Courtesy Hart Davis Hart Wine Co, Chicago/artinfo.com

The auctioneers that adjusted quickly have already seen results. Chicago’s Hart Davis Hart Wine Co had excellent sell-through rates, with 98 percent of the lots finding buyers, in both its December and January sales. A case of Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Musingy 1996, a top Burgundy, for instance, was listed at $1,600 to $2,400 in the January sale and wound up bringing $4,182. The modest estimate, Hart says, drew bidders into the fray.

Wine aficionados’ newfound parsimony is also evidenced in a market shift regarding quantity. Before the recession, buyers paid up for unopened original wooden cases, known as owcs, holding 12 bottles. Just such a lot size of a California gem, Dominus Estate 1994, estimated at $850 to $1,400, went for $1,000 at Morrell’s February sale.

Lower estimates and fewer bottles aren’t the only paths to great bottles at good prices. The peculiar mechanics of wine auctions also provide plenty of opportunities. Unlike in an art sale, the items up for bid aren’t unique creations; they’re commodities. The same wine - Château Lafite Rothschild 1982, for instance - can be bought at many different venues, with multiple lots of the same vintage available even in the same sale. That fact allows for clever advance bidding. This is especially true for Bordeaux, which make up the majority of the lots at most sales and are produced in larger quantities than the collectible wines of Burgundy, Champagne, and California.

To maximise value the experts recommend a two-tier Bordeaux strategy: Buy the first growths (châteaus Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, and Haut-Brion) from high-quality years, such as 1995, 1996, 2000, and 2005, and well regarded “super seconds” (châteaus Cos d’Estournel, Pichon Longueville-Comtesse de Lalande, Pichon Longueville Baron, Léoville-Las-Cases, Ducru-Beaucaillou, and Palmer) in blockbuster vintages, such as 1982 and 1990, which may be too pricey for first growths.