Two white truffles weighing a combined 850 grams sold for €100,000 at the World White Truffle Auction in Grinzane Cavour, with Hong Kong securing the evening’s final lot. The 27th edition of the auction, held at the historic castle in the heart of the Langhe, raised €545,800 for charitable projects in Italy and abroad — the second-highest total in the event’s history.

Since its launch in 1999, the auction has raised more than €8.2 million for charity. Organized by the Piedmont Regional Enoteca Cavour, based at the castle, the event puts prized specimens of Tuber magnatum Pico — the celebrated Alba white truffle — up for auction.

This year’s event connected restaurants and embassies in cities from Hong Kong to Brasília, with four new locations joining the auction: London, Macau, Vilnius and the Brazilian capital. In Grinzane, the evening was hosted by television presenter Caterina Balivo and food journalist Paolo Vizzari. Actor Edoardo Leo was named the event’s Honorary Ambassador, while fellow actor Andrea Bosca was also among the guests.

The truffles were accompanied by large-format bottles of Barolo, Barbaresco, Asti and Moscato d’Asti, as well as oversized Albertengo panettone cakes. One lot went under the hammer twice: Lino Stoppani, President of the Italian Federation of Public Establishments, bought it for €12,000 and then put it back up for bidding. Guido Borghi offered an additional €14,000.

The proceeds will support several charitable initiatives, including Every Child Is My Child, which helps children affected by war; cancer research at the Candiolo Institute in Piedmont; and North Kinangop Catholic Hospital in Kenya.

The evening also featured the Barolo en primeur charity auction. The final barrel, sold for €57,000, brought the total raised through the initiative to €1,197,500.

The record-setting bid came at the end of a difficult season for white truffle hunters and buyers, marked by a limited harvest and high prices for the prized underground fungus.

After a hot, dry summer, the 2026 season got off to a slow start, with few truffles available and many of them small. Antonio Degiacomi, President of the National Center for Truffle Studies, attributes October’s reduced harvest and the truffles’ shorter shelf life to a lack of summer rainfall and high temperatures.

White truffles grow in symbiosis with tree roots and need cool, moist soil to develop — conditions that have been increasingly difficult to find amid the drought.At the Alba market, prices in early October ranged from €400 to more than €500 per 100 grams. By the weekend of Nov. 1, prices rarely fell below €600 per 100 grams, even for relatively small specimens, while the finest truffles topped €900. A precise market price is difficult to establish because each truffle is valued according to its size and individual characteristics. For now, demand from Italian and international visitors continues to outstrip an already limited supply, although availability has improved since the beginning of the season.

Hunters hope that both the quantity and quality of the harvest will improve in the second half of November. Recent rainfall has helped produce larger specimens, but any sustained recovery will depend on weather conditions in the weeks ahead.

For now, the outlook remains uncertain. The 96th Alba International White Truffle Fair continues through Dec. 6, while the truffle-hunting season is scheduled to run through Jan. 31.