Wines from leading Burgundy producer Armand Rousseau achieved three of the top 10 lots at a Hart Davis Hart Wine Co. auction in Chicago this month as wines from the grower sold for a total $277,957, beating presale estimates.
A 12-bottle case of its Chambertin 2002 and a 16-bottle collection of its Chambertin spanning every year from 1996 to 2011 each sold for $22,705 while six magnums of its Chambertin 2004 sold for $19,120. The winery has been based in the Côte de Nuits village of Gevrey-Chambertin for more than a century.
The two-day Hart auction, which ended 14 February, came amid signs that the broader wine market is starting to revive after a three-year slide in prices for top Bordeaux wines, even as demand has remained sustained for older Burgundies. The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index has risen for five of the past six months.
The auction results “have us excited for the months ahead,” Paul Hart, chief executive officer of Hart, said in the e-mailed results statement. “High quality Burgundy, among other regions, is undeniably trading at a premium.”
Two bottles of Romanée-Conti 1962 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti sold for $35,850 while eight bottles of La Tache 1990 DRC fetched $28,680 and 12 bottles of Romanée-Saint-Vivant 2001 Domaine Leroy went for $20,315, according to Hart.
Among leading Bordeaux wine in the auction, 12 bottles of Château Pétrus 1989 sold for $41,825 while six magnums of Pétrus 1970 fetched $33,460 and a six-litre imperial from the same Pomerol estate sold for $31,070.
Older wines in the auction included a single bottle of 1972 Romanée-Conti, which fetched $11,353, according to Hart. The entire auction totalled $4.91 million.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
