Across the United States, tipplers with a sense of history will have an extra reason to raise a glass today: Known as Repeal Day, it's the anniversary of the end of Prohibition.
But among those who know the federal ban on alcohol consumption was struck down on Dec. 5, 1933, few may realize that the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution didn't exactly legalize drinking; it merely handed control of alcohol to the states. And each one took a different route: Mississippi didn't permit alcohol consumption until 1966; Kansans couldn't use credit cards at liquor stores until 1995.
Last August, New York became only the eighth state to strike down a ban on spirits auctions. But it is wasting no time exercising the new freedom: This Saturday, Christie's will sell off more than 100 lots, officially marking the first auction of spirits in the state since before Prohibition was enacted in 1920.
The auction house is including bottles of single malt Scotch, Cognac, Calvados, rye whisky, Chartreuse and Armagnac as part of its regular end-of-year wine sale.
The initiative by Christie's, known as a purveyor of some of the world's finest and rarest art, is a badge of honour for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, which lobbied the state legislature in Albany for the change. "Spirits and the arts, they go together," said Frank Coleman, the council's senior vice-president of public affairs, who neglected to note that sometimes they go together to fabulous effect (see: absinthe and Picasso, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec) and sometimes to tragic effect (see: Jackson Pollock, booze and an Oldsmobile convertible).
To underline the refined nature of the booze sale, and perhaps to put bidders at its Rockefeller Center flagship galleries in the paddle-raising mood, waiters will be circulating at Christie's with hors d'oeuvres and glasses of Champagne. (As with every auction, members of the public are invited to attend free of charge; the catered treats, however, are only for registered bidders.)
But since those in attendance usually have some very firm taste preferences, Christie's wine and spirits auctions are also BYOB affairs. "People bring their own bottles of wine, they sit and chat and share a glass of wine and spend some time together," says Richard Brierley, the Christie's specialist who conducts the wine and spirits auctions. "It can be a rather social occasion."
They may need the nourishment for endurance: With more than 1,000 lots up for sale, Christie's expects the auction to last five or six hours.
Mr. Brierley will be refraining from sampling too many of the goods before the sale. "A fuzzy head and lots of numbers is not a good combination," he chuckled this week.
Still, the scene will be a far cry from the early days of wine auctions at Christie's, which began after a Prohibition-era ban on those sales was struck down in 1994 in New York. Back then, Mr. Brierley recalls, some bidders brought packed lunches.
Saturday's auction has attracted so much attention that rubberneckers are inevitable; but unlike many of Christie's auctions (where random Warhols can sell for $20-million-plus U.S.), the price of participation is within the reach of most people. Plenty of bottles should go for only a few hundred dollars.
But there are also prizes for big-game hunters, such as a 1926 Macallan aged 60 years in a wood barrel that carries an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000, a 2003 bottle of rye made from George Washington's recipe ($10,000 to $20,000), and a so-called superlot of 729 bottles of Scotch ranging in quality from middling to extraordinary ($70,000 to $100,000). Mr. Brierley anticipates the superlot being bid on by a hotel or casino.
The sale is projected to take in about $250,000 - a drop in the bucket, as it were, compared with its wine sales. Last year, Sotheby's sold about $130-million of wine and spirits worldwide; Christie's sold $58.6-million.
But Mr. Brierley says demand for the fine spirits is increasing, just as the market in wine has expanded in recent years from the stalwart of Bordeaux to include more Burgundies. And spirits, with a higher alcohol content than wine, may actually make better collectibles because they stand less chance of degrading over time.
Mr. Coleman from the Distilled Spirits Council says he knows who will be buying. "It's Christmas bonus time on Wall Street and, as any New Yorker knows, it's the Wall Street bonuses that drive the economy," at least in luxury goods.
"This is right up the alley of your best friend who's a bond trader or hedge-fund manager or other Wall Street bigwig."
