Lafleur '82 Magnums Fetch More Than $12,000 Each at Sotheby's
Six magnums of rare Chateau Lafleur 1982 wine fetched more than $12,000 each,
(Bloomberg) -- Six magnums of rare Chateau Lafleur 1982 wine from the Pomerol region fetched 54,970 pounds ($77,095), or more than $12,000 each, as a selection of historic Bordeaux vintages dating as far back as 1909 went under the hammer at a Sotheby’s auction in London this week.
A lot comprising 34 bottles of all sizes of Chateau Montrose 2010 from Saint Estephe, ranging from 0.375-liter half-bottles to an 18-liter Melchior, sold for 38,240 pounds, while 10 bottles of Petrus 1988 fetched 20,315 pounds and five bottles of the same producer’s 1989 vintage sold for 14,340 pounds, according to an emailed Sotheby’s statement.
The sale took place as the attention of collectors is starting to focus on the 2017 Bordeaux vintage being shown to merchants and the wider wine trade this month, prior to going on sale as en primeur futures for delivery in two years. The arrival of a new vintage on the market can divert attention from older wines, although the auction season follows a cycle of its own.
“Bordeaux dominated the results,” Stephen Mould, Sotheby’s head of wine for Europe, said in the statement. The price for the Lafleur ’82 top lot, which beat its pre-sale estimate, reflected its “impeccable provenance,” he said.
Prices for leading Bordeaux wines are rebounding after falling 40 percent from a 2011 peak before leveling out. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 Index is now up more than 30 percent from the floor it reached in 2015.
The sale included 12 bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2000, which fetched 13,145 pounds, and six bottles of the same estate’s 1982 wine, which sold for 11,711 pounds. Four bottles of Petrus 1982 attracted a bid of 11,950 pounds.
A dozen bottles of Chateau d’Yquem 1967 sweet white dessert wine sold for 11,711 pounds, while six bottles of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2000 went for 10,994 pounds and six magnums of Chateau Cheval Blanc from Saint Emilion cost 10,755 pounds.
The sale, on April 18, totaled 1.05 million pounds, and further auctions were scheduled for New York this weekend and London on May 16.
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, Steve Geimann, Dylan Griffiths
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