Where Can I Sell My Bottle of Cognac
The only remaining bottle of the world's oldest cognac volition sell at auction next week, and volition almost certainly prepare a new toll record for a bottle of the famous French brandy. Similar many of the world's nearly expensive cognacs, the bottle of Gautier Cognac was made prior to the phylloxera plague that wiped out Europe'south grapevines in the late 19th century.
Indeed, this cognac has been authenticated equally beingness a 1762 vintage Gautier Cognac, which means information technology was distilled 258 years ago during the reign of King Louis XV of France, nearly three decades before the French Revolution of 1789.
Three bottles (two small and one large) of the rare Gautier Cognac 1762 were discovered, having been held in the aforementioned family for generations with their original labels attached.
The bottles can been traced back to the 1880s at Lachaise, a town in the Cognac region of French republic, and were owned by the Donsir family unit. The drinking glass canteen containers date from around 1840, at which time they were filled with a cognac distilled past Cognac House Gautier in 1762.
The story of the Donsir family buying began when the family adopted a son past the name of Alphonse. Alphonse went to the vineyards of Cognac in 1870 to observe work, non long before the phylloxera outbreak. Phylloxera destroyed between 75 percentage and 90 percent of the vineyards of France, and a decade afterward Alphonse returned home with a cart laden with bottles – every bit vineyards had been financially ruined, they would often pay wages with the only form of currency available to them, which was the bottles of cognac they produced. Amidst these bottles representing Alphonse'south "savings" were three bottles of highly-regarded Gautier 1762. When WW1 commenced in 1914, Alphonse was conscripted to the French army, perishing that same year.
Alphonse's legacy was preserved in the form of his bottles of Gautier 1762, having been stored in the family unit cellars for a century, and will culminate on May 28 with the oldest vintage cognac ever to be sold at auction.
One of the smaller bottles is now housed in the Gautier Museum. The 265-yr-quondam cognac maker is still in business organisation, with the visitor having been passed downwards through 10 generations of the family, proudly displaying its near priceless royal warrant signed by King Louis XV himself in 1755.
Bonhams / Wealth Solutions / NewAtlas.com
The 2d smaller bottle of 1762 Gautier Cognac was auctioned past Bonhams in New York on April xxx, 2014, selling to an online bidder for a final price of $59,500.
Wealth Solutions
The winning bidder turned out to be Wealth Solutions, a Polish visitor that specializes in rare spirits and collectables. Once Wealth Solutions had secured the bottle information technology submitted the evidence to Guinness World Records and had the "world'south oldest cognac sold at auction" claim validated.
From there, Wealth Solutions did something quite unconventional that has the potential to change the marketplace for whisky, rum, cognac and other spirit collectors.
They opened the bottle!
Wealth Solutions / NewAtlas.com
Then the bottle was decanted in a ceremonial gathering and the apparently still drinkable contents were then resealed in much smaller bottles that had been allocated to partners.
Wealth Solutions
From there, the beginning partner in Wealth Solutions plan for the bottle was unveiled: Armin Strom, a Swiss Watch Manufacture.
Armin Strom then produced in a express edition mechanical timepiece with each wa;tch featuring a small drop of the cognac in a capsule. Simply 40 pieces of the lookout were made, with a mixture of stainless steel, 18k rose gilded and titanium cases.
Armin Strom / NewAtlas.com
The express edition watches were then shown to Armin Strom's best clients backside closed doors with a big percent of the production run sold prior to the watch existence announced at Baselworld 2016, the globe's best-known jewelry and watch fair. There are still stainless steel Cognac watches bachelor at €25,000 ($27,300) apiece.
Wealth Solutions didn't end there though, leveraging the $60,000 bottle of the world's oldest cognac into several more than items of trade.
Montegrappa
Wealth Solutions partnered with Italian manufacturer of writing instruments Montegrappa to create a limited edition Cognac Fountain Pen, this time containing drops of the world's oldest cognac so they are visible in the end of the fountain pen cap. In total, 100 silver fountain pens were paw-crafted, and 10 gold versions. The gold edition retailed for €12,000 (US$13,000) and the silver edition retailed for €four,000 (US$four,375).
Then Wealth Solutions as well partnered with Lux Coin visitor and the Mint of Poland to create 300 gold coins each containing a drop of the world'south oldest cognac and 2 ounces of pure gold. Wealth Solutions has now produced three coins series in collaboration with Lux Coin: a Whisky Money, Rum Coin, and the Cognac Money. The coins are all legal tender containing a capsule filled with rare and extremely former alcohol and each retailing for €vii,900 (The states$8,135) apiece.
The whisky coin contains the oldest whisky in the world (Old Vatted Glenlivet 1862), the second one is filled with the oldest rum in the earth (Harewood Rum 1780), and the Cognac Money is home to small amounts of the Cognac Gautier 1762.
The 1862 Glenlivet and 1780 Harewood Rum were purchased by Wealth Solutions in separate deals, and quite clearly, there's a commercial pattern forming that requires one-time and rare alcohol if it is to keep.
The bottle currently going to auction
Sotheby's
Now Wealth Solutions' obvious success in leveraging the moxie out of the world's oldest cognac is proficient news for whoever is selling the side by side bottle of the world'south oldest or rarest <fill in the proper noun of your favorite spirit hither>, but quite mayhap for non many other people, and certainly non for whisky, rum, cognac or any other collectors of spirits.
Given Wealth Solutions success in purchasing the last pocket-sized bottle for $60,000, ane can only assume that the visitor volition exist bidding on the adjacent bottle because it has exactly the aforementioned heritage and one of the three extant bottles was destroyed in creating the watches, fountain pens and coins.
That should brand the terminal and largest of these bottles going to sale at Sotheby's fifty-fifty more expensive equally it is the only one that will ever be available to the public. Already at that place are indications it will sell for far more than the previous bottle, and possibly become the most valuable canteen of vintage cognac in history.
Estimated by Sotheby'southward to sell for between £fourscore,000 and £160,000, at the fourth dimension of writing, with 8 days to become in the auction, the bottle had already been bid to £80,000 which, with the 20 pct buyers premium, means that the bottle will fetch around $120,000 if no other bids are logged. That's double the toll of the last bottle and counting down ... and the Sotheby's web site indicates that the reserve price has been passed, so it will definitely be selling.
Given that Wealth Solutions has now shown its mitt in how to leverage an investment such as this for brusk term gains, it seems even more probable we're going to run across a bidding war on this bottle and the world tape price for a bottle of cognac is non out of the question when behest closes at ten:00 PM on 28 May, 2022 (London time).
Andy Simpson of Rarewhisky101, one of the globe'due south best known and most respect rare whisky consultants, classifies sale bidders into iii categories: drinkers, collectors and investors.
Drinkers tin be excluded from this equation as in one case a standard bottle gets in a higher place $30,000, it is simply also expensive to beverage – $2000 a shot is about the indicate where rare spirits cross the line into a traded commodity that has transcended its original purpose as an alcoholic beverage.
Hence, traditionally, it is only the investors and the collectors that bid at sale for a bottle in this toll range. Given the above activities surrounding the final bottle of Gautier cognac nevertheless, it'due south quite possible we're going to see a new type of investor enter the fray on a regular basis.
In some ways it is analogous to the dismembering of books such every bit the elephant edition of John James Audubon'south Birds of America. Individually, the leaves of that book fetch more at sale than the whole, then nosotros're seeing copies dismembered and sold as private leaves.
If investors buy the oldest canteen of cognac and "amputate it", more than enthusiasts will be able to have a moment of what once was, merely what once was will no longer be, and that is a shame.
The auction records that could be broken
According to the Guinness Volume of Records, the world's most expensive bottle of cognac was an 1858 Cuvee Leonie that sold at sale for ¥ane,000,000 (US$156,544) in Shanghai (China) on September 24, 2011.
Nosotros believe that the retail record for a canteen of cognac is considerably college than $156,544, at very to the lowest degree considering BrandyClassics reported that London's appropriately named Hedonism Wines had sold an imperial three quarter gallon bottle of 1801 Massougnes Cognac for £222,000 on October 12, 2016, which translates to U.s.a.$270,761 at the exchange rates of the mean solar day.
Several of the vintage three-quarter gallon bottles had been caused past Hermitage Cognacs from Marie-Antoinette des Allées, Comtesse de la Bourdeliere whose family owns the erstwhile cognac producing estate. Marie-Antoinette des Allées is a direct descendant of French King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their children, King Richard of England and King John.
The Massougnes estate once boasted 360 hectares of vineyard merely the phylloxera plague which destroyed the vines meant that cognac production ceased 170 years ago. A second of the giant bottles of cognac dated 1805 was sold in 2022 for a price reported to be more than £200,000 – the verbal price fetched was never reported though information technology was listed at £246,600 (U.s.$302,000). The visitor also reported selling an 1805 jumbo-sized bottle for £148,000 in 2022 – around $230,000 at the time.
Sotheby's
Similarly, the auction tape for a bottle of cognac reported by Guinness World Records also appears to have been surpassed when Sotheby'southward sold three distinct versions of 50'Odyssée D'united nations Roi (Journey of a Male monarch) in three split auctions on different continents in 2016, with two of the three exceeding the Guinness World Record figure.
Designed to raise money for The Film Foundation'southward cinematic heritage preservation effort, the iii bespoke crystal decanters of unique blend of Louis Xiii Cognac were auctioned with nineteenth century maps etched into the decanter, each appropriate for the geography of the auction.
Offered by Sotheby's in New York (September 10, 2016), London (Oct 1, 2016), and Hong Kong (November 16, 2016, the New York Americas Decanter fetched US$134,750, the Hong Kong Asia Edition Decanter fetched HK$1,470,000 (US$189,520) and the London European Edition Crystal Magnum Decanter fetched £188,000 (US$234,142). The latter two both fix world records for a bottle of cognac sold at auction.
Quite clearly, the 1762 Gautier Cognac will need to double its current bid of $120,000 to take the globe auction tape, merely it may well exist that even at that lofty price, the extra value required to bid the bottle to become the "most expensive cognac in the earth" will give it the necessary gravitas to launch a new gear up of merchandise.
One wonders whether spirit collecting will e'er be the aforementioned again.
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Source: https://newatlas.com/collectibles/worlds-oldest-cognac-1762-gautier-auction/
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