Auctions: Trade structure

Wine auction customers are broadly split between private individuals and the wine trade. Private buyers may have any number of different reasons for buying wine. They may be consumers, collectors, and/or investors (see investment). Trade buyers also buy for investment, to fill gaps in a restaurant or merchant’s wine list, or as brokers for trade or private clients. Reasons for selling wine vary equally, the traditional three d’s of death, debt, and divorce having turned into four, as doctors’ orders have also become a factor. Private customers may want or need to sell in order to realize the value of their cellar, or part of it, or to finance further purchases, or as executors selling on behalf of an estate. The wine trade may sell to dispose of surplus or bankrupt stock.