Beschreibung:

Bonnes Mares--Vintage 1961
6 magnums per lot
A REGAL ARRAY OF EXQUISITE WINES WITH THE FINEST PROVENANCE It is an honor and a pleasure to bring the following magnificent collection to market. It is a true collection of rarities, put together with great care and personal attention by one of the world's great collectors. This dream cellar was carefully assembled and meticulously documented - the buyer will notice that we have left the hand-typed tags applied by the consignor to document the provenance. It was housed in a custom-built cellar and very carefully removed to Hong Kong for your bidding pleasure. The collection is literally a museum of the greatest wines of the 20th century, and wines of this caliber rarely come to auction. The nucleus of the collection was a Christie's sale in New York on December 7, 1996 entitled "The Magnificent Cellar of the Late William A.M. Burden," a man who, during his life, amassed one of the greatest private collections of all time. Mr. Burden was a descendent of Commodore Vanderbilt through his mother's family, the Twomblys. He was born in 1906 and passed away in 1984, and had a distinguished and varied career as a banker, aviation and defense expert, civil servant, and advisor to numerous institutions including the Museum of Modern Art. A personal friend of the famous importer Frank Schoonmaker, Mr. Burden was a frequent visitor to Bordeaux, where he often dined at Mouton, and had fond memories of what he called the "big" weekends, in which pre-phylloxera wines were drunk at the Château. In the 1950s, he formed his own licensed importing company to facilitate stock coming direct from the wineries of Europe. The Burden cellar, from which most of this offering came, was located at "Uplands," the weekend home purchased by Mr. Burden's mother in Mt. Kisco, NY in 1918. The cellar was deep underground, but was also cooled mechanically, at 52 degrees Farenheit and 80 humidity. The cellar was inspected by Christie's in 1984 and again in 1996 for the sale, and was considered the finest modern cellar in the United States. To this core of spectacular wines the present consignor added selectively certain lots, almost always purchased from single-owner sales in the early- and mid-nineties. After purchase on December 7, the current owner laid these wines in his New York City temperature and humidity controlled private cellar, where they have lain untouched for the past 14 years. This collection represents not the largest, but certainly one of the finest to come to market in the past decade. We invite any inquiries that you might have regarding this cellar. DOMAINE CLAIR-DAU In the 1960s and 1970s, few Burgundy Domaines were holding back wines from each great vintage, for estate-bottling. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, of course, Armand Rousseau, Henri Gouges, Marquis d'Angerville, Ramonet and Leflaive spring to mind, all highly regarded - and also Clair-Daü. This large estate is rather improbably in Marsannay, near Dijon. Today, the estate is half the size it was then, as there have been family divisions and sales. The style of wine has somewhat changed, too, now being deliciously silky and relatively early-drinking. Back in the 1960s, however, the Domaine was making richly structured, densely concentrated wines, with splendid tannins, which required long ageing. The 1961 will be magnificent, old-fashioned Burgundies of great complexity, now fully mature. They are iconic examples from Burgundy's history, and from one of its greatest estates. Bonnes Mares--Vintage 1961 Côte de Nuits, Clair Daü Lot 168 levels: one 4.5cm, two 5cm, one 5.5cm, one 6cm, one 6.5cm; three very lightly corroded capsules, one sign of old seepage, very lightly bin soiled labels Lot 169 levels: one 4cm, two 4.5cm, one 5cm, two 5.5cm; one lightly corroded capsule, one sign of old seepage, very lightly bin soiled labels, very lightly scuffed labels 6 magnums per lot