FEATURES ARCHIVE

With two spectacular collections being offered in this season’s auction of Fine Wines, Christie’s Paris Wine Specialist, Oliver Wiseman, takes the opportunity to disclose the importance of obtaining a collection, how to care for it and how to realise its full potential.

Buying en primeur
“The two big collections in this sale come from two clients who caught the wine bug back in the early 1980s; they were both introduced to wine collecting, buying en primeur via friends and have since never looked back. Buying wine en primeur refers to the method of buying wine early, while a vintage is still in its barrel, enabling a buyer to invest in a particular wine before it is bottled. Both collectors have since forged good relationships with Bordeaux négociants (wine merchants) instilling their collections with excellent provenance.”

Professional cellarage
“In terms of storing a collection effectively, it is common nowadays, for many of our clients to use professional cellarage; they perhaps live in a flat or simply do not have enough room in their cellars. From one of the collections to be featured in the sale, the owner created his own cellar complete with air-conditioning and humidity control, fl attening his house, and then digging into the earth to construct a cellar to store his collection. I have also seen some incredible purpose-built cellars, the most remarkable of which was one I encountered in the south of France. It was a kind of Fort Knox for wine, reinforced concrete, thick metal bars, a highly complex alarm system, and a water evacuating system for over 5000 litres (it doesn’t rain so much there!).”

The perfect temperature
“Wine should be stored at a constant temperature of 12°C. Humidity is very important for wine storage as it slows down the evaporation process, keeping the corks moist. Ideally the humidity levels should be at a constant 70-80%. Obviously, too much humidity is great for the wine itself but awful for labels as they can become stained very easily. For instance, I went to a very humid natural cellar, with levels of around 90-95%, containing wines from the 1920s-1930s a few years ago. The ullage levels (which refer to the unfi lled air space at the top of a bottle of wine) were just incredible, wines of 70-80 years of age with levels around the base of the bottle-neck; however the labels were almost non-existent.

A rare opportunity
“The fact that the collections in this sale have rarely been moved is also an important factor to consider, they have never experienced fluctuations of temperature, nor excessive vibrations. In addition to the wide variety of remarkable wines, including ten cases of Château Pétrus, this sale marks a rare opportunity for the esteemed wine collector and connoisseur.”