A US$20m cellar goes under the hammer at Acker Merrall & Condit next week.
The 11,474-bottle cellar goes on the block on 26-27 October: the Manhattan-based merchant’s auction department has taken full-page advertisements in The New York Times to trumpet ‘the most important wine auction of 2007.
As usual, the consignor – evidently a California collector – is not identified in the 248-page catalogue. John Kapon, Acker’s president and auction director, bills him as ‘The Man With the Golden Cellar.’
To underscore the package’s glamour Acker has shifted its sale from its customary venue, a wine-oriented restaurant called Cru, to Le Bernardin, in midtown, one of New York’s and America’s most deluxe restaurants.
The 1,959 lots, containing 674 magnums, are weightiest in red Burgundy, with 4,838 bottles offered, including 223 magnums, 11 jeroboams and two methuselahs.
Among them are 1,297 lots from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti going back to 1919; 649 from Leroy going back to 1937; 516 from Jayer dating to 1959; and 373 from Rousseau beginning in 1923.
The 2,079 bottles of white Burgundy contain a heady assortment from Coche-Dury, Leflaive, Niellon and Ramonet. Montrachet lovers will find 681 bottles.
The 2,598 bottles of Bordeaux include 991 from First Growths, 145 from Lafleur, 123 from Pétrus and 147 from Cheval Blanc.
Champagne dates to 1928; Vega Sicilia Unico to 1917; and Yquem, Port and Madeira to 1795.
Written by Howard G Goldberg in New York
