Christie’s wraps up £3m London extravaganza

Auctioneer Christie’s latest London sale realised over £3.5 million over two days, with one standout single owner collection being entirely sold alongside ex-cellar Champagne from Philipponnat, Jacques Selosse and others.

Held over 5-6 June, the sale realised £3,575,983m (US$4.6m) with the majority coming from a single owner collection of fine Bordeaux, Burgundy and Italian wines which was a ‘white glove’ sale meaning it was 100% sold by lot and value.

The collection’s leading lot was a six-bottle case of 1990 La Tâche from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti which realised £55,125, closely followed by a case of 1990 Le Pin at £49,000.

In the rest of the sale, top prices were also paid for cases of 1990s era Armand Rousseau, Roumier and 1980s vintage La Mission Haut-Brion and Petrus, while a bottle of 1847 Yquem went for £42,875.

Ex-cellar Champagne from Philipponnat, Henri Giraud, Bruno Paillard and Jacques Selosse made up a central part of the second day of the sale.

The leading lot from this section were six magnums of Philipponnat’s 1951 Clos des Goisses which achieved £36,750.

A further £29,400 was paid for 10 magnums of Selosse’s 1976 Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs and £18,375 for 14 magnums of the 1999 Grand Cru Extra Brut.

Interestingly there did not seem much interest in some of the rare Scotch and Japanese whisky on offer, much of which went unsold but there was palpable interest in some incredibly old Cognac with two bottle of Clos du Griffier 1788 going for £23,275 apiece

And bottles from 1811, 1815, 1820, 1830, 1834, 1878 making £2,695 each, while some bottles of Caves de Papillon Royal Bois de Roulage Nature from 1850 went for £5,513 each.

Unfortunately, two bottles of wine from the 17^th century that were salvaged from a shipwreck failed to find buyers this time.