Sotheby’s offers taste of Krug 1915 Champagne for $15,000

Wealthy wine lovers will be given the chance to taste 100-year-old Krug 1915 vintage Champagne at a Sotheby's New York auction this September.

Bidding for a two-day tasting at Krug cellars in Champagne will begin at $15,000, Sotheby’s said.

The LVMH owned Champagne house has promised to uncork one of only four remaining bottles of Krug 1915 vintage in its cellars, as part of a tasting that will encompass Krug vintages spanning the past 100 years.

Sotheby’s’ auction, to be held on 25 September, comes amid higher interest in vintage Champagne among the world’s wealthiest wine lovers.

Olivier Krug will lead the tasting and there will also be a vineyard tour that is to include some of the history of the 1915 vintage in Champagne – which took place during World War One.

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Reims, the capital of the Champagne region, was only around 1.2km from the front line and the city was subjected to 1,151 days of heavy artillery bombardment during the war, which lasted from September 1914 to 11 November 1918.

Champagne from the WW1 era has previously sold well at Sotheby’s. In November 2013, the auction house sold three, two-bottle lots of Moet & Chandon 1914 vintage Champagne for almost £25,000.

Last year, London auction house Bonhams sold a single bottle of Pol Roger 1914 vintage Champagne for £5,640.

Champagne’s wartime harvests were largely carried out by women, because most men of working age had either been called up to fight, or had already been killed or injured in battle.