Collector’s Cellar: How charity auctions have become must-attend events

T he Hospices de Beaune charity wine auction kicks off every year on the third weekend in November, as it has since 1859, with a public sale of wines en primeur, the latest vintages sold by the barrel just weeks after harvest. The bidding is furious in the packed Halle de Beaune, with nearly 600 guests filling the main market hall in the heart of Burgundy wine country, their winning bids raising millions, locally, for public health. For almost two centuries this annual wine sale has kept the region’s healthcare system going, buyers betting early on the fruits of the hospital’s own vineyards—150 acres bequeathed over the years to the Hôtel-Dieu, which was founded in 1443.

Following the auction, there are three days of festivities, with the Hospices sale kicking off the annual bacchanal known as Les Trois Glorieuses, as wine-soaked banquets run through to the Paulée de Meursault, a long Monday lunch.

As the cult of Burgundy wine has grown internationally, what was once a local celebration has become a global attraction, drawing wine pilgrims from around the world.

“All of Beaune is bubbling,” says Ludivine Griveau, régisseur (director) and winemaker at the Hospices de Beaune since 2015. “The population triples or quadruples that weekend. It’s also a party for the people, around this sale of wine.”

Griveau, who shifted her entire production to organic last year, is in a unique position in the wine world, with her focus on charity over profits. Proceeds from her wines have helped fund a new hospital in Beaune that’s nearing completion. “We never forget that we are working for a hospital, for charity, for health,” she says. “We are driven by this sentiment that we really have a special mission.”

For the past five years, Sotheby’s has partnered with the Hospices de Beaune, supplying world-class auctioneers and enabling online bidding through its digital platforms. Since 1978, it has included a special offering of one exceptional barrel: the Pièce des Présidents, carefully chosen by the winemaker and sold by candlelight at a banquet with celebrity hosts such as Eva Longoria and Dominic West. In 2022 a barrel of Corton Grand Cru broke auction records there, selling for 810,000 euros ($939,000). “It’s really my coup de cœur,” says Griveau, of her selection for the event.

Over the years, the Hospices de Beaune’s winning mix of wine, food and philanthropy has become a benchmark for the world of wine and spirits, fueling a global circuit of other charity auctions. The first truly successful homage debuted in 1981. After being inspired by the Burgundy auction, Robert Mondavi returned home and convinced his fellow winemakers in the Napa Valley Vintners association to organize the first edition of what would become known as Auction Napa Valley.

“He saw how they were taking the wines of Beaune and making a difference in their community,” says Stacey Dolan Capitani, a marketing executive with Napa Valley Vintners, who has been involved with the auction since 1997. “And he wanted to instill that same spirit in the Napa Valley, leveraging the reputation and the quality of our wines to make a significant impact on the community.”

The first Napa auction, benefiting the local hospital, was held in the summer of 1981 at Bill Harlan’s resort hotel, Meadowood. Temperatures were scorching that day. “The auctioneer had an ice bucket under the table to put his feet in because he was sweating so much,” says Capitani. “But it was successful. They raised a couple hundred thousand dollars, and it was the start of something beautiful.”

In 1989 the Napa Valley Vintners added a separate barrel auction to the weekend-long program, offering wines donated by member wineries, sold by the case direct from the barrel. Hosted by a different winery every year, it’s held on the Friday night before the big Saturday auction.

Over the years Auction Napa Valley has taken the basic tenets of the Hospices de Beaune and run wild with them, adding auxiliary dinners—intimate affairs held at wineries across Napa—and adding increasingly dramatic and experiential auction lots, all donated by members of Napa Valley Vintners. At the auction last summer these once-in-a-lifetime experiences included an Antinori and Stag’s Leap package, comprising six nights at the Tuscany winery and a trove of large-format wines from the Napa vintner, that sold for $550,000.

For most of its 44-year history, Auction Napa Valley was headquartered at Meadowood, under winemaker Bill Harlan. But the Glass Fire that ravaged the region and engulfed the resort in 2020 left the main auction homeless. The organizers have had to downsize since then.

This past summer the live Saturday auction was held at nearby Chandon and attended by 300 guests (down from nearly 1,000 at Meadowood). The entire weekend’s auctions raised $6.5 million for local charities (versus the $12 million raised in 2019). But with the rebuilding at Meadowood nearing completion, Auction Napa Valley may soon return in full force to the place where it began. “We’ll get back to the days of glory,” says Capitani. “Meadowood is always going to be our home, and we can’t wait to return.”

In the decades since Auction Napa Valley first brought the ethos of the Hospices de Beaune to the U.S., many other wine auctions have sprung up to raise funds for philanthropic causes. Most are modest in scale but a few, such as Naples Winter Wine Festival, are more ambitious. The charity auction model has caught on in the spirits world, too. Scotch whisky producers set the standard for the industry four years ago, with the launch of the Distillers One of One. The first big high-profile public-facing sale of Scotch whisky for charity, the biennial event features only unique bottlings—all one of one—and was first presented over a languid lunch in a stately home outside Edinburgh in fall 2021.

Held every two years at Hopetoun House and bringing together the biggest players in the world of Scotch whisky, the Distillers One of One is the brainchild of the Worshipful Company of Distillers. This London livery company has a 400-plus-year history of working with Scotch whisky producers and a long, but discreet, tradition of charitable giving. It had organized small, internal charity auctions over the years, with liverymen selling precious bottles from their own cellars to their colleagues, but it had never held a public event. In 2018, one attendee at a small auction brought a custom bottle—a one-off—created just for the evening, and bidding went through the stratosphere. The first kernel of the One of One started there.

“We thought if this one lot could fetch a significant amount, what would happen if every single lot were a one-off, if every single lot were created for the auction?” says Beanie Geraedts-Espey, Managing Director of the Distillers One of One. The company reached out to distilleries across Scotland about donating unique bottlings for a public auction that would raise funds to help create opportunities for disadvantaged Scottish youth battling unemployment and homelessness. All the biggest corporate players signed on, offering some of their most precious liquid in lavish decanters that double as works of fine art. The inaugural event raised $2.7 million, and this year’s brought in $3.9 million total against a $1.1 million low estimate.

“The idea was to get everybody to give for charity their rarest whisky, a unique bottle of it, and try to make that whisky, and the bottle, stand out from anything else they do,” says Jonny Fowle, Global Head of Whisky at Sotheby’s, who has been involved in the auction since its inception. “It requires every brand in the industry to work together. So, you put aside competition, and you embrace community, which is quite an unusual thing to do.”