Friday, August 21, 2009

Drink What "21" Drinks


Want to drink what the swells at the "21" Club drink, but at home? Here's your chance. The famed New York eatery is offering up some choice blocks of its overstuffed wine cellar holding for auction. The sale will take place at Christie's on Sept. 12. (The day after my birthday. Hint, hint.)

more than 630 bottles from the "21" cellars will be on the block.

What's available? Well, you know what those bigwigs like. Bordeaux and Burgundy. Lafite, Latour, Margaux, Mouton-Rothchild, Cheval-Blanc, Haut-Brion, as well as some slightly lesser bottles. Much of this is from the 2005 Bordeaux vintage, which has been heralded as hot stuff. There's also some from 2000, another big deal vintage, and '88, '85, '82, etc. I also saw some Rothschild, Latour and Haut-Brion from 1945 on the roster. Oldest? Some Romanee-Conti from 1934. Bring along $8,000 is you want a bottle.

You could get two bottles of Screaming Eagle 2006 for $3,500, a price that would make any eagle scream. Estimated prices in general range from $300 to $40,000 (1 jeroboam of Latour 1959), $45,000 (a jeroboam of Latour 1949) and $60,000 (three magnums of Cheval-Blanc 1947).

Don't have that much to spend? Go for the six half bottles of Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 2003. Only $100. Poor riesling. Always undervalued.

When asked why they were getting rid of so much good wine, a spokesperson for "21" cited housekeeping. They've only got so much space in the basement, and they have to bring some new bottles in.

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