While the United States recession officially began in December 2007, consumer confidence didn’t plummet until last October. This drop happens to have coincided with that month’s "Evening of Exceptional Wines" sale at Sotheby’s New York (www.sothebys.com). Based on the auction’s results, it seems the high-end wine sector is not immune to market forces: Many of the lots came in at the low end of their estimates, several sold below estimate, and 30 percent remained unsold. But as Jamie Ritchie, Sotheby’s head of wine for North America, points out, the price of high-end wine had previously experienced a two-year period of "unprecedented increases," and today’s prices represent an "adjustment." Sotheby’s highest-estimated lot—four cases of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1990, valued between $700,000 and $1.2 million—did not sell, though it sold privately shortly after the auction. Well after a year since the beginning of the economic woes and subsequent "adjustments," now seems as good a time as any for oenophiles to stock their cellars.