Christie’s wine department celebrates 60 years with the collection of a prestigious American connoisseur

In 1766, Christie’s namesake James Christie conducted his first auction. Offering the property of ‘A Noble Personage’ out of his saleroom on London’s Pall Mall, the contents included ‘a large Quantity of Maderia and high Flavour’d Claret.’ Surviving ledgers show that bottles were offered in groups of either three or 12 dozen, and every single lot sold.

Exactly 200 years later, in 1966, Michael Broadbent established Christie’s first dedicated wine department. The job saw him sample more fine wines than anyone else in the world, penning nearly 100,000 tasting notes, indexing each one by its date, appearance, nose and taste.

‘I first met Michael in 1997,’ says Chris Munro, Senior Vice President of Christie’s wine department in New York. ‘He was the authority. If you had a question about an old wine, he was the person you went to. He would spend time with you and talk you through his mountains of knowledge. He was a great resource and set the path for others to follow.’

In 2016, to celebrate the department’s 50th anniversary, Broadbent and Munro worked together on a sale of over 800 lots from the legendary cellars of the Avery family, whom the critic Jancis Robinson once described as ‘the most respected independent wine merchants in Britain — if not the world.’ It raised over £2 million.

This year, Christie’s is marking the department’s 60-year milestone with a global celebration. On 10 October, Christie’s Hong Kong sold the legendary cellar of Henry Tang. And on 23 October, to mark the department’s 60-year milestone, Christie’s New York is offering another iconic collection: The Distinguished Cellar of an American Connoisseur.

This collection’s owner began buying wine from Christie’s in the 1990s, working with Broadbent and the team to acquire superlative vintages from across the Old and New Worlds. ‘He was fastidious in his approach, documenting the provenance of each wine,’ Munro explains. ‘He bid in some of the most important sales of the 20th century, acquiring wine from highly respected collections, titans of industry and vineyards’ own cellars.’

The cellar at its peak was much larger, but remained highly focused and curated around older great vintages and wines of impeccable provenance. A set of menus from meals he hosted reveal how they were shared. One historic dinner paired 10 dishes with the same number of French wines all from 1959, one of the country’s greatest vintages. Among the pairings were Ahi tuna tartar served with Dom Pérignon, grilled venison with Château Haut-Brion, braised beef short ribs with Château Mouton Rothschild, and Carles Roquefort cheese with Château d’Yquem.

The cellar’s remaining 1,700 plus bottles are now coming to auction. ‘This is one of the most celebrated cellars we’ve offered in recent memory,’ says Munro. Below, he shares six highlights from the collection.

In 1945, Château Mouton Rothschild was still classified as a ‘second growth’ Bordeaux. But after late frosts followed by a hot, dry summer, the estate’s 51 hectares of vines produced the finest wine of the vintage — and one of the most fabled wines ever made.

Just under 75,000 bottles were created. Broadbent tasted it more than 20 times over the course of 40 years. ‘Simply unmistakable,’ is how he summarised it. ‘The power and spiciness surge out of the glass like a sudden eruption of Mount Etna: cinnamon, eucalyptus, ginger… Impossible to describe but inimitable, incomparable,’ he said.

Each bottle was adorned with a label commissioned by Baron Philippe de Rothschild that commemorated the Allied victory in World War II, and his own return to the Château following exile in England. ‘This is considered by many to be the best Bordeaux in history,’ says Munro. ‘It also represents the pinnacle of this collector’s 40-year journey with wine.’

After the Second World War, Ronald Avery and Harry Waugh became the first merchants to introduce British collectors to a little-known château from Pomerol called Petrus. Initially, no one was interested, but today it’s one of Bordeaux’s most in-demand bottles.

The 11.5 hectares of vineyards are known for their distinctive sticky clay soil. That unique soil produces complex and powerful wines, which achieve levels of aromatic complexity and silky textures not found anywhere else.

The 1982 vintage is a standout, beautifully balanced and with an extraordinary capacity for aging, says Munro. ‘It’s so rare to see a full case of Petrus from any vintage of this era. This dozen was bought on late release, then shipped straight from Bordeaux to the collector’s cellar. They’ve remained there ever since, so have had just one owner. If you want a great Pomerol from the 1980s, Petrus 1982 is probably the best, and you can’t find many better examples than this original wooden case.’

Since the 13th century, the slopes of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s vineyards have been producing wines so exquisite that the estate has come to be known simply as ‘The Domaine’. The Grand-Cru Romanée-Conti is its flagship: It was praised as far back as 1780, when the Archbishop of Paris compared it to ‘velvet and satin in bottles.’ Similarly, Broadbent called Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s’s wines ‘an iron fist in a velvet glove,’ also noting that the 1999 vintage of Romanée-Conti is ‘a must.’

Only 1.8 hectares of pinot noir vines produce Romanée-Conti in extremely limited quantities. The 1999 vintage consisted of less than 7,000 bottles. ‘This is a very rare three-bottle set of a fabulous vintage by the most famous vineyard in the world,’ says Munro. ‘It’s still in its original wooden case and in fantastic condition. I think this is one to keep — it will last for years.

Domaine Leflaive produces some of the world’s finest white wine from their mineral-driven vineyards in the Côte de Beaune. The estate covers nearly 25 hectares, mainly in and around Puligny-Montrachet — fully 5.1 hectares of which lie in four Grand Cru vineyards. Burgundy has only 33 such Grand Cru vineyards, which together account for less than two per cent of the region’s output.

Chevalier-Montrachet occupies the steep, stony slope about Montrachet, and the Domaine owns just under two hectares of it. The 1989 vintage comes from the last year before the legendary vintner Vincent Leflaive — who along with his brother established the domaine’s reputation — passed control to his daughter, Anne-Claude Leflaive, and her cousin, Olivier Leflaive.

‘This is a wine that has become exceptional over time,’ says Munro. ‘To find two full cases of any Domaine Leflaive wine from the late 1980s is already extremely uncommon. But uncovering two full cases of Chevalier Montrachet 1989 in this condition is almost unheard of.’

Only around 2,500 bottles of Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Ermitage Cuvée Cathelin were produced in 1991, meaning these six bottles account for around 1/400th of the total production.

‘I only ever see single bottles of this vintage. Incredibly, these six bottles are still in their original wooden case,’ says Munro. ‘It’s a truly great wine from one of the top producers of the Rhône.’

Jean-Louis Chave is the 16th-generation owner of his family’s domaine of the same name, which can trace its roots back to 1481. It covers around 15 hectares of vineyards in the northern Rhône’s prized appellation of Hermitage.

The estate’s ultra-rare Cuvée Cathelin made its debut in 1990. Produced entirely from Syrah grapes from its Les Bessards parcel, and matured for extended periods in new French oak, it’s only created in selected vintages, and always strictly limited to just 200 cases. As a result, it’s achieved cult status among connoisseurs.

Repeating his father’s success with Petrus, in 1966 John Avery became the first wine merchant to import Penfolds to the UK. Three years earlier, on a trip to America, he had discovered the talent of Californian winemakers. At a tasting to showcase their wines, he was the first person to describe them as ‘New World’ vineyards.

In 1965 he travelled to Australia. Journalists at the airport asked his views on local wine and were met with the response ‘I haven’t had a good one yet’. His mind was changed, though, by Penfolds, which has been producing wine on the outskirts of Adelaide since the 19th century.

Grange — Penfolds’ flagship wine — was inspired by winemaker Max Schubert’s visit to Bordeaux. He wanted to create a similar wine with Shiraz grapes, and in 1951 made the first, experimental vintage; the first commercial vintage was made in 1952. The 1966 vintage had a dry growing season, followed by a warm, near-ideal harvest. It was made from 88 per cent shiraz and 12 per cent cabernet sauvignon grapes, then aged for 18 months in new American oak. It won four gold medals at Australian wine shows between 1969 and 1980.

‘Old vintages of Grange are so scarce now,’ says Munro. ‘To find one that marks the year it was first imported to the UK, and when our wine department was founded, makes this bottle a particularly memorable one.’