WHAT Was Your PROUDEST AUCTION TRIUMPH?

WINE TALK
41

A dozen magnums of Conn Valley estate cab and right bank 2002-2004. $65 per

42

[cry.gif] I enjoyed watching the Bay Area show that featured your awesome cellar! Too bad you never got to drink the vertical but it sure looked pretty!!

43

Yes, this is heart wrenching! YOU are Mr. Yquem! I remember you had to evacuate your cellar because of it leaking??? I don’t remember the details…but I do remember feeling sorry for what you had to go through.

44

A link to this video would be great! I love seeing other peoples cellars.

45

Thank you Z. It’s okay I didn’t get to drink the vertical. Believe me when I say I drank plenty of Yquem since I bought my first case of the 1967 back in 1986. I bought that first case in Monaco and paid $22.00 a bottle. I also had several bottles of Massandra a few of which were IMHO better than any Yquem I tasted.

I sold the vertical but still kept quite a few other bottles. We’re renting now until we can find a house we like to buy. Meanwhile my wine is resting peacefully at Vinfolio.

46

We call it a “cellar” but in reality it was a room off our living room divided by floor to ceiling glass. it was an addition we made when we remodeled our house. What happened was the cellar’s floor started to collapse. Investigating we found that under the house where the addition was made the air vents had been covered over with the exterior stucco. No air circulation under the room and soon the sub-floor wood started to rot so badly one could rip off big chunks of the wood with one’s hand.

We took all the wine (~5,000 bottles) and racks out of the cellar room and set them up in the living room. We rented this huge cooler/fan and put insulation panels over the windows. We actually got the living room down to a constant temp of 65°.

They took the whole inside of the cellar out down to the dirt and 2x6s. Then they did an abatement because there was a small amount of mold found. That was scary! Then everything was rebuilt better than new. It took almost six months before it was ready to move the racks and wine back into the cellar. Paul Wyatt came and helped reassemble the racks better than new (Thank you Paul!). And I was a happy camper. Thank goodness this was 100% covered by insurance.

Here’s a link to the “In Wine Country” TV show. This was many years ago and seems pretty corny to me.

If you’re really interested the cellar was also featured on an A&E produced TV one hour show. IIRC it is a series called, “How It’s Made”. The episode is “Wine”. I think it’s available on a DVD from their shop. It is an old episode but still occasionally airs. It is an interesting show starting with planting the vines through drinking. Near the end they show “the oldest existing wine cellar” at La Tour D’Argent in Paris. Then they segue to scenes of my cellar comparing old with new.

It was all very exciting having the film crew come to my home. It took all day; that’s another story someday. Besides these posts are OTS except they are answering previous posts in this thread.

47

got to drink a number of Massandra sweets from the 30s back in the 90s…
the pink muscat was particularly fine,
and i was heartened to learn that the late Luis Kracher
had smuggled a cutting from Crimea back to Burgenland…

48

A bottle of “Havens” 1992 Black and Blue for $60. Which is really SQN.

49

Mine was pretty pedestrian. I got 96 Jadot Porrets for 17 after buyers premium and shipping about 9 years ago. You have to consider this is a premier cru just coming into its own for less than what regular Bourgogne goes for. For me this is what I seek auctions rather than trophy wines.

50

Here’s Allen’s into statement about Truchot in his issue #1 (1st Quarter 2001)- I think he nailed the style.

“For readers who may not be familiar with the wines of this domaine, they are a kind of a stylistic throw back to
older times. There is no artifice here at all. No cold maceration, no enzymes, no commercial yeasts, no fining, no
filtration and not much new oak – even the label is old style; about the only concession to modern times is that are
no stems. As one might expect from such an approach, the wines are elegant and pure examples of their type,
which I personally admire. It must be said that they wines are not especially dense and that they could probably
benefit from more concentration. But if you love the wonderfully pure aromatics and flavors of unadorned pinot
noir, then the wines of Jacky Truchot are worth searching out.”

51

May of 2010? I bought a bunch of 2005 in that auction as well which I split with some friends. $35@ for the regular, $55@ for the Poyeaux pre-vig. Wow, checking back I see that in that same auction week I picked up a magnum of 2000 Verset Cornas for $90 and 2 bottles of 1998 Verset Cornas for $90@. Good times…

52

A while back; a case of 1983 Margaux, Margaux for $2600.

53

I’ve done very little auction buying in my career, but a 4-pack of halves of 2001 Climens for US$85 per or so about 6 years ago would have to rank as my best effort, I think.

Mike

54

A case of mixed Larkmead '13s (Solari, Dr Olmo, The Lark, Salon, Estate Cab) for average of $90/bottle at most recent HDH auction.

I had paid 60-80% more for same wines from winery just a few months prior.

55

7 bottles of 1985 Domaine de Trevallon. I don’t remember what I paid but it was effectively free by modern standards. Similar with 7 bottles of 1991 Chave Hermitage.

56

Some good deals in the past (all since 2011), including:

Margaux 1928 (top shoulder) for £150 + premium
Margaux 1950 magnum (upper shoulder) for £120 + premium
Haut Brion 1966 x 7 (all good levels) for £320 + premium (it was advertised online as one bottle!)

However, the greatest bargains I’ve ever had were two lots of 3x (presumably Henry Jayer made) négociant bottled Cros Paratoux 1982 (probably from the Meo casks that were sold off) for a total of about £500… no one else had made the connection! champagne.gif

57

Steve, this was not an SQN wine–that brand did not exist until vintage 1994. I made the wine entirely myself and sold it to Camapanile Restaurant, whose wine program was at that time run by Manfred Krankl. He designed the label and bought (most of) the wine for the restaurant–some went to distributors in other states and a few private clients. So it was a custom wine by Havens Wine Cellars for a restaurant program run by the guy who later founded SQN. And if you got a bottle for $60, cheers to you! The last bottle sold privately that I know about went for $2200. [cheers.gif]

58

Not long ago bought a near-case of what was cataloged as 1929 Bouchard (P&F) “Beaune” from one of the large auction houses. Not a lot of demand and got them for a reasonable price. From a well-known collector’s cellar.

When I got the bottles it turned out to be Grands Echezeaux!

59

Putting in the second-high bid on something I really couldn’t afford. All praise to the high bidder, who saved my bacon.

60

I have never bought a single wine in auction.

Been meaning to dip my toes…

But, so easy to source outside of auction.