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Christie's sets new record - for a case of Hermitage
September 21, 2007
Lucy Shaw
Christies London has set a new European auction record for a case of wine - 12 bottles of Hermitage La Chapelle 1961 which sold for a record-breaking £123,750 - over £10,000 a bottle.
This smashes the auction house's previous record set in June 2006 when 12 bottles of 1978 Romanee-Conti from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti fetched £93,500.
The Finest and Rarest Wine auction, held on 20 September, made £1,794,397, selling 95% of lots offered.
A single bottle of Hermitage La Chapelle 1937 netted £5,500, while a second case of Hermitage La Chapelle 1961 sold for £112,500, making the £22,000 paid for 12 bottles of 1961 Château Mouton Rothschild appear modest in comparison.
'A single case of the famed 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle set a world auction record for a case of wine from the Rhone, illustrating the continued ascent of Rhone in the international wine markets', said Chris Munro, Christie's director of wine.
The world record for a case of wine is currently held by Christie's Los Angeles, which in September last year sold six magnums of Mouton Rothschild 1945 for $345,000 (£172,000).
The most expensive wine ever remains the – now notorious – single bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite from the cellar of Thomas Jefferson, which sold at Christie's London in December 1985 for £105,000.
Other notable one-bottle lots include a magnum of Hermitage La Chapelle 1961, which made £16,080 at Christies Geneva in May 2007, and a bottle of 1811 Chateau d'Yquem, which sold at Christie's London in November 2005 for £18,700.
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 In February of 1999 I tasted this wine for the only time out of Magnum from the collection of Park B Smith, co-owner of Veritas in New York City. I scored a half of a glass in the general chaos and euphoria following the announcement of Veritas' 3 star review from Ruth Reichl of the New York Times.
For some reason, I couldn't drink it right away and secreted it to a safe place. One hour later, I was struck by a strange musky scent of Valencia orange. Heady and intoxicating like the scent of a woman you shouldn't be talking to but can't help it. All from that one glass. Unforgettable. Richard Shipman, Southern Wines and Spirits
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