A bottle of Ferreira port dating from the 1815 vintage goes on sale at a charity auction in London 7 May to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
The bottle, one of 50 from that year in Ferreira’s collection, dates from the oldest vintage that it holds and has been kept in its cellars for the past two centuries.
The sale, being held at the Tower of London and conducted by Stephen Mould, head of Sotheby’s European wine department, comes as demand for rare, older wines remains buoyant. Two six- bottle lots of Quinta do Noval Nacional 1963 port fetched £23,500 ($35,700) each at a Sotheby’s sale in London in November, equivalent to about $6,000 a bottle.
“It’s a wine that is 200 years old, that is full of history,” said Fernando Guedes, chief executive officer of Ferreira owner Sogrape, in a telephone interview. “It’s not only drinkable, it’s an exceptional vintage.”
Guedes said he had personally had the opportunity to taste the vintage and described it as “a very lively wine, very elegant, very complex.”
A second lot at this week’s sale comprises five Ferreira port bottles from 1947, 1952, 1985, 1994 and 1997. The Ferreira port house itself dates back to 1751, and has remained in Portuguese ownership since its foundation.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
