For The Love Of Port

It was interesting seeing the prices being bid for the lots of madeira up for auction yesterday.

The highest price paid was £670 for a bottle of Borges 1846 Terrantez. The lowest price was £60 for a 1910 Barbeito Sercial.

There was a distinct difference in prices paid for vintage wines compared to solera wines. The average price paid for a solera wine was £150 per bottle and for vintage wines was £220 a bottle. Real price competition was seen for the pre-phylloxera vintages, which averaged £340 per bottle. Post-phylloxera vintage wines from the 19th century averaged £200 per bottle.

The best bargain was probably the bottle of 1872 Rainwater from Justino Henriques which went for £110 - and was one of the few bottles that sold at low estimate.

It amazes me that although £670 is a lot of money to spend on a single bottle of wine, that when you consider that there are bottles of 1870 Lafite being broked on the market for £6,000+ per bottle then these wines represent an amazing value for money.

If anyone wants any additional details then post a reply here and let me know what you would like to know.

Alex

Alex,

I'd love all the details you can provide, preferably by email. Thanks!

Don't forget that it is not unusual for a Bordeaux producer like Latour to produce 10-13,000 cases of wine in a single vintage. Compare that to Madeira and you have to wonder why the prices are not the other way around.

Roy,

If you're after the results of the sale, Christies actually post these on their website. The auction was number 7311, the web address for the auction results is http://www.christies.com/auction/result ... no=CKS7311.

Unfortunately Christies have taken the on-line version of the catalogue down but I can fax it through to you if you can PM or email your fax number.

Alex