As senior international consultant head of sales and principal auctioneer at Christie’s, David Elswood presides over a legacy that has seen the hammer drop on the finest bottles since 1766. Bordeaux and Burgundy remain the stock in trade at auction, he tells Spear’s, but the growth of online sales has given Christie’s an outlet to offer a more diverse range of fine wines and spirits from both the old and new worlds.
Elswood notes that market has stabilised at the top end, which has meant another strong year for the house.
‘If you’re an enthusiastic and passionate consumer of good wine, you’ve never had it so good,’ he adds. ‘Every continent is now producing great wine in a way that we’ve never seen in past times.’