Bordeaux's Chateau Lafite Rothschild headlined Christie's Fine and Rare Wines auction on October 12, with the 1982 selling above estimate in New York.
 The 1982 growing season was unusually warm in Bordeaux |
Eleven bottles of the prized vintage sold for $33,880, achieving a 12.9% increase on the $24,000-30,000 estimate. A second lot of nine bottles sat comfortably within its $20,000-28,000 valuation, selling for $24,200.
1982 saw an unusually warm growing season in Bordeaux, resulting in grapes of perfect ripeness that displayed both concentration and richness. While some of the lesser estates had difficulty in controlling fermentation, these problems were not seen at Lafite and the wine now stands as one of their best.
The vintage has been criticised for the rich Napa-like luxury in its taste and some believed that 1982 would have a particularly short life. This has since been disproved, with the bottles at auction now at prime maturity according to Christie's.
The highest selling Burgundy of the sale was a four bottle lot of 1969 Romanee Conti, which sold for $29,040 against a $24,000-32,000 estimate. Also from Romanee-Conti was a single bottle of the illustrious 1999 vintage - considered to be one of the vineyard's finest - which made $13,310.
Also selling well were five magnums of Chateau Petrus' 1975 vintage, which brought an 8.9% increase on the $15,000-20,000 valuation, making $21,780. Petrus has been one of the most successful Bordeaux wines of 2012 so far, with strong results seen across the board.
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