Eye Opening Sotheby’s Wine Auction Tops $2.1M with Rare Lafite Bottles

Fans of aged Bordeaux were in heaven on April 17. Bidders online, by phone and in person spent more than $2.1 million on collectible wines at Sotheby’s Immortal Vintages | 200 Years of Bordeaux auction in New York. The bottles, sourced from a single collector’s cellar, drew high prices and included Lafite Rothschild bottlings from 1865 and 1870.

The 272 lots encompassed deep verticals from each of the first-growths in addition to producers such as Château Lynch Bages, Pétrus, Château Cheval Blanc and Château Palmer. Most wines were from 1940–1990, with some going back even further. No wines were younger than 1995.

Richard Young, Sotheby’s head of auction sales for the Americas, said the event reflected “a broader trend we’re seeing across wine auctions right now: Collectors are becoming increasingly selective, focusing on condition, history and true scarcity rather than volume.” 

Three bottles of Lafite Rothschild, one from 1865 and two magnums from 1870, stood out for their age and provenance. (Courtesy of Sotheby’s)

Sips of History 

In 1878, the 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne purchased four dozen magnums of 1870 Lafite Rothschild and stored them at his residence, Glamis Castle, in the Scottish Highlands near Dundee. The earl found them too astringent to enjoy and left them nearly forgotten. These pre-phylloxera bottles remained untouched in the castle’s cellar until 1971, when Michael Broadbent of Christie’s discovered and tasted them. The wine, in his words, was “quite simply, one of the greatest-ever clarets.”

Fast forward to the auction, when bidders on the phone and online—two things invented after the wine was made—volleyed record-breaking bids back and forth for two bottles. The first magnum, which was re-corked by the winery in 1989, sold for $106,250. The second was not re-corked. It smashed the first bottle’s record for its vintage and format only moments later, selling for $200,000.

Other bottles that broke records for their vintage and format included an 1865 Lafite Rothschild ($40,000/750ml), a 1961 Château Palmer ($62,500/double magnum), a 1959 Château Haut-Brion ($60,000/Jeroboam) and a 1982 Château Pichon Longueville Lalande ($9,375/double magnum). 

Not Just Bordeaux

Offerings outside Bordeaux were limited but notable; highlights included a 1966 bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche (which set a format/vintage record at $10,000), a bottle of 1931 Quinta do Noval Port (sold for $2,250) and a 1959 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Trockenbeerenauslese Goldkapsel (sold for $2,750).

The auction proved that certain areas of the collectible wine market remain strong. “The very best wines—those with impeccable provenance and condition—continue to achieve outstanding results,” said Young, “underscoring the strength and resilience of demand at the very top of the market.”