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1 tappit-henper lot
Details
Lying at Christie's
Château Lafite-Rothschild--Vintage 1811
Pauillac, 1er cru classé. Château-bottled
Original, hand-blown, squat, dark glass bottle with shallow punt. Height 111/3 in. (30cm), diameter of base 5 in. (12.75 cm). New château capsule. Cork visibly slightly shrunk in neck. On one side of the bottle is a new château label (see front cover), on the other, the old label, slightly torn '1811/CHATEAU LAFITTE (sic)/I-J Van den Berghel/Bordeaux' and printed slip label of Domaines Baron de Rothschild. 'Rebouchage fait par le Maitre du Château en 1986 (corrected to 1987)' (see photo).
The bottle was recorked in June 1987 by the cellarmaster of Château Lafite, M. Revelle, in the presence of the then owner. The wine was fairly light in colour but had a very healthy smell with no hint of oxidation. It was not tasted but was topped up with a small quantity of Lafite of the 1896 vintage.
The bottle was last sold at Christie's Finest and Rarest sale on 23rd June 1988. It has since been stored in excellent temperature and humidity controlled conditions.
Other information: 1811 was possibly the greatest vintage of the 19th Century, indeed arguably of all time. It was highly successful in every European wine district, from Tokay, acrosss Austria and the Rhine and throughout France.
There were perfect growing conditions and the picking began in Bordeaux on September 14th. The vintage was reported to be magnificent and abundant. "It sometimes happens that a good vintage is glorified by the appearance of a comet. One such year was 1630, but 1811, more famous.... is the vintage usually referred to as the comet year" (Alexis Lichine's Encyclopaedia of Wines & Spirits); "wines so marvellous that they defied superlatives" (H. Warner Allen) A History of Wine). Lafite "drinking gracefully at 115 years of age" (Maurice Healey Stay Me with Flagons) was considered to be the finest red Bordeaux ever made and the pioneer of great vintage clarets, and ranked historically by H. Warner Allen, with the Opimian vintage of 121 B.C.
There seems to be no firm definition of the bottle size referred to as "tappit-hen". Believed to be of Scottish origin, a tappit-hen can vary, according to which definition one follows, from 1½ bottles to a tregnum or 3-bottle bottle. It is safest to say that it approximates to a magnum.
1 tappit-henper lot
Château Lafite-Rothschild--Vintage 1811
Pauillac, 1er cru classé. Château-bottled
Original, hand-blown, squat, dark glass bottle with shallow punt. Height 111/3 in. (30cm), diameter of base 5 in. (12.75 cm). New château capsule. Cork visibly slightly shrunk in neck. On one side of the bottle is a new château label (see front cover), on the other, the old label, slightly torn '1811/CHATEAU LAFITTE (sic)/I-J Van den Berghel/Bordeaux' and printed slip label of Domaines Baron de Rothschild. 'Rebouchage fait par le Maitre du Château en 1986 (corrected to 1987)' (see photo).
The bottle was recorked in June 1987 by the cellarmaster of Château Lafite, M. Revelle, in the presence of the then owner. The wine was fairly light in colour but had a very healthy smell with no hint of oxidation. It was not tasted but was topped up with a small quantity of Lafite of the 1896 vintage.
The bottle was last sold at Christie's Finest and Rarest sale on 23rd June 1988. It has since been stored in excellent temperature and humidity controlled conditions.
Other information: 1811 was possibly the greatest vintage of the 19th Century, indeed arguably of all time. It was highly successful in every European wine district, from Tokay, acrosss Austria and the Rhine and throughout France.
There were perfect growing conditions and the picking began in Bordeaux on September 14th. The vintage was reported to be magnificent and abundant. "It sometimes happens that a good vintage is glorified by the appearance of a comet. One such year was 1630, but 1811, more famous.... is the vintage usually referred to as the comet year" (Alexis Lichine's Encyclopaedia of Wines & Spirits); "wines so marvellous that they defied superlatives" (H. Warner Allen) A History of Wine). Lafite "drinking gracefully at 115 years of age" (Maurice Healey Stay Me with Flagons) was considered to be the finest red Bordeaux ever made and the pioneer of great vintage clarets, and ranked historically by H. Warner Allen, with the Opimian vintage of 121 B.C.
There seems to be no firm definition of the bottle size referred to as "tappit-hen". Believed to be of Scottish origin, a tappit-hen can vary, according to which definition one follows, from 1½ bottles to a tregnum or 3-bottle bottle. It is safest to say that it approximates to a magnum.
1 tappit-henper lot