Bottles of port, which were among the highlights of the wine sale
Auctioneers have toasted the success of a sale of vintage wines, champagnes and spirits, which produced hammer prices worth raising a glass to.
The most valuable single bottle of the sale – held at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on Friday, November 25 – proved to be a Chateau D’Yquem Lur-Saluces Sauternes 1983, for which £190 was bid.
In close second place was a bottle Krug & Co. Champagne Private Cuvée 1943, which achieved £180.
Other notable wines included a bottle Chateau La Tour Premier Grand Cru Classé Pauillac 1983, which achieved £100, and a bottle Chateau Margaux Premier Grand Cru Classé 1966, which was bought for £90.
The top single lot price was £860, paid for 12 bottles Quinta Do Noval Vintage Port 1963, produced to mark the 150th Anniversary of the shipper Antonio Jose Da Silva and bottled in 1965.
Twelve bottles of the renowned Cockburn’s Vintage Port 1963 were close behind at £800.
Sixteen bottles of Chateau Palmer Margaux 1966, shipped by Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd, sold in two lots of eight, made £720 per lot; and 21 bottles of Chateau Cos d’Estournel St. Estephe 1966, shipped by Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd, sold in three lots of seven, achieved £210, £220 and £210 respectively.
…whether the bidder dares to sample what the auction catalogue described as “an unidentified spirit bottle dated to the cap 1887 and bearing indistinct stamp,” remains to be seen.
There were some interesting bottles in the mixed lots. A case including a bottle Taylor’s Port 1963, a bottle J G F & S Vieux Cognac 1858, a bottle John Russell of Gravesend Fine Old Jamaica Rum, and a bottle Ellis & Co. Finest Old Jamaica Rum achieved £330, although whether the bidder dares to sample what the auction catalogue described as “an unidentified spirit bottle dated to the cap 1887 and bearing indistinct stamp,” remains to be seen.
And a century-old bottle of beer seems worthy of note: the bottle Bass & Co. King’s Ale, brewed on February 22, 1902, was snapped up for a fiver.
The sale , which started as a pre-Christmas coincidence three years ago – when a vendor asked the auctioneers to sell a large wine collection – has become a permanent and popular event in the Cirencester calendar, with the volume of wines and spirits being sold doubling year on year. This year more than 100 lots were offered for sale.
Auctioneer Philip Allwood said: “It was a buzzing sale with lots of buyers bidding over £70,000 on antiques, with the wine section adding significantly to that total.”
The sale was about more than wine, however. In the furniture section, a George III mahogany bachelor’s chest on bracket feet, described by Philip as “a lovely piece, but rough around the edges” made £720.
And with Remembrance Day still fresh in many minds, a large and varied collection of medals including three World War I medals – the 1914-18 British War Medal, Victory Medal and Territorial War Medal – a 1914 Star, a medal for War Service Mercantile Marine 1914-18, a Tibet 1903-04 medal, an Egypt 1882 Star, and a 1914 Iron Cross, made £480.