The Harrods sale is a New Year's institution but few people will know that the best bargain is to be found in the wine department.
Harrods wine department, located at the lower ground level, is selling half bottles of the legendary Chateau Le Pin 1982 for a snip at £999 (US$1,834) each – or US$145 per fl/oz.
The 37.5cl bottles from the Pomerol, Bordeaux property, originally priced at £1,750 ($3,214), are understood to be part of one or several 24-bottle cases purchased by Harrods in the early 1990s.
It is unlikely that the half-bottles have been flying off the shelves despite the excellent vintage for Pomerol in 1982.
'The margins are not very good for selling those kinds of half bottles,' one London merchant said, adding that the combined popularity of the vintage and the size of the bottles would greatly lessen the number of prospective buyers.
'The original price also seems somewhat inflated,' she said, pointing out that a single bottle of the same would go for around £2,500 ($4,595).
How Harrods came to acquire the bottles is not known but it is likely to have been part of an allocation deal with the château or a négociant in order to secure some of the more profitable wines.
Le Pin 1982 sells at auction for between £15,000 and £16,000 per 12-bottle case.
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