Wally’s Wines & Spirits’ new owners are launching an auction house

It was just last month that Steve Wallace, longtime owner of the landmark Wally’s Wine & Spirits in West Los Angeles, sold the shop to business partner Christian Navarro and a group of investors that includes the Marciano brothers (Paul, Maurice and Armand), founders of the fashion label Guess.

At the time of the sale, Navarro told food editor Russ Parsons: “The plan is to grow the company, but to grow it correctly, from the inside out. We’re going to do what we do, only better, first, before we make plans to do anything else.”

They haven’t wasted much time. Now comes the announcement that the high-end wine shop is opening its own auction house, Wally’s Auctions. To that end, the partners have hired, says Navarro, “the whole senior management team of Zachys Wine Auctions.”

That includes Michael Jessen, who was managing director there and oversaw sales of $500 million of fine and rare wines. In a statement, Jessen says, “I am thrilled to join Christian Navarro, the Marciano Family, and the Wally’s team in developing the Wally’s brand.” Julia Gilbert, former auction director at Zachys, is joining the new company too, along with Jermaine Stone and Eric Shey who were also part of the Zachy’s auction team.

For the wine aficionado or collector, an auction is the chance to pick up older vintages and rarer bottlings to add depth to your cellar. For more casual wine drinkers, it could be the way to buy a bottle in your child’s or your husband’s birth year as a special gift. And for some, it’s a way to track the possible future value of wines you’ve already purchased if you hold onto them long enough.

Navarro plans on doing both live and online auctions. “We’re going to specialize in provenance,” he says. And since they don’t have to do a certain number of auctions each year, “we’re not going to touch anything that we have to think twice about. When we have enough wines that we feel are perfect and can be brought to the market, then we’ll have an auction.”

Initially, they’ll aim for four a year and eventually expand beyond that. Navarro foresees no problem in obtaining wines for the auctions. “We already have a number of wines ready to go. And, as you know, we have really great access to California wines because of the many great relationships Wally’s has had for decades.”

Wally’s Auctions will initially be based in New York and Los Angeles. The first auction will be held sometime in the next 12 months.

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Twitter: @sirenevirbila