Chateau Lafleur Vintages From 1992 on Sale at Christie's H.K.

(Bloomberg) -- Vintages back to 1992 of Chateau Lafleur, a top producer from Bordeaux’s Pomerol district, go on sale at a Christie’s International wine auction in Hong Kong this month.

Many of the wines are in larger formats such as 1.5-liter magnums or three-liter double magnums, according to the auctioneer’s online catalog. Jacques Guinaudeau, Chateau Lafleur’s owner and the great-great grandson of its founder, told Bloomberg that his vineyard produced a run of great vintages in the mid-to-late 1980s, prior to a “more complex” period in the 1990s.

“There are very interesting wines” from a variety of years, said Guinaudeau, who has been making wine at Lafleur for more than three decades and whose ancestor Henri Greloud founded the estate in 1872. “The market has a tendency to simplify,” he said in an interview at Christie’s in London.

Three double-magnums of Lafleur’s 2009 vintage, considered one of the best in Bordeaux in the past decade, may fetch as much as HK$130,000 ($16,560), while six magnums from 2006 may sell for up to HK$55,000, with four bottles from 2000 potentially going for $50,000, according to Christie’s. A single magnum of the 1992 wine may sell for up to HK$4,500.

Lafleur has 4.5 hectares (11 acres) of vineyards in Pomerol, close to both Petrus and to Saint Emilion grower Chateau Cheval Blanc. The sale in Hong Kong takes place on May 26.

To contact the reporter on this story: Guy Collins in London at guycollins@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Merritt at dmerritt1@bloomberg.net, Paul Armstrong, Amy Teibel

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