Dominic West, Eva Longoria, Jean Reno & Zabou Breitman Rally 700-Strong Audience at the Hospices de Beaune Auction as Bidding for ‘Presidents’ Barrel’ – sold for Charity – Soars to €360,000 & Surprise Donor Raises Her Hand to Contribute a further €100,000 to Support the Causes Championed by its Sale, Taking the Final Result to €460,000.

Sale of Charity Barrel is Centrepiece of 164th Iteration of the World’s Oldest Charity Wine Auction Which Realised €14.4m / .2m. One of the Strongest Totals ever Achieved & Marking an Historic Moment for the Hospices as it Presents its First Fully Certified Organic Vintage.

At the historic Hospices de Beaune wine sale in Bourgogne, leading names Dominic West, Eva Longoria, Jean Reno and Zabou Breitman took to the rostrum to rally a 700-strong crowd to up ever further their bids for a unique barrel of exceptional wine, produced from a special plot and sold to benefit Médecins Sans Frontières and Global Gift Foundation of America.

Having reached €360,000, the barrel was acquired by Alaor Pereira Lino of Anima Vinum of Brazil. But the excitement did not stop there. In a surprise twist, a member of the audience raised her hand once the hammer had fallen, pledging a further €100,000 to the causes championed by the sale of the barrel.

Make-up of this Year’s Selection of Wines

A total of 51 cuvées, divided into 33 red wines, 18 white wines and two cuvées of eaux-de-vie, were on offer, comprising 321 barrels of red wines and 118.5 barrels (117 plus three half barrels) of white wines, seven barrels of eaux-de-vie, and the Presidents’ Barrel - 447.5 barrels in total. The average hammer price per barrel of the red and white wines was €31,540, a small increase on last year.

The results were also led by three barrels of Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru, Cuvée Dames de Flandres, which sold for €355,000 each and achieved a new record for a barrel of this exceptional white Grand Cru cuvée.

Charitable Use of the Sale Proceeds & ‘One Health’

Separate from the Presidents’ Barrel which is generously donated by the hospital to a cause chosen for its relevance to the particular theme of the year, each year proceeds from the auction are used to fund the Hospices Civils de Beaune’s hospital programme.

Earlier this year, the Hospices Civils de Beaune pledged its commitment to ‘One Health’, an integrated approach that aims to protect the health of people and ecosystems.

More About this Year’s Charities of Choice Benefitting from the Sale of the Presidents’ Barrel

Represented at the auction by actors Dominic West and Zabou Breitman, Médecins Sans Frontières has chosen to allocate the funds to its fight against neglected tropical diseases, debilitating and fatal diseases with complex epidemiology, which mainly affect poor populations in rural tropical areas.

Represented at the sale by actors Eva Longoria and Jean Reno, Global Gift Foundation with the aim of creating a positive impact on the lives of children, women and families, who are in a situation of vulnerability and / or at risk of social exclusion - has chosen to allocate the funds to Casa Ángeles, a day centre located in the city of Marbella created with the aim of improving the quality of life of children with special needs and their families.

More on the Hospices de Beaune Wine Sale

Representing the pinnacle of the calendar in Bourgogne, the annual Hospices de Beaune wine sale has become not only the world’s most famous wine auction but also a vastly important cultural phenomenon in the region. The sale is the centrepiece of a three-day weekend in November known as ‘Les Trois Glorieuses’ when wine lovers descend on the town of Beaune for the opportunity to acquire barrels of wine produced from vineyards covering 140 plots across the Hospices’ 60-hectare holdings. Every year since 1945, during the auction, a special barrel called the Presidents’ Barrel is sold separately for the benefit of one or more charities of the Hospices de Beaune’s choosing.

•  The record price for a ‘Presidents’ Barrel’ was set in 2022 at €810,000, for a barrel of Corton Grand Cru. In 2023, the ‘Presidents’ Barrel’ - a Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru - sold for €350,000.
•  This overall total of €14.4m includes the €460,000 raised by the ‘President’s Barrel’, the only lot in the sale to exclude buyer’s premium fees.
•  The hammer total excluding the ‘Presidents’ Barrel’ was €13,944,200.