Buying wine is a minefield

We buy most of our wine from trade suppliers who specialise in supplying hotels and restaurants and don't supply to the general public as a rule.

We have relationships with these suppliers in order to get the best available allocations of fine and rare wines, which often don't reach the public domain. Fine and rare wines don't have a high commercial turnover so wine shops and supermarkets tend only to stock limited supplies, if at all.

This then creates a dilemma for the individual who requires really special wine for an important occasion or for collecting.

There are a number of ways around this. For example, forge a relationship with your local off-licence or wine shop who may well be able to get you the wine you require, but this can be expensive.

Another way, and one that I would recommend to anyone who is knowledgeable about wine, is to buy from auction.

There are a number of difficulties associated with this approach, but if you are prepared to persevere there are tremendous bargains to be had.

With the collapse of the Far East economies (Japan and Malaysia have been two of the largest purchasers of fine wine, thus inflating prices) there is a glut of fine wine on the market.

Essentially what you are doing is buying fine wine at the same place that many of us in the trade buy it, which means that you are paying trade prices, thus avoiding the associated mark-ups.

One of the biggest difficulties is finding an auction house that has a fine wine sale outside London. We are therefore extremely fortunate to have an auction house here in Ilkley that does just that.

Andrew Hartley Fine Arts has a sale of fine and rare wines in its saleroom in Little Lane every year, which means for us Yorkshire folk no expensive trips down to London.

What happens is that wines arrive at auction from private cellar clearances, merchants offloading stock, or businesses closing down.

All deliver their unwanted wines to the saleroom with a reserve price. The saleroom then auctions the wine to the highest bidder.

At these auctions, all the trade appears hunting for bargains. Your advantage is that the trade will not pay over the odds for anything so you are unlikely to get involved in a bidding war for any particular lot.

Even if you pay £5 per lot more than anyone else does you are still likely to get a bargain.

However, at auctions there are dangers. You are unlikely to get a pedigree with the wine and therefore will not be guaranteed that the wine in question has not been back and forwards over the Atlantic/Pacific a dozen times.

As wine is organic this is important as the severe fluctuations of temperature can irreparably damage the wine. Likewise, you cannot be sure that the previous owner stored the wine in the correct way, ie dry and dark with minimal disruption. Basically, it is a case of let the buyer beware!

Get your Hugh Johnson's pocket wine book out (or go and buy one) and check on the vintages. Be prepared to pay premium prices for the best vintages but if I were you I would look for the less celebrated vintages.

This is where the real bargains are. The wine will invariably drink excellently, and you could end up getting a classic wine for a little money.

p Next month I will give you some tips on how to store and care for all the bargains that you plan to buy.

The Fine and Rare wine sale is at Andrew Hartley Fine Arts Salerooms on Friday, December 11. All purchases attract a buyer's premium of 7.5 per cent.

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