The most famous wine charity event in Burgundy celebrated another strong year, bolstered by a promising 2025 vintage. On Nov. 16, the 165th annual Hospices de Beaune auction raised $21.5 million, the third-highest total in its history (behind $32 million in 2022 and $27.4 million in 2023). Following last year’s sum of $15.2 million—a dip caused by the challenging 2024 vintage, lower yields and fewer barrels on offer—this year’s results were a happy increase. This is the fifth year the event, the world’s longest-running charity wine auction, has been organized by Sotheby’s.
Celebrity Auctioneers and the Presidents’ Barrel
As in years past, celebrities showed their support during the sale of the auction’s centerpiece, the Presidents’ Barrel. This year, that top lot was a barrel of premier cru Pommard Les Rugiens. Cédric Klapisch, Vincent Lacoste, Alice Taglioni and Martin Solveig—well-known figures in French music and film—joined Sotheby’s auctioneer Aurélie Vandevoorde onstage to encourage enthusiastic bidding, which lasted 20 minutes and resulted in a final price of around $460,000, an auction record for a premier cru Presidents’ Barrel.
This year, proceeds from the sale of the Presidents’ Barrel support the EHCO association, dedicated to helping handicapped children in the Côte-d’Or, and the Robert-Debré Children’s Brain Institute in Paris.
Top Results in a Promising Vintage
Two barrels of Bâtard-Montrachet, Cuvée Dames de Flandres, also generated record-setting enthusiasm. Each sold for the same price as the Presidents’ Barrel, around $460,000. That set a new record for the wine, up from last year’s record of $372,000 a barrel.
Overall, 552 barrels were offered: 428 barrels of red wine, 111 (including two half-barrels) of white, 11 of eaux-de-vie and the President’s Barrel. The average hammer price per barrel was just over $39,000, a 4.6 percent increase from last year’s average of roughly $33,000—which itself marked a small increase on 2023’s total. On the whole, the results indicate continued enthusiasm for the wines of the Hospices, which are made by estate manager Ludivine Griveau, as well as enthusiasm for the 2025 vintage.
Separate from the proceeds from the Presidents’ Barrel, this year’s auction will support modernization projects at the Hospices, including a new hospital building and the rebuilding of the hospital in Seurre.
[article-img-container][src=2025-11/ns_hospices-de-beaune-faiveley-111825_1600.jpeg] [credit= (Antoine Morfaux)] [alt= A barrel of the Cuvée François Faiveley in Burgundy.][end: article-img-container]
A Grand Cru Donation and a New Cuvée
This year’s auction saw the debut of the Hospices’ 52nd cuvée, the Clos de Vougeot, Cuvée François Faiveley. The wine comes from just over four acres of vines that were donated by Domaine Faiveley earlier this year to celebrate the winery’s bicentennial. The cuvée is named in honor of two François Faiveleys, the respective third and sixth generations to have run the estate. Two barrels were sold for roughly $190,000 and $195,000.
“It was very emotional for us this year,” current co-proprietor Erwan Faiveley told Wine Spectator. He added that the auction of the new cuvée “went through the roof.” His father, the sixth-generation François, “shed a little tear when he was given a standing ovation the night before at the Château du Clos Vougeot.”
“I believe the Hospices was a great success—the third biggest sale in history,” said Erwan. “I believe people saw the huge potential of 2025.”
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