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Home > News > Intriguing Discoveries

News > Intriguing Discoveries

Intriguing Discoveries

12th December 2009:

What I love most about working at Essentially Wine is the fact that no two days are the same. A large value sale can raise the spirits, as can positive feedback from a satisfied customer. The day that Dr. Rosemary Northfield popped in to see us was very definitely a special day. Dr Northfield came armed with three bottles of Cognac. Two had very damaged labels and were labelled Berry Bros & Rudd of St. James’s.  These bottles were not really worth auctioning due to the state of the labels and also because they were relatively young, being bottled in the 1960’s, although would be fabulous drinking now.

    

The third bottle seemed quite a bit more intriguing -- the label was dated 1812. The cognacs had come from the eclectic wine collection of Dr. Northfield’s Father.

    

Dr. Northfield ‘s intention, if the cognacs were worth a reasonably valuable, was to donate the proceeds to Guide Dogs for the Blind, a charity that she and her mother had supported over the years.

    

So, on a sunny Wednesday in October, I took a leisurely train up to Town to obtain an informed view from a specialist Cognac expert.  The third bottle was indeed of great interest, and our Cognac expert was summoned to opine. He became very excited and told me that the bottle could be worth a considerable amount. He ushered me down to his Cellars, into the Napoleon 3rd cellar, and showed me a glass cabinet containing a bottle similar to “Ours”. The expert’s bottle was in the Cognac flute shape and was a slightly younger bottle. Incredibly, the bottle from Dr. Northfield had been hand blown. The label bears the year 1812 and is a Grande Champagne Imperiale, bearing the Imperial Crested button of Napoleon Bonaparte.

In the end I made a quick dash to South Kensington to The Christies Wine Department, where interest in the bottle was confirmed. I was relieved to part with the cognac, as I suddenly realised I was careering around the West End with Cognac bottled in the same year that Boney and his defeated troops were retreating from Moscow. Christies put an estimate of £800-£1,000 on the bottle.

    

On the 10th December 2009 at 2.30pm Rosemary Northfield and I sat in one of the auction rooms at Christies, listening & watching with some fascination at the speed of the Auctioneers as they rattled through the lots. Eventually LOT 517 came up.

  

 “Cognac Napolean, Grande Fine Champagne Imperiale – vintage 1812 “N” embossed glass shoulder button with the Imperial Crown. Badly damaged old wax capsule. Badly bin-soiled and damaged label. Level  8cms. Below base of cork”

    

The bidding started at £1,000 and there was a telephone bid or two and a nod and a wink in the room . In next to no time the bottle was sold for £1,700 to a UK based collector. All of which is very good news for Dr. Northfield and the Guide Dogs for the blind.

   

I think it’s time we all looked in those deepest, darkest recesses of our cellars & attics for the next gem.