High-priced vintage

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 20

High-priced vintage

From

JOHN N. HUTCHISON

in St Helena, California

HERE, among the most prestigious vineyards of the nation, the annual charity wine auction has become an event so fashionable and so extravagant that the prices suggest that the bottles must contain the elixir of perpetual youth. At the latest auction, one bottle, called an "imperiale” sold to a Texas hotel owner for $NZ53,000. The huge flask, held six litres of 1985 cabernet sauvig-

non made by the Robert Mondavi Winery. The same bidder paid $NZ96,500 for three 18-litre bottles of .cabernet sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Winery. Two of the bottles have not been made yet; the winery promises to deliver future vintages of “exceptional quality,” a standard for which the vintner is renowned. The buyer said he planned to give the wines back for sale at

later auctions.

Some of the auctioned wines were in hand-painted or handetched bottles considered works of art as valuable as the vintages within.

Some 1500 people attended the sale, a week-end highlight at an elegant country club. The auction brought a total of SNZI.S million — almost twice last year’s record figure.