Thanks to Weekly Standard reader Cole Kendall who kindly passes on to me the rather extensive (and much misspelled) inventory list for the R.W. Apple wine auction since I had complained that in the Washington Post article, only one vintage had been mentioned.
And while I’m not about to elaborate on every single bottle (the list represents bottles from Apple’s cellars in Gettysburg and Georgetown and runs 11 pages), for those who are interested, I will be happy to mention a few.
So you are interested! Congratulations! I could tell you are more sophisticated than those philistines who can’t differentiate between a Yellow Tail Cab and a Bordeaux from Chateau Latour 1966, which happens to be on the list.
Not that everything is a home run: As our friend Mr. Kendall notes, “In the Apple collection, for example, the first wine, Ch. Larose Tritaudon 1984 sells for $15 to $20 in recent vintages, and 1984 was one of the lesser Bordeaux vintages of the 1980s. These bottles are curiosities that might not be unpleasant but are not highly valued.” On the other hand, “Romanee-Conti Richebourg 1966 goes for around $1,000 per bottle. While I have not had this wine, it is a great producer in a great vineyard from a pretty good year.”
One of my oenophile colleagues (although I call him an oenophile, he claims he was just doing research!) was struck by the ten bottles of 1998 Shea Belles Souers, three bottles of 1997 Shea Beaux Fréres and two from 2002, all from the vineyards of Mr. Wine himself, Robert Parker (who has never rated his own, though they are without question superior). Some of the other wines that caught my coworker’s eye include a 1995 Cornas from Auguste Clape (“Give it another 10 or 15 years”), a 1966 Chateau D’Yquem Sauternes, and California wines straight out of Judgment of Paris.
On the other hand, the Chateau Haut Brion 1969 Cab signed by a number of journalists and members of the Carter administration, writes Mr. Kendall, “is a great chateau in a poor vintage where the signatures might be more significant than the wine inside the bottle.”
But can anyone truly place monetary value on wine possibly signed by Bert Lance?
