Fifty cases of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1982 have been sold for over $1m in New York, in what Sotheby’s claims is a new record for a single lot at auction.

The lot, going for a groundbreaking sum of US$1,051,600, was part of a consignment from Park B. Smith, one of America’s major wine collectors, and was sold on 18 November by Aulden Cellars/Sotheby’s in New York.

Smith had bought the cases of pristine Mouton from Christie’s in New York for $420,500 in 1997. At that time, they were estimated at $350,000- $420,000.

Jamie Ritchie, senior vice president of Sotheby’s US wine department, said of the $1,051,600 price, ‘I’ve been in the auction business for 15 years, and I have never heard of a lot going for that sum.’

Ritchie said that Sotheby’s could not find a published record of a higher single-lot sum, but conceded that it could exist.

A European telephone bidder won the super-lot after battling others, including one competitor in the room.

Smith’s total 14,000-bottle consignment, initially estimated at $3.1m-$4.8m, brought $5,328,833. He is donating the proceeds to his alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to which he has already donated more than $20m.

Smith, who made his fortune in the textile business, contributed part of his holdings to the cellar of Veritas, a wine-orientated Manhattan restaurant that he and others opened in 1999. Its wine list is 64 pages long.

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.