Private Cellar of Joseph Phelps to be Sold

The Drinks Business
“Private Cellar of Joseph Phelps to be Sold”

by Rupert Millar
November 19, 2020


"The private cellar of the late Joseph Phelps, spanning over 5,000 bottles of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, Champagne and Napa wines, is to be auctioned off by Hart Davis Hart this December.

"The collection will be offered at HDH’s sale on 18-19 December.
An active collector for decades, he valued provenance, condition and storage highly and all of the wines were either kept at his winery or in a temperature-controlled cellar at his home.

"…The collection includes parcels of his own wine including an 18-bottle vertical of his ‘Insignia’ and a 12-bottle case of the 1976 (est. US$4,000-$6,000).

He also acquired wines from friends and neighbours in California and the ale includes the likes of Heitz Cellar’s 1974 Martha’s Vineyard (six btls est. $7,000-$10,000), Stag’s Leap 1973 ‘SLV’ (10 btls est. $9,500-$14,000) and Ridge Vineyard’s 1971 “Eisele’ Cabernet Sauvignon (two btls est. $4,000-$6,000).

“In addition he was a keen collector of European domains and highlights include a bottle of 1865 Château Lafite ($11,000-$17,000), two bottles of 1934 Haut-Brion, a bottle of 1918 La Mission Haut-Brion, bottles of Henri Jayer’s 1980 Richebourg and Vosne-Romanée ‘Beaux Monts’ and 1966 Romanée-Conto from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, 10 bottles of Marius Gentaz-Dervieux’s 1977 Côte Rôtie, Côte Brune, a bottle of 1961 Salon, a bottle of Bollinger’s 1975 Vieilles Vignes Françaises and six bottles of 1898 Sercial Solera Madeira from Henriques & Henriques…”.


Read the entire article here:

I met Joe several times at LiquorMart/Boulder when he was still in the construction biz in CO. A lot of those wines came from LM. Those Sercials he paid about $18/btl.
Tom

Have to imagine somewhat of a sad back-story to selling off the family collection. Though maybe this is just part?

Ridge Vineyard’s 1971 “Eisele’ Cabernet Sauvignon (two btls est. $4,000-$6,000).

2 bottles for $4,000. Seems a bit more than release price. Think of what newer vintage wines you could buy for that!

That is a very rare and famous wine that should still be drinking well, especially from great provenance like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if the lot exceeds the top end of the range. People pay that much for current vintage Screagle. I was actually surprised by some of the estimate ranges – they were lower than I’d expect, not that I swim in these waters.

I find it hard to believe that this family is selling out of need. Maybe it’s the tip of the iceberg? Maybe it’s for charity? Maybe it’s just to share? I hope it’s one of these.

I would guess the Sercials will go for more than $18 a bottle, but old dessert / fortified wines never seem to sell for much. If he bought those in 1970, if they appreciated at 5% compounded annually, they would go for $200. Curious to see if that is exceeded (I bet ‘yes’), and by how much (I bet ‘not much’ - but with a boost for provenance).

Dan Kravitz

maybe the family feels that sitting around drinking $5K bottles of wine is foolish.

+1

And maybe it’s not the entire cellar…and they probably have a pretty decent library built up over the years, too.

Interesting now that they’ve posted the lots, a lot of the Cali stuff from Phelps seems to have been recorked by wineries. Any thoughts on whether this is a good or bad thing from an auction value perspective? I would think that anything that makes the bottle “non-original” in any way wouldn’t be good, but given the provenance and knowledge that it was done at the winery… is it actually a good thing because they’ll last longer than other examples of the same wine?

took a glance at this for entertainment purposes and the pricing is crazy, anyone interested in the generic 1975 Joseph Phelps Syrah in not particularly good condition for $300/bottle? Older Bordeaux and Northern Rhone also getting some incredible prices. It’s like, the high end of the estimate is below the starting point of the bidding and the final price often ends up being not just above the high end but multiples of it.

IIRC, the 1975 Phelps Syrah was the second commercial bottling of Syrah in the USA. last winebid sale was $120 I bought a 1976 bottle for under $50 back in 2016 and brought it to HdR where it drank like an old mostly dead red wine.

This sounds like the re-corking clinics for Penfolds “Grange” and, as I understand it, some Bordeaux wineries will occasionally do the same at their chateaux…

It should be a good thing.

Went for $19k! Makes it really hard to drink my one bottle.

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I’d sell it. I have opened a couple of bottles in the last few years. Can’t say it was a multi thousand dollar experience. Richer and more opulent than the usual old Monte Bello, but would not say better. I scored it the same as the 1971 MB, there were several wines in the tasting I preferred,

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Went for $19k! Makes it really hard to drink my one bottle.

Bidding war!

I thought I had submitted some safe, high bids today. But yikes, I got smoked on most lots.

Good to see some of these wines getting proper attention though!

As for the Napa wines that went 2-3x high estimate, I’m not sure this will move the needle in a meaningful way for future results.

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the Chave prices were astounding.

the Chave prices were astounding.

Apparently someone is making bank during the pandemic. I get some people have a ton of money but I wonder if some of this is bidding wars and I have to outbid someone else just to prove I can.

It seems like a lot of people were bidding in that opening run of old California wines like they were buying historic objets d’art for museum display instead of wines that you would drink, because the prices didn’t make that much sense for drinking.

Although I’ll admit I got sucked in and bought some 1977 Charles Krug Vintage Selection for $85/bottle all in – given the vintage I imagine it’s shot so I wasted my money, but when you see a Winebid type price at HDH it suddenly seems cheap even though it’s really not. Messes with your head. Oh well, it’s the first 1970s-era California Cabernet I’ve ever owned.