Food and Wine Pairing with Roman

A magnum of Lafite Rothschild 1887 sold for £22,500 ($28,300) at a Sotheby’s auction of ‘vinous treasures’ spanning nearly 200 years. The wine, held in storage with Octavian group in Wiltshire, had a pre-sale high estimate of £18,000. A single bottle of Château d’Yquem 1831 sold for £27,500 (pre-sale high estimate: £20,000). Another bottle of Yquem, from the 1896 vintage, sold for £15,000, tripling its pre-sale high estimate. ‘An extraordinary wine from a very great Sauternes vintage,’ said Sere ...

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking up at some terraced vineyards in St-Joseph with an Australian friend. He remarked that he’d never seen a steep vineyard like this in his home country. Who could afford to rip out the trees, build the access roads, construct the terraces, and plant the vines, without being certain beforehand that the resulting wine could be sold at prices high enough to recoup the investment? It might not be the most romantic way of looking at it. But that’s the modern reality ...

Sotheby’s said wine and spirits auction sales rose by around 44% to $132m (£99.6m) in 2021, boosted by record prices, fresh partnerships and a wave of new buyers. Its figures also offered more evidence of a strong fine wine market this year. Wine represented $111m of Sotheby’s 2021 auction sales, with famous Burgundy labels dominating a list of best-selling lots. Other highlights included a recent sale of Châteaux Rauzan-Ségla and Canon wines, sourced direct from the Chanel-owned estates in Bord ...