Hello all, as you can see I am new here. I have recently inherited hundreds of bottles of Bordeaux and need some help. I am wanting to keep all the stuff from the 1900’s, but I have several bottles from the late 1800’s that I don’t need. I am hoping these bottles will help pay for some cellar upgrades and my upcoming twins. Would anybody be interested in the following?
1893 Chateau Margaux smaller bottle still in protective transport wire cage.
1889 chateau Larose
1889 chateau Pontet-Canet
Since I am a new user, I can’t post the photos. I guess PM me and I can send plenty of photos. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Bo
If there is any correspondence / receipts / invoices for these older wines it will help. Evidence of suitable cellaring and a paper trail back to purchase by your relative would be invaluable.
Such wines are not in my league, nor that of most here, but with the sort of provenance mentioned above, the top auction houses would be awfully interested.
I wouldn’t even pretend to sell them here, get thee to a legit auction house and have them inspected and evaluated.
The wine world is too fraught with fraud at this time to expect anything profitable to happen for you with private sales. A legit inspection could make a vast difference.
If you make a few more posts in some other threads you will be able to upload photos here. Certainly there are participants here who can opine about authenticity and value with some degree of expertise.
Luckily I inherited a nice 500 bottle cellar, and these wines have been in perfect condition since they were purchased. I don’t have any paperwork, and I wouldn’t know where to begin looking. I will try to find someone to assess them soon. I am curious about two of the bottles authenticity, but the chateau Margaux looks the part. Thanks all, Bo
I inherited a 500 bottle cellar and they are sitting in the mid 50’s with perfect humidity right now. I’ll try to get them assessed soon.
I am curious about the authenticity of two of the bottles because the labels look the same. The Margaux looks legit and has great looking hand blown glass. But yeah, I need professional help with this one.
Bo, if you let us know where you are located, there may be some local auction houses we can refer you to that could come to you, or you could take the bottles to them, for evaluation.
You might be stretching things to say they ‘have been in perfect condition since they were purchased’ since they pre-date actively cooled cellars. If they have been recently purchased then there should be some records. If they have been owned within your family for the past hundred years or more, then the odds of them being fake go way down, but the odds of perfect storage are fairly slim. Then it depends on the conditions of the bottles themselves, which until pictures are posted or the wine is vetted by an auction house, is impossible for any of us to determine.
Chuck, I’m in College Station Tx. And you are right, I have no idea how they were stored prior to coming to the U.S. (I assumed a monk in the 1800’s lived his life in some cave gaurding bottles like this jk) I know that the Margaux was purchased in France with a lot of More recent Bordeaux’s. The house has already been sold, so everything that was stored in the office might be in the wind. I’m trying to track that down. Thank you so much for all your help so far.
As I said before. I am a new member here and can’t post photos. I sent one to Alan, so maybe he could post it in here. Or I could send them to you guys and y’all could post them. I joined this forum to get good advice, and I have done that so far. I understand your cynical look towards this. I’m not even sure that two of them are real, but then again I know absolutely jack about wine.
I live in the Houston area about 1 hour from College Station. I would more than happy to come take a look with a friend. I am certainly not an expert but my friend is knowledgeable and I can take pictures.
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jk) I know that the Margaux was purchased in France with a lot of More recent Bordeaux’s. The house has already been sold, so everything that was stored in the office might be in the wind. I’m trying to track that down. Thank you so much for all your help so far.