Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent co-founder, wine auction
Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent co-founder.
(Image credit: Matthieu Riegler / Wikipedia)

The co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Bergé, is to auction his private cellar of fine wines, including a jeroboam of Château Climens 1921, several bottles of Château Haut-Brion 1945 and shipwrecked Champagne, plus bottles from many other top French estates.

The 3,000 bottle, private cellar of Pierre Bergé, who was also the life partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, contains a host of old vintages from top French producers.

A bottle of Heidsieck Monopole ‘Goût Américain’ (‘American Taste’) Champagne from 1907 is expected to top the sale, with an estimate of €5,000.

Among the other highlights are a rare Jeroboam of Château Climens 1921, a bottle of Château Lafite-Rothschild 1895, three bottles of Château Haut-Brion 1945, six bottles of Château Ausone 1937 and two bottles of Bollinger RD 1961.

The Burgundy region will be represented by 12 bottles of Bonne Mares Comte de Vogüe 1989, nineteen bottles of Domaine de la Romanée Conti (DRC) Echézeaux 1990, two bottles of DRC Grands Echézeaux 1961, eleven bottles of DRC Richebourg 1989, and twelve bottles of DRC La Tâche 1996.

Also from Bordeaux, the cellar contains eight bottles of Ausone 1959, three magnums of Haut-Brion 1953 and a double magnum of Haut-Brion 1959, six bottles of Latour 1959 and two jeroboams of Mouton-Rothschild, from 1975 and 1978.

Champagne will be notably represented by two bottles of Bollinger RD 1961 (disgorged on 15 April 1969), two magnums of Dom Pérignon 1975, and five bottles of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 1961.

The Heisdsieck Monopole 1907 comes from a shipwreck.

In 1916, Heidsieck Monopole shipped 3,000 bottles to the Imperial Russian Army, aboard the schooner Jönköping. But, on 3 November 1916, the Jönköping was attacked and sunk by a German submarine. In July 1998, at the eastern point of the Baltic Sea, a Swedish submarine expedition found the wreck of the Jönköping at a depth of 300 ft and succeeded in salvaging 2,400 bottles.

Pierre Bergé is the former managing director of Maison Yves Saint Laurent.

Yohan Castaing
Yohan Castaing
Decanter Magazine and DWWA Judge

Bordeaux native Yohan Castaing is a freelance journalist, based in France. He reviews wines from the Loire, Languedoc, Roussillon, Provence, southwest France and Champagne houses for The Wine Advocate. He founded Anthocyanes, a French wine guide, and Velvety Tannins, a guide to the wines of the Rhône Valley. He also writes for wine publications including Gault&Millau and Jancis Robinson. Castaing has held a variety of positions in the wine industry such as wine buyer and marketing director. He was a wine marketing consultant and the author of several books about wine marketing and wine tourism before, in 2011, he became a full-time freelance wine journalist focusing on the industry and wine reviews.