Wirral Life September 2019 | Page 39

W L sugar, many tasters consider this wine totally extraordinary and unique in the world of wine. Despite its age, it is in spectacular form and utterly fascinating”. No wonder someone paid a fortune for six litres of the stuff! Château Lafite (1869) - But sip by sip, glass by glass, the 1947 Château Cheval Blanc did not match the HK$1.8 million ($230,000) per standard bottle achieved when a bottle of 1869 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong a short time later. In fact, an anonymous businessman purchased three bottles of this wine for the equivalent of $690,000. At today’s exchange rate we are talking about £188,000 a standard bottle – or about £37,500 a glass! According to various media sources the bottle was only expected to fetch $8,000! Again, this was purported to be an exceptional wine and, again, extraordinarily rare. The 1869 vintage of Château Lafite was also reported to be the first to be Château bottled and marked the first vintage when the estate was under the ownership of Baron James de Rothschild. For many reasons it was, therefore, one of the most iconic wines in the world – and with a story to go with it. Heidsieck (1907) – This champagne was destined for the Imperial Court of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, and was travelling on board a Swedish freighter in 1916 when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U - boat off the coast of Finland during WWI. The ship, and its cargo, were lost to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The wreckage was subsequently rediscovered a little more than 80 years later in 1998, some 63 metres or so below the surface. On board some 20,000 bottles of the sparkling wine were discovered. For more than 80 years the wine had remained undisturbed at the bottom of the sea, at six atmospheres of pressure, in near freezing temperatures and in darkness – the perfect resting place and storage conditions for champagne! And so it was that what became known as the famous 1907 Heidsieck & Co. Monopole Diamant Bleu “Shipwrecked” Champagne that came back into the world from the bottom of the sea. With its condition and historical significance, the bottles were sold off at numerous auctions, for various sums, but with one bottle fetching a whopping $275,000. Not a bad find at the bottom of the sea. Château Margaux & Château Lafite (1787) - These bottles of wine were purportedly two of the famous ‘Jefferson bottles’. The third President of the United states, Thomas Jefferson, was not only the primary author of the ‘Declaration of Independence’ but was known as one of the countries great, and probably first, wine connoisseurs. He was an avid oenophile and a wine collector of repute. When he was ambassador to France, and living in the country, he spent much of his time visiting the vineyards of Bordeaux and Burgundy and, upon his return to America, continued to order large quantities of Bordeaux wines for himself and for George Washington. He apparently stipulated that their respective shipments should be marked with their initials. In the 1980’s a number of wines were reportedly discovered behind a bricked-up cellar wall in an old building in Paris. On the bottles were found the names of a number of the most famous Bordeaux Châteaux - ‘Lafitte’, ‘D’Yquem, ‘Mouton’ and ‘Margaux’. The bottles were all etched with, and bore, the initials “Th.J.” In 1989 an American wine merchant was asked to try and sell one of the infamous ‘Jefferson bottles’; the 1787 Château Margaux. He had apparently been trying to sell it for in excess of some $500,000 but, having not sold it, took it to a Margaux wine tasting at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York (presumably to see if there was any interest). During the evening the bottle was accidently smashed. Fortunately, it was insured. The insurance pay out was $225,000. This wine was never actually, therefore, sold at all. However, another of the alleged collection of ‘Jefferson bottles’ that was sold at auction, at Christie’s in London in December 1985, was the 1787 Jefferson ‘Laffite’. The hammer came down at £105,000 (apparently the bidding started at £10,000). Château d'Yquem (1811) - This wine holds the record for being the most expensive white wine ever sold. It was purchased in 2011 by a French wine connoisseur, and private collector, for $117,000. It was then put on display in his restaurant, behind bullet proof glass, in Bali (although he did say he intended to drink it at some stage). Château d’Yquem is the world’s greatest, most esteemed, most famous and most highly sought after sweet wine and has the capacity to age for ever. It sits at the top of a hill near Sauternes in Bordeaux. As those film buffs amongst you may remember it is one of the delicacies enjoyed by Hannibal Lecter in the Thomas Harris novels. From a historic point of view the 1811 d’Yquem was made during the Napoleonic wars and in the year of the great comet. It is renowned as the most famous of the ‘comet vintages’ (years in which an astronomic event has occurred before harvest). It was also only produced in small quantities. Ten barrels only were produced – equating to some 3,000 bottles. Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon (1992) - Perhaps slightly different for many reasons, but nonetheless worthy of mention. Charity is a place where expensive wines can become even more expensive. The annual Auction Napa Valley is often such a place and not infrequently sees records being smashed. So it was with this wine. No particular history, a fairly young wine, but an iconic wine from one of North America’s most iconic wineries purchased for charity. This Imperial (six litre bottle) fetched $500,000. Those of you who read Wirral Life magazine regularly will know that when I talk about individual wines, I will invariably add a tasting note. Such tasting notes are always based on my own tasting of the wine in question. Alas, this month there are no tasting notes. I have never tasted any of the wines that feature in this month’s article and, sadly, am never likely to. Notwithstanding I do have an interest in watching the fine wine market and at the sort of astronomical prices that some wines can fetch. So why is it that some wines fetch such huge sums of money? What makes the world's most expensive wines so expensive? The first thing to say is that expensive wines normally cost more to make than inexpensive wines. Yet this cannot come close to explaining the discrepancy between that which it costs to produce a wine and the amount that someone is willing to pay for it. The truth is that there are a number of factors that play a part in explaining this discrepancy. Firstly prestige. It is no surprise to find that all of the worlds most expensive wines come from the most prestigious producers and vineyards in the world. Secondly scarcity, rarity and collectability. Like anything else – if there aren’t many about and you are a collector; you want it. Of course age plays a factor here to – the older the wine, the less there will be around. Thirdly, history or something that perhaps makes the wine a novelty in some way (the ‘shipwrecked’ Hiedsieck and the ‘Jefferson bottles’ perhaps being the prime examples of how this factor can drive prices up). Fourthly provenance. This can really drive price up and it is not unusual in the wine world to see big sums paid for prestigious wines with perfect provenance. Fifthly, and perhaps most importantly, you have to have someone who has the money to spend. It seems that there are plenty of such people out there. Ultimately a bottle of wine is as expensive as the amount someone is willing to pay for it - so I suppose exactly the same as with many other luxury and highly sought after commodities like fine art, vintage cars and antiques. How long will it be before a bottle of wine fetches $1,000,000? Who knows; but it seems highly possible that it will happen at some stage in the future. What we do know, however, is that really prestigious wines continue to sell for higher and higher prices. I suspect, one way or another, that the ‘sky’ really is the limit. wirrallife.com 39