The Importance of Provenance
On the occasion of the final wine auction of the year here at Bruun Rasmussen, we would like to take a step back from the broader assortment of wine and turn to the subject of provenance. This subject came to mind after a visit to a wine cellar of a high quality, where we were allowed to taste a very special glass of wine. But provenance plays a role in several of the auction's great bottles, which can all be bid on until Sunday 25 December at 8 pm.
"1981: A good claret vintage, the sort that the British buy for drinking not for display or investment." (1) These words were written by the late and impeccable gentleman Michael Broadbent. One must assume that this is a vintage with an early drinking window and not a wine with a long and happy life ahead of it. A wine that can be enjoyed while waiting for the really great vintages to get ready for the podium, where they can flex their muscles.
(1) Michael Broadbent´s Vintage Wine - Fifty years of tasting three centuries of wine s. 98.
A Provenance that Hits the SpotIt was precisely such a wine that was in the glass on an early autumn day this year, served as a blind tasting and bursting with red fruit freshness, wet mushroom and plenty of delicately understated and well-integrated barrel. 41 years after being bottled, the poured wine was in top form, and the astonishment was great, but the sense of pride even greater, at having guessed the area correctly. We will skip over all the other guesswork made on that day. In the glass was a Domaine de Chevalier 1981, which is described as follows by Mr Broadbent: "easy but showing its age (13 years)." (2) The wine was a monumental testament to what good provenance can do for the tasting experiences we present to each other when we sit around the table. Such an event is both full of shared joy over the wine we pour, but at the same time also excitement about whether our creations will dance over the many other expectant taste buds and place their gentle embraces in the innermost part of our mouths. (2) Michael Broadbent´s Vintage Wine - Fifty years of tasting three centuries of wine s. 99. |
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Delicate Care Also Provides a Good ProvenanceThis wine and its many brothers and sisters have been carefully stored in the same box and travelled from the winemaker to the collector's wine cellar. Always kept in a damp, dark and cold place, and only brought out when lucky guests were invited to festive occasions or perhaps just served on a Tuesday in November when a little blushing and dancing on the tables was called for. The bottles that fill out the visual side of this newsletter are wines where the provenance is top notch, including that the consigner is known to us and that we have on occasion inspected this collection in its entirety – and in some cases been offered a glass.
We raise our glasses to you all and wish you good luck at the final auction of the year. |
For further information, please contact:
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Thomas Rosendahl AndersenThomas Rosendahl AndersenHead of department / Glostrup |
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Thomas Løbner-OlesenThomas Løbner-OlesenSpecialist / Glostrup |
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Thomas HegaardThomas HegaardSpecialist / Glostrup |