A 105-lot collection from the cellars Earl Spencer - the brother of the late Princess of Wales - fetched over £100,000 (€150,000) at Sotheby’s yesterday.
The wines, mainly a collection of vintage claret, Champagne, Port and Madeira, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London yesterday morning.
According to the auction house, the reasons for the sale of ‘a great collection’ were to make space in the Althorp Park estate cellar.
The present Earl’s father developed the collection, of which the oldest bottle on sale was a Cama de Lobos Madeira dated 1789. Other lots of interest included 8 bottles of 1924 Château Haut-Brion (the chateau was a favourite of the family, according to the auction house), three magnums of Calon-Ségur 1945, a mixed lot of Château d’Yquem from 1935, ‘50 and ’61, a mixed lot of Krug champagne from ’52, ’73 and ’79, and six 12-bottle cases of vintage Port from 1963.
The highlight of the sale was a six-magnum lot of 1989 Pétrus which went for £9,775 (€14,633).
The restaurant, once regarded as New York’s finest French establishment, opened in 1961 and served its last meal on Valentine’s Day this year. The 90 lots up for auction include bottles of Château Cos d’Estournel 1887, Lafite-Rothschild 1914, Haut-Brion ’82, and Vega Sicilia ’70.
It is too late, however, to snap up some of the highlights of the wine list. When clearing out the cellars, Christie’s came across empty bottles of Pétrus ’61, a magnum of Mouton ’45 and a jeroboam of 1966 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
‘There were dusty empty bottles all over the cellar which told of dinners past,’ said the Christie’s catalogue.
Written by Oliver Styles
