Wine collectors will now be extremely excited at the mouth-watering prospect of Sotheby's sale of Lloyd Flatt's collection in New York.
We've already mentioned some of the key lots, but keeping the best 'til last, here are the two top lots of the exceptional sale:
Château Petrus 1982, with good colour and level is surely a difficult wine to beat. Sotheby's Serena Sutcliffe describes it as follows:
"Mature colour. A great nose of prunes, spices, huge character and "presence". Liquorice, with sweet, gummy definition. Some sweet aniseed. A lovely sweet "leather" taste. Now has a pruney finish, with sweet, soft cinnamon at the end. Really mocha as it lingers on the palate."
Petrus '82 was one of the great sellers of 2009. But she is perhaps even more generous about another potentially top lot:
"On everyone's list of mythical wines, but still very much present in its enormous vigour, dimension and complexity. The rich, pervasively scented bouquet leads to a great, treacly taste, with overlapping layers, plus fruit and tannin in massive doses."
This is Château Latour 1961. Both wines are held in their original wooden case (though the Latour has a slightly raised cork, which might unsettle some nerves) and each has been given an estimate of $25,000-35,000 in this Saturday's (March 20) sale.
But these are not sets of 12 bottles. Both lots are hefty, five litre jeroboams - serious investments or an evening more serious night of fine drinking.
