By Laurie Davis

The room is packed and buzzing and full of anticipation. Among rows of bidders at a recent commercial wine auction in the Napa Valley, paddles with numbers keep popping up. It’s a subdued frenzy. Some are bidding aggressively, overtly. Others wait until the last moment then jump into the fray, sometimes backing off, other times jacking up the competition. It’s all being orchestrated by master auctioneer Ursula Hermacinski.

“Got $7,500?” she commands, looking around the room expectantly. A paddle goes up. “Good – I wasn’t looking at any of you until then.” She’s already moving on to the next bid level as the crowd laughs. Another paddle goes up. “Ah, a brand new bidder, never seen you before.” It’s both a welcome and a prodding challenge. The gavel-wielding Hermacinski is all business with a mischievous twist of humor. As the numbers ratchet up at break-neck speed she’s teasing and poking fun at her bidders. And they love it.

“I just do my thing,” says Hermacinski. “I want everyone to have fun, laugh, have a good time. The auction attendees enjoy my relaxed approach – it makes them feel they can be themselves, too.”

As long as the paddles stay up, Hermacinski keeps upping the ante: “24,500, 25,000, 25,500, 26,000 . . . “ The bidding moves into $30,000-plus territory, with two bidders left to duke it out. “You’ve got it now – no you don’t,” she chides the two competitors. The room laughs. “Don’t laugh – it’s not funny at $35,000!” More laughter, then the famous gavel goes up and pauses in mid-air. “Last chance and fair warning,” she calls out, then Bam! “Sold, for $35,000. Well done!” The auction participants cheer the winning bid and the great show put on by one of the best and most entertaining wine auctioneers in the country.

Hermacinski grew up in London, birthplace of world-renowned auction houses Christie’s and Sothebys. Auctions are very much a part of the fabric of cultural life there, and having attended them numerous times she knew she wanted to work in that exotic environment. “I always thought it would be cool,” she says.
In 1984, when Christie’s expanded overseas and opened in Manhattan, Hermacinski followed her desire and went there to study fine and decorative arts.

She took her first plunge into auctioneering after just one year at Christie’s. It was a less-than-auspicious beginning. “I was terrible,” she recalls. “My voice was shaking. But I kept trying and after a little while I got it.” Now she is one of only two female professional wine auctioneers in the U.S., the other being her original Christie’s mentor and good friend, Ann Colgin.

Hermacinski is the first woman to head a wine department in America, and the first woman auctioneer at the Napa Valley Wine Auction, now the world’s largest charity wine auction. She was honored by Food & Wine Magazine with the coveted Golden Grape Award for “perfecting the art of auctioneering” and dubbed the “Goddess of the Gavel” by her peers and the press.

Her skill and style were shaped in the prestigious company of the wine auctioneering elite – a kind of ex-Christie’s coterie that includes Michael Davis, Fritz Hatton, Paul Hart, Bruce Kaiser, Dennis Foley and David Reynolds.

According to Hermacinski, they all trace their formative roots to the legendary wine expert and auctioneer, Michael Broadbent, who conducted wine auctions at Christie’s for many years. Each has his or her own unique style, based on the classic English auction method, but with that American “do your own thing” flavor. Of their early years together at Christie’s, Hermacinski reminisces, “It was a magical time. We were young, enthusiastic, and we were all having a blast.”

Hermacinski has auctioned just about everything from Chinese art to toy soldiers. Wine didn’t enter the picture until 1989, when she transferred to Christie’s in Los Angeles, an experience that paved the way for her now-famous career.

Following the success of an increasing number of commercial wine auctions, charity wine auctions began to sprout rapidly across the country in the early ‘90s. Hermacinski and her fellow wine auctioneers at Christie’s began taking on volunteer auctioneering gigs at these charity events, just for the fun of it. “In those early days we really didn’t know what we were doing,” she laughs. “It was more like organized chaos. But the wineries were taking notice of the amount of money that was being bid at these auctions.”

Hermacinski took a brief hiatus from charity auctions from 1994 until 1996, when she moved back to Christie’s in New York to set up a wine department there. “I just didn’t have the time then to do charity auctions,” she says. But in 1996 she left Christie’s and returned to San Francisco, where she was back on the charity wine auction circuit again, this time as a paid professional. She also continued to work as a consultant to Christie’s.

By the late ‘90s, the e-commerce boom had found its way into wine auctions and Internet auction sites began to proliferate. Hermacinski was wooed over to winebid.com, where she served as executive vice president for two years. “I wanted to try something new,” she says. But the call of the wild charity auctions proved, once again, to be irresistible. “I thought I wouldn't do any more charity auctions,” she recalls. “But it's what I do, it's who I am.”

For someone who has such a commanding, powerful presence from the podium, Hermacinski is charmingly relaxed and approachable in conversation. She's a very bright, inquisitive soul, and it hardly seems surprising that even though she has already been so successful, she is still in search of the next great adventure. She's now drawn to the possibilities of auctioneering fast horses and rare race cars, which she thinks will benefit from the somewhat slower but more engaging English-style bidding process. Still in her early 40s, Hermacinski has plans to do a lot more traveling, while still doing about one major auction each month, most of them for charity.

So how should you make the most of your wine charity auction experience? “Really look at the catalogue before you come in, taste before you bid, and have an idea about what you want before you buy. Then decide on a maximum price you’re willing to pay and stick to it. Don't psych yourself out - try for everything you're interested in - but do not, under any circumstances, go over your maximum price. Then that wine headache you'll have the next morning won’t be due to guilt!”

You can have a good time even if you don’t bid. “Usually only about ten percent of auction participants actually bid. The rest just want to go along for the thrills, chills and spills of a live auction!”

The bottom line is: have fun. Hermacinski loves what she does precisely for that reason - she's still having a blast. And she will always have the last word.

“Last chance and fair warning,” she calls, gavel poised and ready to come crashing down. “You guys are all out and I’m going to sell to the new bidder!”
It works – a paddle goes up.

“His paddle’s up, he wants it. All in and all done - and (down comes the gavel with a final smack) - Sold!”