Venerable bottles of Bordeaux and Burgundy and other rare wines come under the hammer in an auction set to make up to US$5m this Saturday in New York.

In what shapes up to be one of the season’s top auctions, Aulden Cellars/Sotheby’s is offering a single-owner cellar on 20 May that could fetch $3. 5 to $5 million (excluding buyers’ fees).

To signal the value of the 1,219-lot sale, billed as The Magnificent Cellar of Russell H Frye, Sotheby’s has bound the catalogue in hardcover.

Frye, who lives in Massachusetts and Florida, specializes in technology startups. A software company he founded, Frye Computer Systems, is now part of Symantec.

Serena Sutcliffe MW, head of Sotheby’s Worldwide Wine Department, writes in the catalogue that Frye was a customer when Sotheby’s began its Manhattan wine auctions (with Sherry-Lehman) in 1994.

‘This is one of the most scintillating collections of wines that I have ever seen,’ Sutcliffe says. ‘It is international and eclectic, classic and modern, blue chip and state of the art.’

The 8,500-plus bottles include Lafite from 1865 to 2000, Latour from 1928 to 2000, Margaux from 1900 to 2000, Pétrus from 1947 to 2000, Le Pin from 1982 to 2000, Romanée-Conti from 1929 to 1996, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet from 1982 to 1995 and Ramonet Montrachet from 1978 to 1999, Ridge Montebello cabernet sauvignon from 1963 to 1997 and a bottle of 1941 Inglenook cabernet.

Written by Howard G Goldberg in New York

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Howard G Goldberg
Howard G Goldberg
Decanter Magazine, Food & Wine Writer

Howard G Goldberg is a wine writer and critic based in New York City. He made his name writing about wine for The New York Times, where he worked for 34 years. He has written various books on food and wine, including Prime: The Complete Prime Rib Book and All About Wine Cellars. He compiled The New York Times Book of Wine – a collection of the publication’s best wine articles.