Sotheby’s and Christie’s announce April sales

“Benchmark” claret and rare brandies marking the election of the first 39 US presidents will lead Sotheby’s and Christie’s respective sales in London and New York this April.

Sotheby’s sale on 13 April will feature a “superb collection” of claret from the 1980s and 1990s, featuring 1990 La Mission Haut-Brion, 1995 Mouton Rothschild, 1996 Haut-Brion, 1986 Pichon Comtesse de Lalande and 1998 Latour and Lynch Bages among much more.

Furthermore, the sale includes Sassicaia from 1995-2002, Burgundy from De Vogüé, Anne Gros, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, J-F Mugnier and Armand Rousseau as well as Champagne in the form of Bollinger Grande Année, Dom Pérignon Rosé, Salon and 1953 Krug.

Meanwhile, in New York on 16 April Christie’s will likewise auction a collection of fine and rare wines but the sale’s real focus is a collection of spirits, made up of Cognac and Armagnac, each dating to a term of a US president from George Washington to Jimmy Carter.

The collection, entitled ‘The Old Liquors American Presidents Collection’, was consigned by a Mr B van der Bunt and features 39 bottles of vintage Cognac and Armagnac spanning 1789 to 1977.

Particular highlights are a Couvoisier 1884, Marnier-Lapostolle 1865, Bisquit-Dubouché 1858 and Meukow 1842. The bottle marking George Washington’s tenure as president, which began in 1789, is labeled simply as ‘Grand Champagne Cognac’.