Renowned Australian wine critic James Halliday is putting over 250 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines from his private cellar up for auction, including bottles of La Tâche 1973 and 1999, and a bottle of Romanée-Conti 1973, which are expected to fetch AU$10,000-$12,000 (£5,389-£6,467) each.
Halliday’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti collection is valued at over AU$1,000,000 (£540,000), and includes 253 bottles of wine from the revered Burgundian producer. The online auction of this DRC treasure trove – which opens on 30th May and runs until 28th June – will be the biggest of its kind in Australian history.
‘I have been incredibly lucky and privileged to have been able to create this collection and its antecedents,’ Halliday told Decanter.com. ‘The collection has been evolving continuously over the last 30 plus years. As I finish the oldest DRC wines they are replaced by the newest. It is dynamic and ever close to my heart and, as I grow older, the allocation has always had the joy of renewal’.
His private wine cellar, which has been off limits until now, includes an incredible collection of wines from Australia and Burgundy.
‘I have been collecting – and consuming – wine for over 60 years, initially with a focus on Australian wine, then expanding to experience and gradually understand the great wines of the world. I’m looking forward to sharing these incredible wines with other enthusiasts,’ said Halliday, who hopes the sale of these rare wines will offer opportunities for the wine lovers around the world to start or add to their collections.
Later this year Halliday will release a selection of Australian wines from his cellar for auction, but for now the 250+ lots are all from DRC with prices starting at AU$2,000 (£1,077) per bottle, with an average estimated price of AU$4,000 (£2,155).
Single bottle lots
Wines from the collection will offered in single bottle lots and the auction and full sales catalogue go live on 30th May, concluding on 28th June at 7pm (AEST) via private brokerage house Langton’s.
Each of the wines going under the hammer will also come with a certificate of authenticity from Langton’s, personally signed by James Halliday.
‘We are privileged to be selling Australia’s most significant cellar at auction. The wines have incredible provenance, purchased directly from DRC, and have been kept in immaculate cellaring conditions in James Halliday’s private cellar,’ said Langton’s Head of Auctions Tamara Grischy.
‘The wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti are the absolute zenith of the wine world, and are in essence magical. The demand vastly exceeds the supply,’ added Grischy.
Exclusive interviews
When the auction commences two exclusive video interviews with James Halliday will be available on the Langton’s website, where Halliday discusses his collection of DRC wines and explains why he has chosen to let go of it, and chats about his shared love of Pinot Noir – and DRC in particular – with winemaker Tom Carson from Mornington Peninsula’s Yabby Lake.
