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WHAT IS IT ABOUT AUCTIONS?
Whether it's for fine wine, masterpieces of art or reposessed furniture, people just love the thrill of live bidding - even when they know that they'll probably spend more at an auction than if they just sought out a comparable item on the open market. Ah, but there's the nub of my gist - sometimes there isn't anything comparable, much less available, outside of the auction hall. That, at least, is the thinking behind the annual high-end wine auctions in Germany.

Every September, wine lovers, collectors, merchants and dealers from all over the world crowd into the hotels and privatzimmer of the German wine country just to get a shot at the next amazing auction wine from Egon Müller or Robert Weil. Today's auctions are a vestige of the time, up until the middle of the 20th century, when most winegrowers sold all of their wines in barrel at auction. Nowadays, the auctions are primarily a showcase event for the participating wineries. It's a chance to show off the best and rarest wines they can possibly make, sell them for a good price, and take advantage of the PR opportunities that come from a showy auction event.

These auctions are the best of the best, la crème de la crème, das Beste vom Besten of the wines made in each vintage. The problem, alas, is that one man's cream is often another man's bucket of swill. Each auction's governing body does its best to screen out the poor wines, but that, again, is a subjective matter. Who screens the screeners? Why, you do! In good old capitalist fashion, it's the auction price from year to year that tells the real story of what's a smash and what's trash. Weil and Müller don't set record prices with their TBAs just because they're nice guys - the wines simply kick ass. Consistently.

So good information is the key to smart, successful bidding, and that's what we hope to help you with. We'll start with a bit of background on the four major auctions and how they work. Then our tasting director, Peter Liem, has tasting notes for you on nearly all of the wines auctioned this year (available on the Riesling Report Website). The most important thing for you to know is that you also have a real shot at getting some of these wines. You just have to make the right connections, and we're here to help you with that, too.

The Fab Four

There are four major auctions in Germany each year: two on the Mosel, one in Rheingau, and a combined auction for the Nahe and the Ahr. It all starts on the third Tuesday of September in the Middle Mosel wine town of Bernkastel.

The Bernkasteler Ring

Also known as the Kleiner Ring (to differentiate it from the VDP-Mosel's "Grosser Ring" auction), the Bernkasteler Ring is made up of 35 Riesling producers from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region, and a couple of recent additions from the Upper Mosel in Luxembourg. This is a very active group that sponsors a lot of promotional activities for Riesling involving art, music, literature and local culture. They've also produced a few Riesling lifestyle events in an apparent effort to attract new, presumably younger, customers. One such promotion was called "Spitzenwein & Spitzenwäsche," an event that paired fine wine and fine underwear!

Gimmicky promotions aside, the Bernkasteler Ring is a hard-working and earnest bunch of winemakers. Unfortunately, even with a stringent selection process, many poor or average wines make it to the auction. Out of 520 wines submitted this year, only 54 were selected. And of those, only 37 received an above-average rating or better fromPeter. That wouldn't be so bad for the regular wines from these estates, but these are auction wines. They're supposed to be extraordinary, and many of them were just plain ordinary.

Now, that's not to say there aren't some real gems in this auction. Among the standouts are two of our perennial favorites, Kees-Kieren and Kerpen. Rising star Markus Molitor and venerable Pauly-Bergweiler produce big, intense wines in a decidedly modern, international style. Johann Peter Reinert on the Saar makes superb wines in good vintages, and the wines of Reinhard and Beate Knebel from the Lower Mosel have impressed me more and more since I first tasted them in 1996.

The Bernkasteler Ring is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and its members are optimistic about the future. Dr. Peter Pauly, owner of Pauly-Bergweiler and president of the Ring, sees the auction as first and foremost a marketing event. The winemakers do make some money, but the primary goal is to create a PR spectacle. That may not be the best approach to improving quality. Let's hope that before another 100 years have passed, the underachieving winemakers will start to wonder why they never get record-setting prices.

Grosser Ring

While the Bernkasteler Ring is an auction of mostly average wines with a few highlights, the VDP-Mosel (Grosser Ring) auction is just the reverse. The overall level of quality here is quite high, with only a few underperforming wines muddying the waters. Even here, however, quality is very much affected by vintage. This is especially true for those indefatigable wine warriors on the Saar and Ruwer, where it's a nerve-wracking struggle to get full ripeness in any but the very best years. Wilhelm Haag, owner of Fritz Haag and president of the VDP-Mosel, runs a pretty tight ship, however, so you can usually count on an impressive offering of limited-production wines that can truly be called "auction wines."

The Grosser Ring auction takes place at the Europahalle convention center in Trier on the third Wednesday of September, the day after the Bernkasteler Ring. As with all of the auctions, there is a pretasting in the morning, followed by a lunch break and then the auction in the afternoon. For DM120 (about $50) you can attend both, which means you get to taste Egon Müller Beerenauslese and J.J. Prüm Eiswein twice! Even if you're not bidding, these auction events are fun to attend just for the chance to experience so many top-drawer wines.

This auction boasts the highest concentration of superstar estates, including revered luminaries Egon Müller, Fritz Haag, Joh. Jos. Prüm and Karthäuserhof, as well as brilliant new-generation estates such as Schloss Saarstein, Zilliken, von Hövel, Schloss Lieser, Joh. Jos. Christoffel, Willi Schaefer, Reinhold Haart and Heymann-Löwenstein.

VDP-Rheingau

There is a curious tradition at the VDP-Rheingau auction, held at the famous Kloster Eberbach monastery. When the bidding reaches a significant point - DM500, say - the crowd erupts in cacophonous whistling and applause, punctuated by vigorous bag popping. They sell bottled water and rolls at the auction, which I think people snap up just to get the paper bags that the bread comes in. Ammunition.

This tradition was evoked several times during this year's auction, but the most enthusiastic came during the ongoing gentlemen's competition between Rheingau's Robert Weil and the Saar's Egon Müller for the highest-priced TBA. This year the advantage went back to the Rheingau with the record price of DM5,000 ($2,270 per bottle!) for the Robert Weil 1999 Kiedricher Gräfenberg Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese Goldkapsel.

Weil's wines are usually the high point of the auction, but several other producers also shine consistently, and the overall level of quality seems to be improving. August Kesseler always makes wonderful, elegant wines, and Domdechant Werner had another solid showing. One of the most pleasant surprises was the exceptional wines from Schloss Johannisberg. This legendary estate was one of many in the region that suffered a serious downturn in quality during the '70s and '80s. Now it looks like they're getting back on form, which is exciting because the Schloss Johannisberg vineyard is one of the very best.

A promising newcomer to the auction was Josef Spreitzer, who received a very respectable DM165 for his 1999 Oestrich Lenchen Riesling Auslese. Other producers with standout wines included Schloss Reinhartshausen, Prinz von Hessen, Franz Künstler and Hans Lang.

VDP-Nahe/Ahr

With just 14 participating wineries, his is the smallest of the four auctions. The smaller number of wines means that the pretasting and auction can both be finished before lunch. That is a welcome way to end the week after the three lengthier auctions that come before.

The main attraction here is the Nahe's quiet Riesling master, Helmut Dönnhoff. His 1998 Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Eiswein "Montag" was the nearest thing to perfection we tasted this year. It sold for DM1,200 ($545) per bottle. The other top gun is Schlossgut Diel, owned by VDP-Nahe/Ahr president Armin Diel. "I thought 500 marks was quite a fine price for our Eiswein," he said, chuckling, "But when Helmut sold his for twelve hundred, I realized ours was really quite a bargain!"

Among the more reliable Nahe Riesling producers are Dr. Crusius, Kruger-Rumpf and Tesch. Here you will also find the only red wines at any of the auctions. Paradoxically, the Ahr valley is the northernmost wine region in Germany, but it specializes in Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and its early-ripening relative, Frühburgunder. In the past, these wines were mostly thin and acidic, having been made essentially in the same way as German white wines. These days, however, younger winemakers have overcome their innate Francophobia and have discovered the wonders of barrique aging. Now the wines - especially from Meyer-Näkel - show much better depth and concentration.

The auction process

Bidding at the auctions is in German marks per 750ml bottle. Individuals do not bid - you must go through one of the wine merchants who are official Weinkommissionäre. How your bid gets to a commissioner - and how the wine gets back to you - depends on where you live and your local import regulations. Members of the import trade can go directly to a commissioner, and retailers can go through their preferred importer.

Individual wine collectors in Europe also can go directly to a commissioner, but outside of Europe, the path for individuals is a little more circuitous. Of course, if you attend an auction personally, you c id directly through a commissioner. And if you're only buying a few bottles, you can simply carry them home with you on the plane.

Making connections

The best place for non-European individuals to start is with your favorite wine retailer. It may require some gentle prodding to get him properly connected to the bidding chain, but once he's done it, he'll be hooked. The retailer takes your bids (number of bottles and maximum price for each wine) and passes them on to the participating importer, who combines them with other bids and gives them to his commissioner. The commissioner then merges all of the bids he receives and does his best to see that everyone gets what he wants.

At the auction, the commissioners continue bidding until enough maximum bids have been exceeded so that the remaining bidders get all the wine they wanted at or below their maximum bids. The commissioner who made the final bid has control of the Verteilung, or distribution, of the various bottle formats. This is probably going to change, at least for the Grosser Ring auction, because it causes the bidding to drag on and on as commissioners fight to get those magnums of Auslese and full bottles of Eiswein. Wilhelm Haag wants to change it so that the different formats are auctioned separately. That makes a lot of sense, especially with the current high demand for large formats.

Bidding decisions

Peter's tasting notes will give you some idea about the various producers in these auctions with whom you may not already be familiar, and the prices give you a general indication of quality and demand. But for next year's auctions, you'll need some advance information to plan your bids. This can be obtained from a commissioner or an importer who is already in the loop. Every year there is a pre-tasting of the wines in June, which the commissioners and many importers attend.

By the way, even if you missed this year's auction, it's still possible to get some of the wines from importers and retailers who buy auction wines for resale. The commissioners also buy for their own stocks. See the boxes to the right, and on the next page, for some contact information. For a complete list of the commissioners for each auction, please visit the Library of the Riesling Report Web site.

The future of Germany's auctions

The blossoming of the Internet poses an obvious question about the future of Germany's traditional wine auctions. In 1998, the Bernkasteler Ring tried a limited Internet effort with a Webcam sending the proceedings to, and accepting bids from, a roomful of bidders in England. It had moderate success, and they want to pursue it further.(It didn't happen in the last two years simply because the staff member who had the requisite expertise took another job.)

This year, Ernst Loosen (Dr. Loosen) locked horns with the VDP-Mosel commissioners who run the selection process. Frustrated with what he sees as bureaucratic bungling and small-town politicking, Ernst withdrew his wines and put them up for auction on the Web. Because many of his best customers were unfamiliar with, or even a bit frightened by, the Web auction process, the results were good, but somewhat disappointing.

But these were just the first two brave attempts to venture into uncharted Web waters. You can be sure that the Internet will become more and more a part of these auctions. Most of the auction organizations want to preserve the traditional feeling of the auctions for PR purposes, and most believe that the live auction atmosphere yields better prices, but market pressure will force them eventually to open up the bidding to the World Wide Web of wine lovers.

In the meantime, jump through whatever hoops you must to get plugged into the German auction scene. And we encourage you to make the trip to see the auction action for yourself - and taste it, too!