Mouton, Lafite Wines Lure Collectors in $1.6 Million U.K. Sale
Chateau Mouton Rothschild
Christie's via Bloomberg
Chateau Mouton Rothschild wines from the 1959 vintage. The complete case of 12 is being auctioned by Christie's in London, with a pre-sale estimate of up to 20,000 pounds ($30,900).
Chateau Mouton Rothschild wines from the 1959 vintage. The complete case of 12 is being auctioned by Christie's in London, with a pre-sale estimate of up to 20,000 pounds ($30,900). Source: Christie's via Bloomberg
Chateau Latour
Christie's via Bloomberg
Magnums of Chateau Latour from the 1959 vintage. The wine is part of a six-bottle lot being auctioned by Christie's in London, with a pre-sale upper estimate of 45,000 pounds ($69,500).
Magnums of Chateau Latour from the 1959 vintage. The wine is part of a six-bottle lot being auctioned by Christie's in London, with a pre-sale upper estimate of 45,000 pounds ($69,500). Source: Christie's via Bloomberg
A 1.04 million-pound ($1.6 million) wine sale today will lure collectors with rare Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Lafite Rothschild bottles as the international wine investment market continues to recover.
The lots from top Bordeaux producers spanning more than a century will be offered at Christie’s International in London with vintage ports dating back as far as 1908.
Demand for wine is picking up after a slump in the last four months of 2008 during the global financial crisis. The Liv- Ex 100 Index of fine wine traded in London has rebounded 47 percent since the end of 2008 and 27 percent since the start of this year, helped partly by demand for the Bordeaux 2009 vintage.
“The market looks pretty steady,” said Jack Hibberd, research director at Liv-Ex. “The ‘09 campaign was successful; it’s a pause for breath. We haven’t seen any dramatic movements.”
The banner claret vintage of today’s auction is 1959, rated by Christie’s senior wine consultant Michael Broadbent as among the top 10 vintages of the past half century. Two cases of Lafite, one case of Mouton and 6 magnums of Chateau Latour are on offer from that year.
Each of the two cases of 1959 Lafite on sale is estimated to fetch as much as 30,000 pounds ($46,200), close to the HK$366,000 ($47,100) top price paid for a case of the same vintage at an auction held by Acker Merrall & Condit (Asia) in Hong Kong on May 28.
Fruity Truffle
Robert Parker, publisher of the Wine Advocate, describes the 1959 Lafite in his 2003 edition of “Bordeaux” as having a “bouquet of flowers, black truffles, cedar, lead pencils and red fruits” followed on the palate by “one of the most powerful and concentrated Lafites I have tasted.”
The Mouton Rothschild is estimated to sell for as much as 20,000 pounds, 25 percent below the HK$317,200 paid for a similar case at the same Hong Kong sale, while Christie’s forecasts the Latour magnums may fetch as much as 45,000 pounds, more than double the HK$244,000 paid for a case of 12 bottles of similar wine at the Acker auction in May.
Other historic vintages on sale at Christie’s include two bottles of Mouton from 1900, each estimated to sell for as much as 400 pounds, and one bottle of Lafite from 1904, which may fetch 600 pounds.
Apart from claret, Christie’s is also offering 36 bottles of port from the immediate postwar years for a top estimated price of 25,000 pounds, comprising a case each of Croft 1945, Taylor 1948 and Graham 1948. According to Broadbent, the two vintages rank among the top 12 of the twentieth century.
Other ports on offer include four bottles classified as “believed Cockburn vintage 1908” and lacking labels. They carry a top price estimate of 1,200 pounds.
To contact the reporter on this story: Guy Collins in London on guycollins@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Beech on mbeech@bloomberg.net
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