Grapevine: Living Vicariously through the Cellar of a Wealthy Collector
We read with envy the numerous accounts of rare, high-end wines sold in the marketplace. Collectors enter into bidding frenzies to acquire wines from highly rated wineries and highly rated vintages. However, for most of us 99 percenters, after we read of these wines changing hands amongst a few rich collectors, we never hear of them again until the next sale.
How many of you have enjoyed these wines?
When was the last time a friend offered you a Mouton Rothschild wine from the French region of Bordeaux? Even the most recent vintage sells for hundreds of dollars.
When was the last time you purchased an acclaimed wine from a well-regarded vintage when you dined at a fine restaurant? High-end collectors’ cellars contain wines that are 50, 60, even 70 years old.
Here’s the rub: The investors in high-end wines seek out trophy wines for bragging rights, not imbibing rights. Rarely are bottles of older vintages of highly regarded wines ever opened for the sheer pleasure and enjoyment such wines afford. Rather, they sit in an expensive temperature-controlled underground cellar, simply on display as trophies.
There is a consensus amongst those in the wine trade that the rarer the wine, the less likely it will ever be consumed. It will merely make the rounds of auction houses, garnering escalating prices with each passage of ownership.
So it was with great interest that I followed a highly anticipated auction held last weekend. William Koch, of the famous industrial and philanthropic Koch family, sold a portion of his famous cellar holdings at a Sotheby’s auction. Mr. Koch has been collecting wines for decades, amassing one of the largest collections of trophy wines in the world.
The details of the auction are mind-boggling: 20,000 bottles were sold, garnering a record-setting $20,000,000. Mr. Koch’s collection is highly concentrated on the rarest and most expensive French wines. The highest price, among many record-setting lots for sale, was for 10 bottles of 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild, a highly prized Bordeaux. It fetched a record $343,000. That equates to an astounding $34,300 per bottle, $6,700 per glass and $1,340 per ounce.
I noticed several ironies surrounding Mr. Koch, his cellar and the auction:
Mr. Koch has unlimited financial resources to satiate his interest in collecting wines. And satiating his palate, he has done. But now he finds that he has perhaps collected more wines than he can logically expect to appreciate, or enjoy. He decided it was time to circulate the wines to other collectors, and realize a significant return on investment.
The irony: at age 76, he has come to realize he will not live long enough to consume a fraction of the remaining 23,000 bottles in his collection. Worse, for a number of these wines, he may outlive their drinkability. He claims to own a long lineage of the most famous French wines: wines from 150 years of Château Lafite Rothschild production and 100 years of Château Latour.
Sotheby’s has validated and certified the authenticity of all the wines sold at auction. This is critically important to any potential buyer. But perhaps more so for Mr. Koch’s inventory. He has been the victim of several major frauds, in which he relied on others to authenticate rare wines he purchased at auctions, only to discover a number of years later that the wines were counterfeit.
The irony: Sotheby’s is certifying Mr. Koch’s wines at auction in the face of this sordid history of frauds. Potential buyers were being asked to place trust in Sotheby’s opinion, not knowing if any counterfeit wines were hidden in the auction lots.
The sale of a portion of Mr. Koch’s stellar cellar brings out my envy and frustration of observing this world-class game from the sidelines. So much great wine to behold; so few people to enjoy it.
Nick Antonaccio is a 40-year Pleasantville resident. For over 20 years he has conducted numerous wine tastings and lectures. He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nick’s credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reach him at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com or on Twitter @sharingwine
