Decanter World Wine AwardsAncient bottle of Vin Jaune expected to fetch £30k
- Tuesday 1 May 2012
Vin Jaune: as enjoyed by Pasteur?
The rare single bottle of 1774 Vin Jaune from France's Jura region is expected to sell for between £27,220 and £34,025 (SFr.40,000-50,000) when it goes under the hammer next month at a Christie's auction in Geneva.
A traditional wine of the Jura region, located between Burgundy and Switzerland, this 87-centilitre bottle was part of a batch which had been kept intact for eight generations in a vaulted underground cellar in Arbois, the capital of Jura wines and the birthplace of the creator of modern oenology, Louis Pasteur.
According to the Christie's catalogue, legend has it that Pasteur enjoyed a bottle in 1882 from the same batch to celebrate his admittance to the Académie Française.
'Made to last centuries when of good quality, and nicknamed “the wine of kings and the king of wines”, this bottle of Vin Jaune is probably the oldest unfortified example of what is to be still an astounding wine and another true rarity for wine lovers and connoisseurs,’ said Michael Ganne, head of the Christie's Geneva wine sale, which is scheduled for 15 May.
The bottle will be sold among some other noteworthy wines, including a batch of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from 1945 and a 12-bottle lot of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche 1959.
Have your say!
Wink Lorch
May 01 23:11
Just for the record, Pasteur was not born in Arbois, but in Dôle, he did however live in Arbois at certain stages of his life and was very attached to the town, using the local wines for his experiments.
Perhaps more important to relate is that a 'sister' bottle of this very wine was sold at the annual auction of old Jura wines in Arbois during the Percée du Vin Jaune festival 2011 fetching a record €57,000. It will be interesting to see if the under-bidder of that auction, François Audouze, steps up to buy the bottle being sold in 2 weeks time in Geneva. The timing seems a little soon after the previous sale and after all, there is no real hurry for the wine to be drunk....