Wine auctions are alive and well; and, in many recent instances, they’re exceeding expectations. A press release I received from Heritage Auctions hit really close to home, when I saw the Judgement of Paris, coming into the news again.
The following information comes from their press release, about having had a recent auction, with more than 700 world-wide bidders, participating in the March 10 to March 11 auction. It disclosed how the Judgment of Paris activity has continued to escalate in benefits to California wines… And, Warren Winiarski has put one more notch on his Cabernet Sauvignon Cowboy’s belt…
For anyone who doesn’t know, Warren Winiarski, born in 1928, is a wine industry icon. He is the founder and former proprietor of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Today, Winiarski is still listed as owning and operating Arcadia Vineyards, of Napa Valley.
Where else, but Beverly Hills?
FROM PRESS RELEASE: “Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon made history again during Heritage Auctions’ $2.55 million Wine Signature® Auction, held March 10 and March 11, 2022, in Beverly Hills.”
In the Value of Wine Collecting, the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars received a record price of $12,300, for the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet. This single, $12,300 bottle is more than three times the highest price ever paid for the landmark vintage. Imagine what each drop is worth, people! The person who was the winner of this bottle isn’t disclosing his name, yet – if ever – because his wine collecting father is about to receive the gift of a lifetime… “This is very special for us.”
I’d like to be at that party; would you, also?
“HERITAGE AUCTION: This wine is so special that the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History has a bottle of 1973 S.L.V Cabernet Sauvignon, in its permanent collection. There is but a precious handful remaining in Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ esteemed collection.
[PHOTO: Jo Diaz, taken during an event. All rights reserved.)
I like this best:
PRESS RELEASE
Says Frank Martell, Senior Director of Fine & Rare Wines at Heritage Auctions, “With this auction, the two most expensive cabernet-based wines produced in the last 61 years are wines from California, not France, including the first vintage of Screaming Eagle that sold at Heritage Auctions last September for $14,760. And, most important, with this auction we have single-handedly affirmed the Judgment of Paris – again.”
MORE STAG’S LEAP WINE CELLARS, CENTER STAGE
STATS FROM THE AUCTION
The bottle was offered during the first night of the two-day event as one of nearly 4,000 bottles from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ vaunted Legacy Collection. Not only did the event mark the first time a California winery of this stature has opened its library at this level to Heritage, but it surpassed all expectations: The Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ Legacy Collection realized nearly $600,000 during the event, nearly twice pre-auction estimates.
In fact, Martell says, “56 [percent] of all Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars lots sold at, or above, the high estimate, most of which were world records.”
- The Legacy Collection wines offered in the March 10 auction included almost all the vintages Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars has ever made of its Estate-Grown Cabernet Sauvignons (FAY, S.L.V. and CASK 23)
- ARTEMIS Cabernet Sauvignon and the Napa Valley Merlot.
Other highlights of this auction included.
- CASK 23 Cabernet Sauvignon 1985, a Melchior of which realized $9,840
- 12 bottles of S.L.V. from 1972, which brought $5,658 (nearly five times estimate)
- Melchior of CASK 23 Cabernet Sauvignon 1991, which sold for $5,227.50.
The event’s second night saw numerous offerings from other renowned wineries surpass pre-auction estimates,
- Chief among them a 2000 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg Jeroboam that realized $27,060. It came from the Annapolis Collection, the entirety of which has remained in one location; was stored in the collector’s deeply dug temperature-controlled wine cellar; and has barely seen the light of day until now.
- Not far behind was a double magnum of Château Pétrus 2005 Pomerol likewise from The Annapolis Collection, which sold for $23,370, nearly doubling surpassing pre-auction estimates.
Other stand-outs from the auction include:
- Single bottle of 2017 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti, from the Texas-based La Cave Collection, realized $20,295
- Imperial of 2000 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac, which sold for $19,065
- Salmanazar of Chateau Cheval Blanc 2000 St. Emilion, which topped estimates, sold for $17,220
About Heritage Auctions
…the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
Thank you Wine Industry Insight for aggregating this story. And, thank you to Wine Business, for also aggregating this story.
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