Sotheby’s is to auction a major European collection of fine wines, capped by three bottles of Petrus 1995.

Each is expected to make £16,000-22,000 ($22,177-30,494) in the January 27 sale in London.

Other big names include Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau Latour.

This cliff face hides a secret grotto stuffed full of wine bottles

The vast majority of the wines on offer date from the 1990s to the early 2000s and have plenty of aging left in them.

The anonymous seller lives on a large estate somewhere in northern Europe and kept her collection in a grotto.

Sotheby’s wine expert James Reed recalls seeing the collection for the first time: “The vendor, a retired lady with a very engaging manner and an inexhaustible fund of energy, had given me explicit instructions, as well as a map, indicating exactly where I would find it.

“I still struggled. It was located in a particularly beautiful region, and the entrance itself is at the foot of a sheer rock face.

“Once inside, my colleagues and I were confronted by a bare rock cavern, the walls clearly showing the pick marks, with smaller chambers branching off at random. Underfoot was bare earth.

“Scattered about were pallets of wine, plastic wrapped against the damp, neatly and methodically stacked and with the case ends facing outwards to aid identification.

“It quickly became clear that the vendor knew exactly where every case was. She was justifiably proud of her collection.”

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