Sotheby’s sale tops £1m

Sotheby’s latest fine wine auction in London exceeded its pre-sale estimate by a comfortable margin with Burgundy leading the way.

The sale on Wednesday 17 May made over £1 million in total, against a high estimate of £808,450.

The top lot was a mixed case of 2009 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, which, at £54,050, went for almost double its high-estimate.

The top-selling lots were almost entirely dominated by wines from DRC (including cases and large formats from La Tâche and Romanée-Conti spanning 1990, 1996, 2000 and 2010) and six bottles of 2005 Chambertin from Armand Rousseau; the only exceptions being two cases of 2000 Mouton Rothschild, which went for £15,275 and £14,688 apiece.

Head of Sotheby’s Wine, Europe, Stephen Mould, commented: “Wines from Rousseau, Roumier and Coche-Dury also achieved stellar prices while Bordeaux performed strongly against the backdrop of the promising 2016 vintage unveiled at this year’s en primeur campaign.

“Overall we saw excellent results, with a £1 million sale total exceeding pre-sale expectations, and the lead collection of Burgundy, Bordeaux and Rhône ascending to £640,000, 25% over the high estimate.  This augurs well for the Don Stott Part III sale in New York on Saturday and our Finest and Rarest sale on 14 June.”