Amayès Aouli: ‘I want to see bottles circulating among collections’

Bonhams is shaking things up after appointing Sotheby’s head of continental wine, Amayès Aouli, as its new global head of wine and spirits. db spoke to him about his ambitious plans to unite Bonham’s local expertise with its global footprint as it looks to innovate. “My past experience is either very classical or atypical,” Aouli smiles, during our zoom conversation. The charismatic Frenchman joined Bonhams last month from Sotheby’s, where he had spent two years tasked with building the auction house’s continental European platform, however his background prior to joining Sotheby’s was less traditional than many other of his peers. Both Nick Pegna at Sotheby’s and Adam Bilbey at Christie’s for example, hailed from Berry Bros & Rudd, while Aouli spent nearly 15 years in investment banking before formally entering the wine world. However, the theme of wine also flows strongly through his background. Growing up in Paris, his parents would regularly entertain, and wine became synonymous with the exchange of ideas, art, and philosophy between broad-minded people. “My approach to wine was very much what it brings to the table,” he explains, “It was a way of solidifying social interaction, making people discuss, debate democracy and part of the exchange of cultural heritage. I was a young kid in the room and it seemed magical.” This magic was never lost, although a strong desire to travel led him into investment banking. “It was a way to travel the world more freely than any other industry,” he explains, “When