The Hospices de Beaune auction is the oldest charity wine sale in the world and, for the Burgundy trade, the closest thing to a State of the Union. The 165th edition, held on 16 November 2025, gave a clear reading. The hammer total was 18,754,670 euros (21,496,368 dollars), rising to 20,223,043 euros (23,509,670 dollars) including fees. It was the third-highest total in the sale's 165-year history.
The figures that follow use the official Bourgogne Wines accounting, distinguishing hammer prices from premium-inclusive totals throughout. In a sale where the distinction runs to several million euros, precision is not pedantry.
The 165th sale
The sale comprised 552 lots: 428 barrels of 34 red wines, 111 barrels, including two half-barrels, of 18 white wines, 11 barrels of eaux-de-vie, plus the Presidents' Barrel. A 52nd cuvee was offered for the first time: Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Cuvee Francois Faiveley. The estate's wines are made by manager Ludivine Griveau, and the sale was conducted by Sotheby's auctioneer Aurelie Vandevoorde.
The room held 700 attendees with what was reported as record global participation, a reminder that the Hospices sale has long outgrown its local origins. It is a charity auction, a Burgundy price barometer and a piece of theatre in one.
The Presidents' Barrel
The Piece des Presidents, a 228-litre barrel of Pommard Premier Cru Les Rugiens, realised a 400,000 euro hammer price, a record for a 1er Cru piece. The Presidents' Barrel is sold for charity rather than as a commercial lot, which makes its price a measure of philanthropic enthusiasm as much as of the wine. Even so, a record is a record, and the Pommard appellation will take the attention.
The new cuvee
A 52nd cuvee was offered for the first time: Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Cuvee Francois Faiveley. New cuvees at the Hospices sale are infrequent events, and each one marks a small expansion of the domaine's holdings or a reorganisation of its wines. That the 165th sale added a grand cru from one of Burgundy's most famous vineyards is a statement of the domaine's continuing relevance: the Hospices is not a static collection but a working estate, managed by Ludivine Griveau, whose vineyards evolve.
Reading the average
The average hammer price per barrel, 33,930 euros, up 4.6 percent on 2024, is the number the trade watches most closely. It is the fifth consecutive year above 30,000 euros, a streak that has turned what was once a remarkable result into the new normal. The average smooths out the theatre of the Presidents' Barrel and measures the underlying demand for the Hospices' wines, barrel by barrel, across reds, whites and eaux-de-vie.
Set the average against the context and the picture sharpens. The 2024 sale totalled about 14 million euros; the 2025 result, at 18.75 million euros at the hammer, sits well above it. The record remains 2022 at 28.9 million euros, a figure set in extraordinary conditions. The 165th sale did not chase the record. It consolidated a level, and in a market that has spent three years wondering whether Burgundy prices had peaked, consolidation is its own statement.
The theatre and the trade
Seven hundred attendees, record global participation, a Sotheby's auctioneer in Aurelie Vandevoorde: the Hospices sale is theatre, and the theatre is part of the price. But beneath it sits a commercial reality. The barrels sold at Beaune in November set reference prices for the vintage across the Cote, and the merchants and domaines watching the averages are making buying decisions for the year ahead. The 165th sale told them that Burgundy, at auction, is still climbing.
One hundred and sixty-five years
The 165th edition is also the sale's 165th year, a continuity few institutions in wine can claim. The recent totals tell the modern story: 28.9 million euros in 2022, the record; about 14 million in 2024; 18.75 million at the hammer in 2025. The third-highest total in the event's history, set with record global participation and a record for a 1er Cru Presidents' Barrel, suggests an auction that has found its level in a higher register than before. The theatre changes; the ratchet holds.
A market still climbing
The average hammer price per barrel was 33,930 euros, 4.6 percent above 2024, the fifth consecutive year above 30,000 euros. Set against the context, the number steadies: the 2024 sale totalled about 14 million euros, and the record remains 2022 at 28.9 million euros. The 2025 result sits between them, closer to the record than to last year, in a market that keeps finding new money for old barrels.
That is the real reading of the 165th sale. Not the charity total alone, but the per-barrel average, rising for a fifth straight year, and the participation, reported at record levels. Burgundy at auction is not cooling. If anything, the Hospices sale suggests the market has decided that the price of the region's barrels is a ratchet, not a cycle.
