If you love rare and very fine wine and have some cash to spend, you’ve got to be at Ritchies Fine Wine Auction. Now in its sixth year, it’s Canada’s pre-eminent commercial wine auction. From mixed lots of superior wines for a few hundred dollars to a magnum of 1961 Chateau Petrus at $11,000 or so, not to mention Richebourg, d'Yquem and an 1895 Lafite, it’s all here.

“The theme this year is ‘abundance’,” says Stephen Ranger, President of Ritchies. “We have so much wine we’re extending it to four sessions this year.” He went on to list all the major types of collectable wine: cult Californians, Super Tuscans, mixed lots of Bordeaux and Burgundy, up-and-coming Aussies. “It’s beyond spectacular.”

Ranger is keen to point out that there is a lot of choice for people who are not necessarily obsessed collectors with no-limit platinum cards: “There’s plenty available in the six to eight hundred dollar range where you can get half a dozen or even a case lot of high quality wines you just can’t get elsewhere.”

The auction is great fun to attend if you want to see how the big names fare in the real world. Serious bidding wars do break out and the hammer price can sometimes double or triple the guide. If you are planning to bid, select your targets in advance and set your maximum based on researched market value: you don't want to be getting all emotional.

Many of the finest wines are available to try at a big pre-auction gala on Thursday October 11th at the Carlu. You’ll have a chance to sample exorbitantly expensive wines at a merely ruinous price - but if you move fast, as I do, you can cover all the top names and truly get your money’s worth. When you need a break, there's delicious food.

For auction information and downloadable catalogues for each session, visit Ritchies' website.

The Vintages Gala Tasting at the Carlu on October 11 costs $300. Here's a list of the wines. It's worth it for the 82s and the Chateau Palmer 1945 alone. I also have it on good authority that they're adding a Chateau d'Yquem to the Sauturnes table... For tickets call 416-364-1864 or visit Vintages.com.