Rare Case of Château Latour 1961 Put Up for Sale
Auction house Bonhams is putting an unopened case of Bordeaux wine legend Château Latour 1961 on the block on Dec. 9.
The case is estimated to have a price tag of £30,000 - £40,000/US$40,000 - US$53,000. Latour is regarded as one of the most sensational wines from 1961. That year late spring frosts cut the harvest in Bordeaux, but the grapes that survived then experienced a hot summer, leaving them very concentrated.
Bonhams senior international director of wine, Richard Harvey MW, said unopened cases of Château Latour 1961 were now extremely scarce. “Château Latour 1961 attracted the plaudits of wine connoisseurs from the very beginning – it was, for example, one of Michael Broadbent’s rare six star wines," he said.
Bonhams told Falstaff that the case was consigned by a private individual, formally the director of a well-known company in the British wine trade. "They acquired the case for their luncheon reserves and he purchased it from them when he retired 30 years ago. The first time the case was opened was when done so by Bonhams staff for inspection."
Château Latour has been producing wine for more than three centuries. A report in 1755 showed Latour was already recognised as a producer of some of the best wine in Bordeaux, a century before it received its 1855 classification.
Bonhams London Wine Sale on December 9 will also put up for grabs five vintages of Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage from a private collector, including four bottles of the 1978 vintage, estimated at £6,000-£7,000 and a dozen of the 1990 vintage, estimated at £14,000-£17,000.
And it will sell a magnum of Dom Pérignon 1961, disgorged in 1981 to commemorate the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, with an estimate of £4,500-£5,500.