You know that ‘provenance’ – i.e. knowing somethings ownership history – is not just a special thing when buying older (for which I class everything that has been on the market for more than 2 years!) wine, it is everything! That’s not because I’m particularly concerned about where the seller got the bottles from – though I suppose I should be – rather because a few weeks of inappropriate storage will render the contents of those bottles dead.
The main source of older bottles is at auction. Apart from rare sales where bottles come direct from producer’s cellars, buying is, based on my experience, a complete lottery – hence, today I only bid low. There is, however, an outstanding chance to acquire older bottles at a sale in Paris in December. I mentioned it briefly here last week, but having taken a look at the online catalogue I thought I would mention the sale of wines from “La Tour d’Argent” again.
Provenance is perfect, and the bottles even look like they’ve been in a good cellar. Estimates (at least) look very fair, but I expect the realised prices will be higher than estimates.
Anyway, worth a look if you need an 1898 Romanée St-Vivant for the weekend…