Spectrum Wine’s Second Anniversary Auction Includes Krug and Cristal Champagne Brunch

Spectrum Wine Auctions’ Second Anniversary Auction will take place December 3rd & 4th at 11:00 a.m. at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Hotel.

All registered bidders are invited to celebrate the auction with a Champagne brunch featuring pours of Krug and Cristal, which starts promptly at 11:00 a.m. The two-day event features a total of 1,631 lots of rare and collectible wines, and carries a pre-sale estimate of HK $50.4 million.

Highlights include more than 600 lots of top-shelf Burgundy including nearly 175 lots of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, as well as H. Jayer Richebourg, Domaine Méo-Camuzet, Domaine Leroy. The sale also offers several cases of First Growth Bordeaux in OWC.

Bids may be placed live in the auction room, online, by phone, in advance via fax or through Spectrum Wine’s new iPhone/iPad bidding app. Interested buyers may preview 360-degree photographs of bottles from each lot prior to the sale, and may request a complimentary catalog at spectrumwine.com.

Liz Palmer
@champagnehouses

VINTAGES’ 10TH ANNUAL AUCTION: OCTOBER 21 – 24 2011 New exclusive lot: – 6 bottles of 1911 Moët & Chandon

VINTAGES’ 10th ANNUAL AUCTION
begins Friday, October 21 with a three-course dinner, and champagne reception featuring exclusive 100-point wines, including: Château Montrose 1990, Château Rieussec 2001; and Domaine de Pegau Cuvée da Capo 2000.

This is a rare opportunity to experience some of the best wines in the world.

Vintages Auction Details:

No tickets are required
Friday, October 21, 2011 8 pm (Lots 1-238)
Saturday, October 22, 2011 (Lots 239-1083)
Sunday, October 23, 2011 (Lots 1084-1907)
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Auction Location:

Waddington’s Auction House
275 King Street East, 2nd Floor
Toronto, Ontario
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Cellarage:

All wines are stored and shipped from temperature controlled facilities
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Vintages Auction 100-Point Dinner Details:

Chef Massimo Capra
Friday, October 21, 2011
Champagne Reception: 5:30pm
Dinner: 6:00pm
Auction begins promptly at 8:00 pm
$375 per person

New BYO Policy – Vintages is thrilled to offer, for the very first time, a BYO policy during Friday evening of the sale. Feel free to bring a special bottle to enjoy at the sale, and share with your tablemates.

To order dinner tickets:

Contact Vintages at 416-365-5767 or 1-800-266-4764 Monday-Saturday 9 am to 6 pm
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New Exclusive Lot

The first lot of the Friday night session will be six bottles of 1911 Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage. This Champagne is direct from the cellars of Moët et Chandon. The estimate for this lot is $50,000 to $65,000.

The Moet Grand Vintage 1911 is exceeding rare, one of 10 remaining disgorged last January under the Grand Vintage Collection label. The product comes in a beautiful custom leather case.

“It’s a stunning Champagne – an inspiration. I’m astounded by the fact that, after a hundred years, it overflows with vitality and energy, and boasts both impressive depth and amazing freshness,” Moët Chef du Cave Benoît Gouez.

Each of the 11 six-bottle cases are being offered to a different market around the world. The first case was auctioned at a gala dinner in Shanghai recently, selling for $100,000.

This will be the only case sold in Canada.

In addition, the winner of this lot is invited to experience courtesy of Moët & Chandon a private cellar visit including, a private Champagne tasting with a winemaker, lunch or dinner in Epernay, transportation from the airport to Moët & Chandon and back, and a one night in a 4 star hotel in Champagne.

In celebration of this event, special guests from Moët & Chandon will be joining us, and will be providing us with a special disgorgement of their 1992 Grand Vintage collection to pair with the appetizers for auction dinner.

Moet et Chandon Grand Vintage Collection 1992 “Really taut, tight wine, its mature toastiness embedded in a steely, mineral, very dry texture. The acidity is assertive, wonderfully refreshing, so crisp. It may be 18 years old, but it looks likely to age for several years yet” – 96 Pts Wine Enthusiast”

Liz Palmer
@champagnehouses

Shipwreck Champagne sold for record $78k to anonymous bidder

An anonymous Internet bidder has paid $78,200 (54,000 euros) for two bottles of 200-year-old Champagne salvaged from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

The buyer, reportedly from Singapore, paid a world-record price of 30,000 euro for a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and 24,000 euro for a bottle of Juglar.

The bottles were part of a cache found aboard a two-masted schooner that ran aground between 1825 and 1830 and that Finnish divers stumbled upon last July. They are believed to be the oldest preserved examples of their respective brands.

Wine experts who studied the corks and hand-blown bottles said the wines were produced between 1811 and 1831.

“Most likely they’re older than that, because in those days they kept wine stored for 10 to 12 years in barrels before they shipped it,” said Christian Erikson, the diver who discovered the cache.

Salvaging the bottles — among a batch of about 150 which were preserved in ideal conditions at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and include Heidsieck Champagne — began in August.

The batch was auctioned in in Aland, an autonomous province of Finland, which owns the Champagne.

The buyer’s identity was not revealed, according to the Associated Press.

“Today proved to be one of the most historic and exhilarating events in the world of wine,” said John Kapon, CEO of the New York auction house Acker Merrall & Condit, which conducted the sale, according to a report in the Toronto Sun. “To have America and Asia battling it out here in Europe, setting a new world record, is a testament to the globalization of the fine wine market, and this is only the beginning.”