wanted to get into this a bit more. And you asked Angelique what the advantages of online auctions are?

Angélique de Lencquesaing: I think there would be three advantages. The first one being that you don’t have to be physically present, at auction, you don’t have to go to the place where the auction, takes place. you don’t have to wait and you don’t have to be there during the wholesale and you don’t even have to be there before, before, to check all the bottles. Because iDealwine does this for you. We do check each bottle that’s going to be auctioned. We take a picture of it and, we give a full report, of how the wine has been stored and the wine conditions, the bottle conditions. The second advantage, of online auctions on iDealwine is that we are, fully dedicated to wine. This is a big difference with any other, auction houses is that we sell only wine. This is the only thing we know how to sell. It’s wine. So we are completely specialised. So you, can be certain that the wines, are correctly checked, described and appraised. And the third, advantage, I would say is that each auction, lasts for about 10 days. So you can put your order at any time. You can take your time to browse the catalogues, make your decision of buying, decide which price, and you can also preset a, maximum bid. If you know that you are not going to be able to follow the auction until the end, you can preset your bid. No one else will see the maximum price you’re ready to pay for. But, it will go up only if someone tries to place a higher bag bid, on yours. So you can be, quiet and decide what you, what you want to do quietly, or you can also decide to become crazy. But iDealwine gives you all the tools to make your decision.

Peter: So if I’m someone who’s never done an auction before, you know, online or otherwise, can you just talk me through the process? What do I do? how does it happen?

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Yeah, well, at first you have to register, on our website, and leave us your financial details so that we can find you after the end of the auction to have you pay your order, and we want to know who you are. And then, you have to know that we hold about 48 auctions a year, on the platform. So each, week you have a new auction coming. And we also, we even have customers who come every day to check, if there’s anything they hadn’t seen before to see, at what price, the wine they’re dreaming of, is at the moment, at auction. So you will find a big variety, of wines, that you can bid on. So you will Take your time. Another advantage of the auction is that, you don’t need to have a cellar, because most of the wines that are auctioned on iDealwine are mature wines. 62% of the bottles that we sold last year were at least 10 years of age and still, one Bottle out of three is aged 20 years or more. So you don’t need a cellar. You can buy wines and have them ready, to be drunk as soon as you will get it. So you put your orders and the auction goes on until the end. And if you are, the best bidder, on a

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Angélique de Lencquesaing: lot, then you win this lot. And so you have to come back to the website to pay your order and then, we will organise the shipping, of your order. We do ship in, about 40 different countries all over the world. So, as soon as everything is paid, the wine system, are ready to be shipped to.

Peter: You, to your premises and your online system. So you’ve registered online, you’ve put in your bids. Your online system is quite clever, isn’t it? You’ve mentioned you’re able to set a maximum bid that others don’t see. So the system will automatically increase your bid if it’s overtaken, if that’s what you want it to do. And you can also track a lot, can’t you, so you’ll be notified before it closes if you’ve got something particularly special you’ve got your eye on.

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Yes, you can track a lot, because you’ve noticed something is really interesting, but you were not still, not yet ready to put your order. So you can track it until, the end. And you can also, place an alert. There’s a system, for example, there’s a wine that you tasted and you just loved it and you want to find this wine again. But this wine is 25 years old, so, it’s very rare. so you can place an alert. And then as soon as this wine will be available at auction, you, you will receive a message saying, well, it’s your time now.

Peter: You’ve talked about alerts, you’ve talked about craziness. Do these auctions get quite exciting, you know, with people trying to outbid each other at the last moment? Is it quite fun in that sense?

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Oh yes. Auction is really a game for, many, many of our customers. as I said, you can place your bid very quietly, taking days to think and to decide. But what we notice, actually is that most of the customers, come at the last minute, before the end of the sale, the auction. Once it was quite funny because I was discussing with a customer and he told me that he, was having a telephone meeting with a professional, telephone meeting with someone. And he saw that time was, coming very close to the end of an iDealwine auction. So he finally said, to the, to the other person he was having this call, he said, well, I’m very sorry, but I need five minutes, because I must tell you, this is the end of an auction on iDealwine and I want to check my last bids. And the person who he was talking to said, oh, thank you so much. I’m in the same situation. I also need a few minutes. So they stopped the call, finished their bids, placed their last bid and then they could start again working. But you can also do that in the middle of a meeting, directly on the website. But it was quite fun because they discovered that they were both, wine lovers and bidding, on the same website.

Peter: So it’s a fun game. And I was interested to read your average auction price is about €149. if I’m not wrong now that that doesn’t seem a lot because often when we hear about auctions, we hear about bottles selling for thousands of euros. €149 doesn’t seem like a crazy price.

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Well, actually, we do. and this is something which is quite unique on iDealwine is that we do not only auction, wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy or the Rhone Valley, and not only, the most renowned, labels of these, three, main wine regions. We decided at the beginning of iDealwine that we had to do something different, from what we could see in the big auction houses who do the job perfectly and they’ve been doing this for centuries. So we thought we had to create something quite different and we decided to accept, sellers, that would have, of course, these fantastic bottles from these big wine regions. But, as people who are selling their cellar are, wine passionate, wine lovers, they know, maybe and they know more than we do who are the best producers of other regions. So now, we have, and we do analyse in our annual barometer 18 wine regions, in France and also wines from, non French regions, such as, Italy, Spain, the us. so, the range of wine that we can find at auction is, I think, really unique.

Peter: What about authentication? You’ve already mentioned this, but, you know, it’s clear there is a fair Amount of fake wine out there, some of it very cleverly done. You know, as we’ve explored on the POD recently, how do you protect against that?

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Well, actually iDealwine is now a team of 70, employees and I think we have a team of 12, of these people. They’re all wine geeks, they’re all passionate and highly knowledgeable about wine. And 12 of these, of these persons are in charge of receiving the wines that are going to be put at auction,

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Angélique de Lencquesaing: sold at auction, check them and photograph them and if needed, put them aside because it’s a fake wine. To help them in their job, to do this job. They have quite a unique database of all the pictures we took since we started. As I said, we started in the year 2000. we are quite dinosaurs on this market. And so we took pictures of all the wines that were auctioned since then. so we know how a bottle of Chateau Haut Brion changed all over the world, how a bottle of Petrus, changed all over this period. So we can check that the bottle is in the same condition as all the others that we have already appraised, before. so this is something we do. I think the fact that iDealwine is 100% specialised in wine, is also very strong, reassurance for our buyers. And I think that people who would have fake wines or who would even produce fake wines, if they want to sell it, they wouldn’t come, on our website because, we have this big team of wine experts who are really dedicated to check this.

Peter: Angelique, thank you very much indeed.

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Thank you, Peter. Thank you so much.

Susie: Good to hear they take fake wine and authentication so seriously and intriguing. all the functionality that an online auction gives, you know, that functionality.

Peter: You’d love all that tech, wouldn’t you? Being a tech native?

Susie: I think I might struggle with any functionality, but it might help. You never know. I mean, I don’t know, there’s alerts and, and tracking lots and so on, you know, and also really struck by how it’s not just about the big trophy bottles and vintages. And producers with iDealwine they made a conscious decision early on to cater for all tastes across a range of styles and regions. You know, apparently some auction lots start from €1.

Peter: Get in there, get in there. I mean, interesting also that the majority of wines they sell at auction are relatively mature. You know, 62%, as Angelique said of sales at least 10 years old. One in three bottles is 20 plus years old, which of course you know, caters for those who don’t have or don’t want to have a cellar, which many people don’t these days.

Susie: I mean you can of course still buy young wines from them. They sell en primeur Bordeaux for example, and you can store it with them if you like. Angelique says the storage option is particularly popular with customers based in Asia, where the weather can be a challenge. So storing it in France gives, gives peace of mind and the wines can be shipped when they’re needed. And it’s now apparently also popular with US customers who might want to avoid the odd tariff in the hope they’re temporary. Of course.

Peter: Yeah. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Actually, you mentioning mature wines reminded me of something else Angelique said on this subject.

Angélique de Lencquesaing: Our customers often look for specific vintages that will correspond to a birth year. an old wine can be a perfect gift for a wine lover even though the vintage is not one of the best vintage, but as long as it corresponds to the birth year of the person you are going to offer the wine to. So for this reason, auctions offer the last chance for disastrous vintages, to be sold. This is especially true for vintages collection corresponding to a special birthday. You know, when someone gets 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 and for example, in year 2025, it’s maybe the only occasion to sell a bottle of 1965 vintage because the bottles must be filled with vinegar. But still, the person you will offer this wine to will be very touched to see a bottle of his bustier. But anyway, what I would advise, whatever you do, don’t drink it. Just keep it in your cellar, it would be fine.

Susie: I love that notion that auctions offer the last chance for disastrous vintages, to be sold.

Peter: Like 1965 vinegar. You know, whatever you do, don’t drink it for looking at only. It should be a sort of specific special case.

Susie: Okay, so before we end, we did want to hear from one of iDealwine’s customers to get a sense of what the experience is like and advice for those who might be interested in dipping their toes into the world of online wine auctions. So I spoke to Jordan o’ Brien in Canada, or Toronto to be more precise. he’s a huge natural wine fan, but has a very open mind when it comes to wine. He started building his collection during COVID and mainly buys at auction, just occasionally topping up his collection by Buying from iDealwine’s fixed price selection, which he describes as vast and impressive.

Peter: Now, we asked

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Peter: Jordan how he got started with iDealwine and he said it was all down to a special bottle. He was hunting down Philippe Bonnard’s Poulsard from Jura and was directed by Wine Searcher to iDealwine And before he knew it he said he was hooked and was five or six cases in.

Susie: So I asked him if he used, used iDealwine’s Wine’s clever online functionality, like maximum bid presets or lot tracking or alerts and whether he found them useful.

Jordan O’Brien: Yes, I use everything. So I’ve got a pretty, substantial alert list if you will. you know, again, talking about rarity, sometimes they come up, sometimes they don’t.

Susie: Just explain, just explain the alert function. Then what, what happens?

Jordan O’Brien: Yeah, so the alert function is pretty simple. So I go on, I define the vintage, the producer, the cuvee, and then ultimately when that wine comes to auction, I get an email alert. and then when I log on to my iDealwine account, which you know, I do pretty much daily, I receive an alert, on there. Right. So, and then they allow you to kind of build your wish list, on an auction, right. So you favourite or set an alert on, on the wines that you’d like to bid on. And that builds a very nice neat list chronologically from when the auction is ending. And that’s kind of how I manage the wines that I’m interested in. Usually it starts as a big list and then I taper it down a little bit to what I really want. So yeah, it’s it’s a very user friendly platform from my perspective. And then the other thing too, would be the, what you referenced, the maximum price. So I would say when I first got involved in the auction I was a very emotional bidder. I think the maximum price has really helped me to kind of curb some of that emotion. But also for me bidding out of North America, I used to be waking up at 4 o’ clock in the morning to bid on wine and then five o’ clock for when the next lot’s closed and then six o’ clock, so on. Right. so it made it a lot more convenient for me to kind of set, hey, this is the price I’ll pay. and again get a good night’s sleep rather than disrupting and building that adrenaline at 4 o’ clock in the morning…

Susie: so you can go to work and earn some more money to buy some more wine.

Jordan O’Brien: So that’s the cycle that I’m in right now. Yeah.

Susie: So what would you, what do you say you find particularly exciting about participating in an auction? Is it, is it fun?

Jordan O’Brien: I would say there’s definitely an adrenaline rush, involved with it. Right. It is fun. The other thing too, that I, I like. You kind of see who you’re bidding against. and especially in this world of natural wines, you start to notice the other bidders that obviously have the same taste that you do and the same, and desire the same wine that you do. So I think, you know, there’s probably an untapped kind of social networking aspect to it as well. might get the competitive juices flowing as well. But no, it’s it’s a very nice, again, user friendly site and I very much like the way that they’ve structured it.

Susie: And do you tend to buy, mature wines or young wines or is that not really relevant in your buying?

Jordan O’Brien: That is probably another reason why I’m such a fan of iDealwine The opportunity to buy older vintage wines, like the availability is incredible for me. Living in Canada, we typically get wines in, they hit restaurants, nobody really ages them. So to be able to taste these examples of these aged wines, it’s very unique and definitely something I would say I’m probably more in like kind of the 50-50 buying newer wines versus buying older wines. and then the other thing too is, you know, being able to have access to, you know, the legendary vintages from winemakers. Right. So Jura 2005, it comes up even less so than some of the rare wines from Jura on iDealwine But when it comes up, I’m always on those. The opportunity to buy old and new on iDealwine is again, very unique to their platform.

Susie: So what would your advice be to anyone thinking of trying out an iDealwine auction?

Jordan O’Brien: if you see my username, please don’t bid against me. I think, you know, when trying out the auction, just have the confidence. Right. So I read a lot of reviews. I saw that there were some frustrations regarding, the old style of auction that they had, where basically it was, Auction ends at 11:00. get your final bid in. And me and many other people were sitting there with our final max bid, getting ready to click, you know, five seconds before auction closed. They’ve perfected that system. they kind of go to a little bit of a showdown between, you know, whoever kind of submitted the last bids. I believe that there’s, you get three opportunities, to kind of, again, extend.

Susie: Extend it yes,

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Susie: exactly.

Jordan O’Brien: To put in your best bid. And, yeah, they’ve been thinking about the customer and thinking about improving that experience. Right. So, I would say, you know, dive right in. if there’s something that you like, bid on it.

Susie: And if somebody wants some advice about what to bid on, you know, any sort of bargains you think, or new discoveries that, that you would advise. Obviously not the ones that you want to buy. But, But, what would you say that people go for?

Jordan O’Brien: Yeah, so, I mean, it depends what you’re into. I think you can always find a bargain on what you’re into. So, for example, my neighbour is a big, Valentini drinker. you know, Italian, Italian wine in Canada, we cannot get the reds. It’s impossible. They just don’t come in. He was going on and on about this. So, you know, I pull up my phone, I look at iDealwine I’m like, yeah, they have a three bottle lot and the bottles are $130 US, which the whites sell here for $400 a bottle. He’s all over that. Hey, bid on these for me, bid on these for me. Set a max bid of X. And again on iDeal, the price is right.

Susie: Jordan, it’s been really lovely to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time.

Jordan O’Brien: I had a lot of fun doing this, as you can see from my smile.

Peter: I love the idea of that cycle of working to buy wine, getting up at 4am to bid and then just repeat.

Susie: it was funny, wasn’t it? I mean, he, he said, he said his neighbour is also a wine lover who gets up at the crack of dawn for iDealwine auctions. So they swap experiences about which wines they managed to get at 5am that morning and how they’ve essentially spent too much money.

Peter: It’s a good way to start the day. You know, it does seem there’s a kind of community spirit to it all, doesn’t it? Which is really quite lovely. on the subject of money, Jordan did touch on, on pricing, didn’t he? Yeah, M. He said one of the reasons he buys some iDealwine is that, you know, kind of short of visiting whichever uber cool natural winemaker it happens to be, their prices are, in his words, extremely fair. and you can always find deals. You know, he cited an Overnoy Poulsard ah, 2020 he bought a few months ago, that was around €230 a bottle, which, he described as an exceptional price, because the same bottle at a restaurant in Canada apparently might sell at, you know, 700 to $800.

Susie: And now he also talked about shipping and shipping costs. Now, this will obviously vary depending on where you are, but he described iDealwine shipping rates to the US as pretty unbelievable. he talked about how excellent the customer service is, including storing wines until they’re ready to be shipped. And, supporting him when one of his very special cases was lost in transit. He said it did wonders for the trust. And there’s another reason why he continues to buy. And in fact, Jordan summed up his experience buying from iDealwine as know.

Jordan O’Brien: Obviously a, pretty unique platform in the world of wine in terms of their offering and, selection and ultimately frequency of their auctions. The customer service, amazing. Their willingness and openness to continue to evolve the site to meet the consumer’s wants and needs is excellent. And then from my perspective, the selection is unbeatable. So, yeah, very happy.

Peter: We do like a happy wine lover on Wine Blast, don’t we? That’s, that’s our aim too, right? I think we should wrap things up there anyway. Any last points we wanted to make before we say goodbye?

Susie: I mean, I think we could simply recap by saying the wine world is changing, with new stars rising to rub shoulders with the established icons and new trends making waves like the rise of white and sparkling wine or the growth in natural wine as people drink less but better. one other significant trend has been how online wine operations have offered wine lovers clever new functionality, value and range. Something that is now a firm fixture in online wine auctions like those at iDealwine which can, by all accounts, prove to be a lot of fun.

Peter: Yes, thanks to iDealwine for sponsoring this episode and for their headline sponsorship of Wine Blast too. do head to their website, idealwine.com to find out more about this Aladdin’s cave of wine treasures with an impressive range of services to boot. you’ll find a link in our show notes and also more information on our website.

Susie: Thanks to Angelique de Lencquesaing and Jordan o’ Brien. Also to the wonderful Roman Weil and all the team at, iDealwine Thanks also to you for listening. Until next time, cheers.

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