Kloster Eberbach auction makes $100k

The annual Rheingau auction made US$100,000 in total for a local children’s charity, where a bottle of Pinot Noir stole the show.

The cellars at Kloster Eberbach

A bottle of 1935 Assmanshäuser Höllenberg Spätburgunder was the top lot sold at the sale, making $2,500 and keeping pace with the sale’s more usual top lots of rare sweet wines.

Another bottle from 1935, this time a Rüdesheimer Hinterhaus Riesling Auslese, was also hotly contested, eventually achieving $1,650.

An 18-bottle lot of 1995 Hochheimer Domdechaney Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese made €2,880 ($3,060) while other lots included wines from the 1995, 1985 and 1975 vintages.

In total 33 lots were offered at the sale.

Founded in 1136 as a Cistercian monastery, Eberbach was confiscated from the church by Napoleon Bonaparte following the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806.

Like all ecclesiastical property it was sold to the highest bidder with Kloster Eberbach coming into the hands of the Dukes of Nassau who further developed the monks’ vineyards.

The monastery has been the property of the state of Hesse since 1945.