S otheby’s Wine is delighted to present our first sale in London after the Summer break, with the exceptional auction of A Connoisseur’s Classic Cellar | Finest & Rarest Wines.
Taking place as part of the Sotheby’s London Luxury Edit, this brilliant auction comprises wines from some of the UK and Europe’s leading cellars, with all of the world’s top domaines represented in a range of formats from bottles to Imperials, and an incredible span of vintages covering decades from the 1930s up to the present day.
We kick off this wonderful auction with a beautiful and eclectic collection, A Connoisseur’s Classic Cellar, offering wines from a single cellar that has been meticulously curated by a leading European wine-lover over the preceding two decades. With a singular dedication to their brilliant collection, this collector built an extraordinary, state-of-the-art, climate-controlled private cellar underneath their home high in the Alps, wherein these wines have been lovingly stored throughout their life. Their wide-ranging and forward-thinking taste is evident in this parade of the world’s greatest estates. There is a clear focus on Bordeaux, with mature wines and modern greats alike from across the full range of the 1855 Classification, but also excellent representation across the top wineries of Italy, Spain, California, Australia and beyond. One thing is abundantly clear when browsing these exceptional lots; this collector’s unflinching dedication to utmost quality and to vinous exploration, and their enormous appreciation of the world’s very best wines as well as the most exciting emerging regions.
Following A Connoisseur’s Classic Cellar, the very greatest and rarest names of Burgundy and Bordeaux lead the way in the remainder of this brilliant sale. The consignments from Lot 343 onwards contain an extraordinary selection of the brightest and best domaines to be found in the world of wine today. This section of the sale contains a truly notable array of mature DRC, with the Domaine’s greatest vintages from 1995 to 2014 represented, including a particularly extraordinary selection of their brilliant 2005s and 2002s. Not to be outdone, we have plenty of offerings from Petrus and the First Growths, extremely rare Le Pin 2005 and 2010 double-magnums and, from Napa, painfully scarce magnums and double-magnums of mature Screaming Eagle as well as iconic 1950s-1980s vintages of Georges de Latour’s brilliant Beaulieu Vineyard.
Sourced from some of the UK and Europe’s most highly regarded collections, these wines are offered with exceptional provenance, having been stored in some of the world’s most esteemed professional and private cellars. A Connoisseur’s Classic Cellar | Finest & Rarest Wines will open for online bidding on Wednesday 24 August, culminating in an online-streamed, live auction on Wednesday 7 September at 11am BST.
Lot 1–342: A Connoisseur’s Classic Cellar
Lot 343–535: Finest & Rarest Wines
There is good reason for the enduring presence of Bordeaux’s great names within cellars of the foremost collectors worldwide. The consistency with which the Bordelais, over centuries, have been able to produce wines that continue to find themselves at the pinnacle of global wine appreciation is truly astonishing. Legends of both the Left and Right Banks have an ability to gain complexity and character as they age that is almost unrivalled in the rest of the fine wine world. The region’s wines have occupied a space at the top table for centuries, and the enjoyment of these wines has been a constant for countless significant characters, alongside myriad major events, throughout at least 500 years of recent history.
Some of the most storied Bordeaux of the last 50 years are represented in this incredible sale, in particular in the guise of 1945 Mouton, 1961 Haut-Brion, 1982 Latour, 1990 Petrus, double-magnums of Le Pin 2005 and 2010, and the legendary pair that is both 1989 and 1990 Haut-Brion. The list goes on! The range of truly iconic wines on offer will suit the gourmand who wishes to drink the world’s greatest wines right away, just as much as the collector looking to amass a cellar for the future, such is the outstanding aging potential of many of the legends offered here.
The Domaine, as it is known, is iconic. Much more importantly, it also produces the most extraordinary wines in Burgundy - and it has been doing so for a long time. The generations responsible for the Domaine change, but the terroir remains. And these are very special vineyard parcels indeed, married to meticulous care and philosophy leading to low yields and healthy, ripe grapes, at whatever cost. From the 1990s, vineyard policy has been organic, with co-owner Aubert de Villaine monitoring everything with his usual attention to detail. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines evolve and develop dimensions in a way that resembles a mosaic – points of bouquet and flavor making up a harmonious whole that becomes more beautiful as it unfolds in the glass. Yes, these are hedonistic wines and yes, they are not like any other. The trick is in capturing what these remarkable plots of vines can give and letting them express themselves through minimum intervention and enlightened nurturing.
SERENA SUTCLIFFE, MW
Château d’Yquem is truly one of the world’s most timeless wines, an elixir that so often evades description in our ordinary, everyday language. Yquem has been appreciated for centuries, served at many of the world’s most momentous and historic occasions, and this sensational estate’s wines defy the limits of aging to which most mortals must adhere. How lucky we are, then, that one of our consignors has decided to part with this beautiful vertical spanning vintages from 1934 to 2009, giving us the chance to experience firsthand just how eternal, and how defiant of description, these stunning wines are.
The Rhône Valley, in particular the appellations of Côte Rôtie and Hermitage, produces some of France’s most iconic wines. In Hermitage, the names of Paul Jaboulet and Jean-Louise Chave have attained a mythological status not just within the Rhône, but amongst the wider pantheon of the world’s great domaines. Both are legendary, and whilst the Jaboulet family founded their domaine nearly 200 years ago, the Chaves have been tending vines on the hill of Hermitage for more than 500 years. For wine lovers in search of the true pinnacle of the Rhône valley’s inimitable expressions of Syrah, it is difficult to look beyond the wonderful bottles offered here. Perfectly stored cases of Chave’s Hermitage Rouge from 1995 and 1999 find their place next to wonderful 1989 and 1990 La Chapelle from Jaboulet. Over in Côte Rôtie, we are treated to an amazing range of complete cases across all of Guigal’s “La Las” from the 1999 and 2003 vintages. These are truly amongst the Rhône’s greatest treasures.
The vast majority of Sotheby's Wine auctions focus on Europe’s most established wine regions, where our expertise and experience has helped us find some of the most exciting collections ever seen for sale. But our passion extends far beyond the stalwarts of the fine wine market, and it is exciting to see wines and growers from other regions infiltrating the pack. Throughout this sale, it is encouraging for the whole wine world to see signs that even the most classic collectors are extending their tastes beyond the most traditional regions.
Here, we find mature examples of Piedmont’s and Tuscany’s most iconic wines, and in Spain, beyond the Ribera’s superstars Vega Sicilia and Pingus, exciting Priorat from the likes of Clos Mogador and trend-setting unicorn producer Terroir Al Limit. Australia and South America’s leading producers, too, are all represented, and it is genuinely thrilling to see these great wines all building more of a following in the auction market. The biggest fanfare for the New World wines in this sale, though, should surely be reserved for the incredible selection from Napa Valley, in which we find shockingly rare Magnums and Double-Magnums of Screaming Eagle, offered for the first time in memory at Sotheby’s London, and an incredible vertical of Beaulieu Vineyard comprising iconic vintages from 1951 to 1981.
