Archival photographs courtesy of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Archives, Hillsborough, NJ Press Release I | Press Release II | Press Release III Contacts: Katherine Adler Bendetta Roux Tel: +1 212 636 2680 LEGENDARY WINES FROM THE DORIS DUKE CELLARS The Extraordinary Private Cellar of Doris Duke Sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation June 4, 2004 New York - On Friday June 4, during an exclusive evening sale, Christie's New York will offer The Extraordinary Private Cellar of Doris Duke, an unsurpassed collection of mainly Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. The sale will offer the wine cellars of Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey and of Shangri La in Honolulu, Hawaii, amounting to about two thousand bottles of the world's most sought-after wines. Highlights include Dom Pérignon, vintage 1921, La Mission Haut Brion, vintage 1929 and Romanée-Conti, vintage 1934. The Extraordinary Private Cellar of Doris Duke is a superlative wine collection, and symbolizes a vinous time capsule such as the North American market has never seen before. An extraordinary woman living in an extraordinary era, Doris Duke's life reflected her exquisite taste, limitless passion and total commitment in all its aspects. No area of interest was explored without the strong desire to capture it completely, to master it to perfection. The fascinating wine world was no exception and the Doris Duke wine collection bears witness to an extremely knowledgeable and dedicated approach. More importantly, this ensemble of France's most desirable wines also projects the image of a wine connoisseur with a great sense of joie-de-vivre. Doris Duke assembled her wine collection largely during the 1930s when she was married to James Cromwell. The couple set out to renovate Duke Farms, the main residence of Doris Duke throughout her life, and to build a house in Hawaii named Shangri La, a veritable 'Thousand and One Nights' setting. Both construction plans included wine cellars; at Duke Farms a former meat-locker with sealed door was converted into a wine cellar and at Shangri La the cellar was part of the original plan. As evidenced by the astounding conditions of the bottles offered for sale, the cellars provided absolutely perfect storage conditions. Many of the bottles at Duke Farms bear labels from 'Bellows and Company,' one of America's foremost wine merchants and importers since 1830. The bottles coming from Shangri La appeared to have been shipped directly to Honolulu, as shown by the slip labels from the 'Island Wine Company, Territory of Hawaii.' Although remarkable because of the sheer volume of bottles, the collection offers something far more valuable—an unerring eye for quality. Many of the bottles originate from vintages that were undisputedly amongst France's finest and rarest, with a concentration on production spanning 1918 to 1934. One of Champagne's pinnacles was the inimitable Dom Pérignon, vintage 1921. In 1936, a limited order of approximately 1,200 bottles (one hundred cases) of this exquisite champagne was sent to the United States, which boasted many affluent collectors who were reveling in the post-prohibition era. Of these, over 100 bottles went straight to Doris Duke, a firm statement about her importance as a wine buyer. The remaining 16 bottles will be reverently offered in the sale (estimate: $500-700 per bottle). Extremely rare and coveted is the Romanée-Conti, vintage 1934 (estimate: $2,800-4,000 per bottle). Michael Broadbent, M.W., describes this wine as "the biggest vintage of the decade" and Anthony Hanson, M.W., calls it "a legendary wine." La Mission Haut Brion, vintage 1929, today ranks as one of the best vintages ever produced at this prestigious château. In the Duke cellar book, this wine was referred to as 'similar in type but not as fine' as several others the cellar provided for and it was suggested to 'serve it for ordinary use when a claret is desired as Mr. and Mrs. Cromwell have purchased a large quantity.' Several years later, Michael Broadbent would eloquently label this wine as "the epitome of elegance and finesse, the end of an era" (estimate: $ 8,500-11,000 per case). This wine is also represented by a group of over 30 magnums (estimate: $9,000-14,000 per 6 magnums). Other highlights include Château Latour, vintage 1929 (estimate: $1,000-1,500 per bottle); Vosne-Romanée, Les Gaudichots, DRC, vintage 1929 (estimate: $9,000-14,000 per case) and Château d'Yquem, vintage 1929 (estimate: $800-1,100 per bottle). Auction: The Extraordinary Private Cellar of Doris Duke Sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation June 4 at 6 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org), which seeks to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, wildlife conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties. # # # Images available on request Back to top