A cache of Krug Champagne and the lure of a private blending session with international consultant Michel Rolland helped the annual Naples Winter Wine Festival auction to raise $12m.
Top lot included a trip to Krug’s cellars and vineyards.
Dozens of bottles of Krug, including six bottles of the sought-after Clos du Mesnil from the 1998, 2000 and 2003 vintages, were sold alongside a visit for two couples to the Champagne house’s cellars for a total $500,000.
The lot, named ‘you’ve been Krug’d’, also includes lunch with a Krug winemaker and a night in Paris.
It was the top lot in the annual auction at the Naples festival in Florida. Proceeds go to charity and the auction is known for its glitz and glamour, with cars, luxury jet travel and tickets to the Golden Globes awards all offered to the highest bidder.
The second highest selling wine lot at the 2015 auction was ‘the realm of possibility’, which sold for $360,000 and included an entire barrel of Realm Cellars’ ‘Beckstoffer To Kalon’ Cabernet Sauvignon from the upcoming 2015 harvest in Napa Valley.
It also included a blending session in Napa Valley with Michel Rolland – the Bordeaux-based winemaker who consults to estates around the world.
Other popular wine lots were ‘the undiscovered county’, which consisted of five six-litre bottles and 20 magnums of Promontory, a Cabernet-based blend from the eponymous winery founded by William Harlan, of Harlan Estate. The lot, which sold for $300,000, also included dinner with the Harland family.
A lot named ‘a Spanish affair’ consisting of a five-litre bottle of Numanthia 2009, as well as a tour of the Bodega Numanthia estate in Castille-Leon and three nights in the Ritz-Carlton in Madrid, sold for $200,000.
In total, the Naples 2015 auction fetched $12.1m. In 2014, auction sales totalled $13.5m.
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Written by Chris Mercer
