FEATURES ARCHIVE

The first Finest and Rarest Wines sale in Amsterdam took place in December 2007 and are now a bi-annual event with sales taking place in May and December. Wines are specifically selected for these sales and are sourced primarily from private collections from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Finest and Rarest wine sales have for many years been a highlight of the international wine department’s sales calendar. The sales showcase the very best of the wines that are offered at auction and are an ideal forum for the collector to build up their wine cellar with rarities.

The first Finest and Rarest sale for 2010 will take place on 26 May. The bulk of the sale is made up of an excellent collection of claret, Rhône, super Tuscans and Burgundy. The vendor, a long-standing client of Christie’s, has built up a remarkable collection and is now selling a part just to make some space in his cellar.

The main feature is a marvelous array of different large format bottles from a wide range of Châteaux and vintages. Fine wine is best shared amongst like-minded individuals, and there is something quite spectacular about serving a large bottle of wine. The bottle occupies centre stage and the whole process of removing the cork and serving the wine is a major operation, especial when imperials are involved.  It’s also fascinating to compare the development of a particular wine in large format with the same from a regular bottle.  Large format bottle mature slower than the standard size and the inevitably begs the question – which size is optimal? Magnum, double magnum or jeroboam?  The discussion is endless. If I could chose an example of each bottle size for myself from this collection, I’d go for a magnum of 1996 Lafite-Rothschild,  1986 Pichon-Lalande in double-magnum, a jeroboam of 1995 Mouton-Rothschild and another Pichon-Lalande in imperial, this time the outstanding 1996.

We are also delighted to be offering wines from the collection of the late Hans Jorrissen. Hans Jorrissen was a noted expert on German wines and Tokaji. We achieved record prices in December 2008 when we auctioned his collection of rare Tokaji, and now we will be offering a selection of rare Bordeaux and German wines including Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese of the outstanding 1976 vintage.

Sticking with the German theme, an excellent collection of Mosel wines will also go under the hammer.  The wines all come from the very best producers: Egon Muller, J J Prum, von Schubert and Fritz Haag and the provenance is outstanding – all the wines were purchased in our sale in Amsterdam in March 2006 and the then owner had bought the wines either directly from producers or from the famous Grosser Ring auction, held annually in Trier, Germany.

The final lot to highlight is a rare Methuselah of 1990 Louis Roederer Cristal. Louis Roederer produced just 2000 of these 6 litre bottles especially for the Millenium celebrations. It is a unique bottling and now, ten years on, the number of bottles still in existence is considerably less. This is a bottle that really will make an impression.