Blue-chip wines from the cellar of Norwegian collector Christen Sveaas sold for over US$6.8m this weekend, setting a record for a Christie's wine sale in Los Angeles.

The 6,400-bottle sale at NYWines/Christie’s refurbished galleries took place on 3 November.

Sveaas, a businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist featured in Decanter magazine’s My Passion for Wine interview in November, said he would donate $1m of the proceeds to Elton John’s AIDS foundation in the UK.

Thirty 12-bottle cases of 1986 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild went for $288,000. A case of 1945 Latour made $126,000, narrowly overtaken by a case of d’Yquem from same vintage which sold for $132,000. Further highlights included a case of 1921 Cheval Blanc ($72,000) and a lone bottle of 1867 d’Yquem ($16,800).

Sveaas, who is an owner of Bagatelle, in Oslo – Norway’s only two-star Michelin restaurant – has provided many of the centerpieces crowning several stratospheric auctions in the past decade.

In 1997, a 19,000-bottle offering from the collector went for $11.3m at Christie’s in London. Two years later a 48,000-bottle consignment made $14.4m at the Sherry-Lehmann With Sotheby’s millennium sale.

Written by Howard G Goldberg in New York

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.