Chateau Lafite Rothschild - The Most Complete Collection To Date !

The Antique Wine Company of London is at it again. The are to sell the most extensive collection of Chateau Lafite Rothschild ever seen on the world market. This unique collection spans four centuries--with the earliest vintage being 1787--prior to the French Revolution. The collection encompasses all the bottle formats ever produced, including the rare, large six liter Imperials from all the top vintages of the 20th century. The collection includes forty three bottles from various vintages and is certified for authenticity in light of the recent sales of counterfeit wine by various auction houses. An extensive range of tasting notes has been compiled for many of the vintages with the help of The Rothschild Family and Charles Chevallier who attended a marathon weekend of tasting vintages dating back to 1887 on April 20-21 at Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera. As you may remember from one of my previous d’Yquem postings; In December 2006 the Antique Wine company also sold the most comprehensive collection of 135 bottles of d’Yquem. The collection includes every consecutive vintage of Chateau d’Yquem produced between 1860-2003. It also included nine empty bottles. They are signed by the director of Yquem, certifying that no Chateau d’Yquem was produced in this vintage due to adverse weather conditions. The d’Yquem-less years are 1910, 1915, 1930, 1951, 1952, 1964, 1972, 1974 and 1992. Without going into details here; it always bothered be me to be born in a year in which my favorite wine was not bottled. A total of 26 bidders from Europe, Asia, the U.S. and Russia almost doubled the bidding in the final 24 hours from £400,000 to the final price of £775,000 U$ C1.5 million).

Dating back to 1787, this is by all accounts the most complete collection of Lafite Rothschild vintages and formats of what is unquestionably one of the the greatest red wines in the world. The new owner of the collection will be the possessor of a historic and truly unique treasure; wine that was discovered for the New World by Thomas Jefferson while he was ambassador to France in 1787, on the eve of the Revolution. The collection will be or is sold by private negotiation. Interested parties can register online with the Antique Wine Company. The selling was supposed to be done by May 2007 but for all I know a final deal has not reached yet. So you may still get in on this one. Bring the big check book.