What do you do with thousands of leftover bottles of the world’s best wines? Turn them into water, of course.
The wines have been judged, the rewards published, and the party is next week – but there are still two more major events for the Decanter World Wine Awards.
Any wine competition ends up with hundreds of cases of unopened wine. Each entrant has to send in four bottles – one for the initial round, one in case of breakages or spoilage, and another two in case the wine gets through to the final rounds of the competition.
And Decanter has decided the best thing to do with the leftover wines – including some of the world’s greatest – is to team up with Christie’s to auction them and give the proceeds to charity.
The wine will be auctioned in cases from different regions of the world. Each case is a mixed case from the same region: for example, a case of Italian reds will be 12 different wines, as will a case of red Burgundy.
All proceeds will go to WaterAid, the charity which supplies clean water to the world’s poorest people. WaterAid is an international non-governmental organisation dedicated exclusively to the provision of domestic water, sanitation, and hygiene education across Africa and Asia.
There will be two sales: the first will take place at Christie’s in South Kensington on Monday 15 November, and the second sale will be on Saturday 20 November as part of the events which make up the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter.
Both sales will be conducted by David Elswood, head of Christie’s International Wine Department.
You do not have to attend the Decanter Fine Wine Encounter to take part in either auction.
For more information please contact Christie’s Wine Department 00 44 (0)20 7752 3101.
Written by Adam Lechmere
