Who wants to join me bidding on this unbelievable lot!

[Jay Hack]

So I'm checking out the monthly Acker Internet auction and I always look at the port lots. I find one that is the most amazing Nacional lot i have ever seen. 21 bottles! Why is it on the internet auction? I have no idea. The presale estimate is a mistake, and I put in a few bids and was outbid by an autobid from someone who has a big max bid that I have not yet reached. Here's the lot. i'm looking for a couple partners to buy the whole lot, and then maybe have the ultimate Nacional verticle that will attract Port lovers from throughout the country and beyond. Here's the list - - number of bottles in parenthesis. The current high bid is $2,200, and it's certainly worth more than that if it's for real. The auction closes on July 11.

- Vintage 1962 sos (1)
- Vintage 1963 (1)
- Vintage 1964 (1)
- Vintage 1966 (1)
- Vintage 1967 (1)
- Vintage 1970 (1)
- Vintage 1975 vlscl (1)
- Vintage 1978 (1)
- Vintage 1980 (1)
- Vintage 1982 (1)
- Vintage 1983 (1)
- Vintage 1985 (1)
- Vintage 1987 (1)
- Vintage 1991 (1)
- Vintage 1994 (1)
- Vintage 1996 (1)
- Vintage 1997 (1)
- Vintage 1997 3vlbsl, 1lscl (3)
- Vintage 2000 (1)

[Roy Hersh]

The 1963 bottling alone is worth more than that Jay. Something seems "off" ... are you missing a zero after the first "2"?

[Eric Menchen]

If you set the search type to "Port," that lot doesn't even come up. But I found it, and I don't think there are any zeros missing. But I wonder if all the bottles are not Nacionals. The initial price range was predicted $480-750, which seems like what you would pay for one or two bottles of Nacional, and low even if none were Nacional.

[Roy Hersh]

The 1963 and 1994 Nacionals alone would be about $3500-4k at auction. Obviously I was kidding about the extra zero, but this just does not add up, no matter how you look at it ... even if they were half bottles and we know that's not the case with Nacional.

[Andy Velebil]

That pricing sounds more like regular Novals than Nacionals, and even then still cheap. I mean even the weak Nacional vintages from the 1980's are in the $200-300 range per bottle. So all these at that cheap....something isn't adding up. Maybe some old Katrina bottles finally showing up, or from another insurance claim where the insurance company is looking to recoup at least a little of their pay out???? I would be VERY leary about this lot without a lot more info from Acker.

[Jay Hack]

That pricing sounds more like regular Novals than Nacionals, and even then still cheap. I mean even the weak Nacional vintages from the 1980's are in the $200-300 range per bottle. So all these at that cheap....something isn't adding up. Maybe some old Katrina bottles finally showing up, or from another insurance claim where the insurance company is looking to recoup at least a little of their pay out???? I would be VERY leary about this lot without a lot more info from Acker.

I am going to call them and see if I can take a look at the bottles.I'm expecting that the listing is wrong, but even with good old SOS warnings and the like, I'm thinking that this lot could be a steal. So my plan is to see if I can look at the bottles - their warehouse is about 20 minutes from my house - and maybe take photos and upload them. One of the young lawyers in my office plays on the same softball team as the store manager at Acker, so I should be able to pull that off. So assuming that the wine looks good, can I get 7 more people at $500 each? The years, by the way, seem to match up with the Nacional years shown on Cellartracker, which is the first thing I checked, so it is hard to believe that it is the regular Noval bottling.

[Roy Hersh]

Jay, please let us know the outcome of what you find out.

[Glenn E.]

It occurs to me that it is their lot estimate that is off... 480-750 is ridiculous, but 4800-7500 seems about right to me.

Since the lot estimate is far too low, it follows that bidding would also be far too low. Which is good for whoever wins the lot!

[Jay Hack]

I have just spoken to my contact at Acker. He spoke to the person in charge of the auction who assures him that the lot is for real. It is available for inspection about a 25 minute car ride from my house and I am planning to inspect it on Thursday morning. SO now it is gut check time, boys and girls (oh, I forgot, there are no girls on this forum):

1) What am I looking for when I inspect the bottles? I will take photos but that may not do a lot of good and those bottles are so dark that it mayu not be possible to check the fills. The labels on CT are consistent except that there are two versions of the 1963 label.

2) Who else is crazy enough to go in with me to buy the whole lot? Note that the vintages exactly match the list of all vintages from 1962 to 2000 on Cellartracker except for the 1990 and 1999, which are probably mistakes on Cellartracker because they only show one bottle of each with no RH rating.

3) What should we actually bid? If the lot were in excellent condition, and there is no way we will know that, fair market value would exceed $10,000. Not that I want to go that route, but I am interested in suggestions. Ten people at $500 each for the "almost ultimate" Nacional tasting? We'd be missing 1931, 1955, 1960 and probably a few others, but nothing's perfect. Maybe someone would contribute a 1931 just to be able to taste the others. And our fearless leader liked the 1966 and 1994 better!

[Theo Z.]

Hi Jay, what a great idea! I would join in with you and others at $500 for a Nacional vertical (and I'm in NYC).

[Al B.]

If the auction were in the UK I'd be more interested. Being Stateside makes it less practical for me these days - but for the ultimate Nacional tasting - oh heck! Count me in for $500 and I'll just have to find a way to travel to New York (city or State) if we win. In fact, count me in twice for a double share and I'll bring my other half with me as well.

Vintages I know of which are not on the list include 1931, 1947, 1950, 1955, 1958 and 1960. The 1999 was never officially released, although a handful of bottles did make it out into the Market as specials. I don't know about the 1990 - I didn't think there was a Nacional made in 1990?

[Steve Pollack]

hi jay, very interesting indeed! any info you can get on the seller and provenance will be helpful. thanks for taking the lead on this. steve

[Marc J.]

I'd throw in $500.00 if the bottles check out once you inspect them on Thursday.

Marc

[Moses Botbol]

The auction did not get any bids last month. They are all Nacionals. I think the hammer price will be like 6-7K for the lot. Somebody is going to have a nice selection of Nacionals, that is for sure.

[Scott Anaya]

hmmmm....very interested....

could always chip in and if one couldn't make it, "sell" your seat

[Jay Hack]

OK. It's gut check time. I looked at the bottles yesterday and took a lot of photos. I AM NOT an authority on wine bottles and labels, let alone Nacional, but they looked quite good to me. Every bottle that was not completely opaque had a fill of at least bottom neck (the older the lower) except the 1962 which had substantial signs of seepage and which had a fill of about 1 cm below bottom neck. The flashlight someone suggested was very useful.

All bottles have a new importer label from William Grant and Sons which is obviously new - it includes the government's pregnancy warning which did not exist in 1963. The only concern that I have is that the white paper label on top of the bottle is numbered, and all the numbers are very close to each other, but I do not know what that means. Does it make sense that the label from 1963 has a higher number (304957) than the label from 1994, 1997 and 2000 (304886, 304897 and 304877, respectively)? And note how close the numbers are over a 37 year period.

Bottom line. If I can get 8 or 10 people together to split the lot, my plan is to open it all in New York some time next later this year or next year. Maybe we put the three extra bottles of 1997 back up for auction to defray some of the cost, but that is relatively insignificant. Or maybe we use that money to reduce food costs at some crazy restaurant that is willing to host this. I already have a few people and have asked a few more people I know. I do not want to "publish" a final price because that would be an even dumber auction strategy that publicizing the lot among Port nuts as much as I already have. So if you are really really interested, send me an email or a PM with your interest IMMEDIATELY and I will send you a private message with my ideas about price. Please do not comit to join in unless you will absolutely positively promise to send me the money, because I am going to have to actually make the bid uncovered on faith that you will actually send money next week.

OR if you think this is ridiculous and I am out of my mind because the bottles must be counterfeit, and you have any reason to say so other than "it's too good to be true," please let me know.

If you want to see photos, I can email them. I took 43 photos and would have taken more but my battery died.

[Theo Z.]

Jay, your PM does not seem to be on here. What is your email address?

[Moses Botbol]

OR if you think this is ridiculous and I am out of my mind because the bottles must be counterfeit, and you have any reason to say so other than "it's too good to be true," please let me know.

You should feel safe or covered against counterfeit's bidding with Acker. They will take the suspect bottles back for a refund.

[Eric Menchen]

Click on Jay's name to see his profile, and from there you can PM.

I'm interested, but need to do a financial check. Also, I might be willing to buy a 1997 or two, as that is my anniversary year.

[Jay Hack]

Click on Jay's name to see his profile, and from there you can PM.

I'm interested, but need to do a financial check. Also, I might be willing to buy a 1997 or two, as that is my anniversary year.

My intention is not to split up the lot, except perhaps for the extra 97s, because that gets complicated. I have emailed Noval to ask about whether they have any thoughts about proving bona fides, but since it is Friday and we only have 2 days, I am not optimistic about a response.

If my wife doesn't kill me and my brother in law agrees to split the risk, we might buy it anyway and then worry about finding participants later, but since we are having dinner together tonight with our wives, I am expecting that idea to get shot down quickly with icy stares.