Bidders packed into Château du Clos de Vougeot to watch auctioneer Hugues Cortot and wine expert Aymeric de Clouet oversee proceedings at the high-profile event.
A total of 150 lots went under the hammer. They spanned 19 different cuvées, including the esteemed Cuvée des Bienfaiteurs.
At the end of the event, Nuits-Saint-Georges Mayor Alain Cartron announced that the auction had raised €2,281,500.
That represents a 36% decrease compared to last year’s record-breaking Hospices de Nuits charity auction, which raised €3.6m. However, it was still the second-largest total in the auction’s 63-year history.
The auction always features wines from the historic Domaine des Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges, a hospital and wine-growing estate founded in 1270.
The highly-rated 2023 vintage was auctioned off at Sunday’s event. A press release from Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges, released prior to the auction, described 2023 as ‘a generous vintage of remarkable balance’, which shows finesse and elegance, with rich, deep aromas, a dense texture and a long finish.
Technical manager Jean-Marc Moron said: ‘A year that is exceptional in terms of identity, without comparison with its predecessors, which will delight both those in a hurry, and those who have the patience to wait until the wines reach their peak, in 10 or 20 years’ time.’
Weather conditions were chaotic last year, causing many sleepless nights for Moron and his team at the estate. However, when the harvest came around, the grapes were abundant, in superb condition and at perfect maturity, according to Moron.
Cortot, who was overseeing the auction for the fifth successive year, noted that the abundant harvest may have contributed to less competitive bidding on Sunday.
He also lamented a ‘tense international context’, which has caused a broader slowdown in Burgundy sales in recent months. This was evident at the 2023 Hospices de Beaune charity auction, held in November, which was down 21.8% compared to the previous year.
As such, Cortot said the 36% year-on-year decline at Sunday’s auction was ‘predictable’, despite the quality of the 2023 vintage.
However, there were a couple of highlights. Cuvée Hugues Perdrizet emerged as the star of this year’s auction, drawing a record bid of €60,000 from Maison Albert Bichot.
The cuvée is named after the man who donated the very first vineyards to the hospital several centuries ago. It comes from a selection of the estate’s oldest vines, handpicked by Moron.
Meanwhile, the Cuvée des Bienfaiteurs, featuring a blend of the estate’s nine premier crus, sold for a record €66,980, exceeding last year’s price. The funds were donated to the Clément-Drevon Foundation, which conducts medical research in Burgundy.
Overall, the red wines sold for an average price of €15,700 per barrel and the white wines fetched an average price of €20,300.