Dear Friends,
Our Christmas sale of wines, champagnes, whisky, port and brandy concludes our year. I encourage you to look at the catalogue online (from the weekend before the sale). It’s only 120 or so lots, each with a photograph and all from local homes and mostly offered without reserves.
It’s on the 17th December at 11 am and you can bid online by registering with UKAuctioneers.com. Viewing is by appointment during the week of the 14th December so please give Melanie a ring on 01895 621991.
A clearance of a Fulham home has supplied us with two big lots of table wines. They all look very drinkable and I valued them at £2 to £3 a bottle. However, knowing how discerning you all are, we do have some cracking vintages from the premier chateaux such as Latour, Margaux and Lafite-Rothschild, Pavie and Canon, Haut-Brion and wines from the famous Sotheby sale of The Cartier Collection. Champagnes have come from some of the best houses including Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon, Bollinger, Pol Roger (Sir Winston Churchill 1995), and the premier of Champagnes, Salon. The last lot of the sale is a Methuselah of Veuve Cliquot. That’s 4 litres of fun and fizz and a guaranteed way to get the party going. An unopened case of 6 bottles by Jules Camuset and 6 magnums of Drappier Carte d’Or can sort out Boxing Day and three lots, each an unopened box of Veuve Clicquot with two glasses, will make great presents. Several dozens of the champagnes and wines come from temperature-controlled cellarage in Kensington.
Your fine dining table, heaving with seasonal fare, and bubbling with conversation and fun, will certainly need port to accompany the Christmas pud or cheese. Yes, guess what, we have port in abundance including two magnums of Taylor’s late bottled 1974 and 1976, both in wooden boxes, ripe for gifts; another gem is by Warre, a 1920 vintage bottled in 1922. Grahams, Taylors, Fonseca and Dow are also represented.
And as the evening draws in, what better way to relax whilst watching The Queen on catch-up than a measure of single malt whisky or, my preference, a balloon of fine cognac. We have them all from Johnnie Walker Red and Black labels through 12 year old Bunnahabhain, Aberlour, Glenlivet, Oban, Lagavulin, Cardhu, Glenfiddich, 21 year old Glenfarclas Glenmorangie, to a litre bottle of 12 year old Macallan and 21 year old Springbank Cambeltown with brandies by Remy Martin, Courvoisier, Grand Marnier, Hennessy, Janneau, Hine, Martell and more. One bottle of ‘Fine Napoleon Grand Champagne’ brandy says on its label that it is 40 years old. It was presented to the father of our vendor for his 40th birthday, which was in 1957. That makes it 103 years old. It was specially bottled for Fortnum & Mason.
And if you feel a bit of lockdown latitude why not bid on the vodka, Martini, Vermouth, sherry, liqueurs, foreign spirits, rum and more…
We’ll see you all at the sale, in a virtual sort of way!
So, here’s to a Covid-free Christmas and hoping your bubble doesn’t burst.
Best wishes,
Peter and staff
p.s. Do you know the best way to avoid touching your face? A glass of wine in each hand! (sorry)
p.p.s. What auctioneers get up to in their spare time!
