Rare Spirits at Christie's
Tomorrow Christie's will hold the first spirits auction in New York since prohibition. It's being billed as an historic moment, and while the long-term impact will be more evolutionary than revolutionary –expect whiskey and cognac lots in wine auctions – the first something is a bang.
Nearly 1,000 lots will be offered. The whiskeys are grabbing the headlines, but the auction is as rich in Maderias and Cognacs, including a strong showing of 18th– and early 19th–century bottlings, like the famous Haley's Comet vintage of 1811, and the Waterloo vintage of 1815.
* Single bottle of Verdlheo 1748, a Solera. Estimate: $7,500-$12,000.
* Case of Terrantez 1795, a good year for Madeira. Estimate: $30,000-$48,000.
* 'Grande Armée Cognac 1811, with the letter 'N' embossed in glass at the shoulder (it was a good year for Napoleon). Estimate: $3,000-$5,000.
* Cognac, Grande Fine Réserve 1811, from the private cellar of Doris Duke. Estimate: $1,000-$1,500.
* Single bottle of the Macallan, 1856. Estimate: $16,000-$24,000.
* Single bottle of the Macallan 1926, bottled in 1986 and rebottled in 2002; possibly the finest whiskey ever created and the cult object of the auction. Estimate: $20,000-$30,000.
* Armagnac from the war years, 1940-1946, from Marquis de Montdidier, Chateau de Cahuzac. Estimate: $500 to $700 each.
* Single bottle of rye whiskey made in George Washington's still with his recipe. A limited edition of 24 bottles was produced in 2003, and bottle #1 was won at auction by Marvin Shanken for $100,000 (and donated to the distillery's museum); this is bottle #8. Estimate: $10,000-$20,000.
* Collection of 8 bottles designed by Art Deco master Erté for Courvoisier in 1988. Estimate: $8,000-$12,000.
* A superlot of 729 whiskeys from a collector in the Pacific Northwest, the star of the auction. Estimate: $70,000-$100,000.
Everyone is fixating on the spirits, but about one-third of the lots are investment-grade wine: heavy-hitting Bordeaux from the 1980s and 1990s, Domaine de la Romanée Conti. Expect savvy wine buyers to wait out the spirits and cherry-pick bottles of the softer stuff.
--Oliver Schwaner–Albright
I have a bottle of 1914 Pierre Ferand cognac special memoir collection. Does any one have any idea how much this would fetch for? Is it's value increasing?