Wine Sale Celebrating 40 Vintages of Château La Mission Haut-Brion Exceeds High Estimate, Bringing £1.5m / $2m

LONDON, 13 NOVEMBER 2024 – On 7 November at Sotheby’s in London, a sale of wines directly sourced from the cellars of Château La Mission Haut-Brion in Bordeaux brought an above-estimate £1.54m / $2m (est. $1.1-1.48m), with 68% of the lots sold achieving prices above their high estimates. The sale attracted participants from 25 countries across Europe, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East and North Africa. Buyers in North America were the dominant force, accounting for more than 50% of the overall spend, while a quarter of the total number of overall buyers were new to Sotheby’s. By the time the hammer fell on the final lot, three auctioneers had conducted the nine-hour auction in rotation.

The sale was held to celebrate 40 vintages produced under the ownership of the Clarence Dillon family who acquired the estate in 1983. Complementing the four-decade range of bottles on offer, the sale also featured wines from the pre-Domaine Clarence Dillon era, spanning 1920 to 1982 – including Châteaux Laville Haut-Brion and La Tour Haut-Brion – in addition to the Saint-Émilion Grand Cru estate Château Quintus and its second wine, Le Dragon de Quintus.

Nick Pegna, Global Head of Wine and Spirits, Sotheby’s, said “We were honoured to be entrusted with this extraordinary sale by HRH Prince Robert of Luxembourg. Ex-Château provenance sits right at the top in terms of desirability and La Mission is often cited by collectors as the wine they choose to return to. With their enduring appeal, these wines have always performed very well at auction and this strong result is further recognition of their exceptional quality.”

Top lots:

• Bordeaux experience for six at Domaine Clarence Dillon, sold for £22,500 ($29,344)
• Dinner for six at the exceptional 2-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Clarence in Paris, sold for £18,750
  ($24,454)
• La Mission Haut-Brion 1990, 6 Magnums, sold for £15,000 ($19,563)
• La Mission Haut-Brion 1989, 1 Jeroboam, sold for £13,750 ($17,933)
• La Mission Haut-Brion 1982, 1 Jeroboam, 1 Jeroboam, sold for £12,500 ($16,302)
• La Mission Haut-Brion 1990, 12 bottles, 12 bottles, sold for £12,500 ($16,302)

Records:

• La Mission Haut-Brion 1959, 1 bottle, sold for £8,125 ($10,597), est. £2,400-3,200
• La Mission Haut-Brion 1961, 1 bottle, sold for £10,000 ($13,042), est. £2,800-3,500
• La Mission Haut-Brion 1982, 1 Jeroboam, sold for £12,500 ($16,302), est. £4,800-6,500
• La Mission Haut-Brion 1989, 1 Jeroboam, sold for £13,750 ($17,933), est. £6,500-8,500

The exceptionally rare mature white wines of La Mission Haut-Brion, produced under the Château Laville Haut-Brion label, performed strongly. Vintages spanning 1968 through to 2010 were 100% sold, with several lots of the older Laville Haut-Brions achieving prices three times the low estimate.

MORE ABOUT THE WINES IN THE SALE

Facing each other across a narrow road, La Mission Haut-Brion, together with Haut-Brion itself, are the two ‘twins’ of top Bordeaux. The two wines have very different characters, despite being under the same ownership and winemaking team. Considered a monument of the wines of the Bordeaux appellation, La Mission is regarded as the unequivocal sixth First Growth, joining the ranks of the official five estates honoured with the famous classification of Bordeaux wines in 1855. Having taken its rightful place among the great wines of France, this exceptional estate repeatedly draws accolades from esteemed wine connoisseurs the world over.

Starting with the 1991 vintage, a second red wine was created at La Mission: La Chapelle de La Mission Haut-Brion. Benefitting from the same terroir as its older sibling, it is today regarded as more than La Mission’s second wine, and can be compared to some of the best classified growths in Bordeaux.

One of the world’s most interesting and age-worthy dry white wines, Château La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc (formerly also named Château Laville Haut-Brion) is often considered to be on a par with the very finest white Burgundies, making it one of the most distinguished white wines in the world.

In 2011, Domaine Clarence Dillon acquired a superb property in Saint-Émilion, now known as Château Quintus. Further expansion followed with the further purchase of two neighboring estates in 2013 and another in 2021. Château Quintus now forms a 45-hectare estate made up of some of the finest parcels and terroirs, in Saint-Émilion. The estate was named Quintus (Latin for fifth) in order to represent both the importance of its Roman heritage (the Gallo-Romans, creators of the vineyards of Saint-Émilion, had the habit of naming their fifth child Quintus) – but also the fact that this is the fifth child and therefore an equal in the portfolio of exceptional and rare Domaine Clarence Dillon wines. Since the purchase, the family firm has worked to implement the same principles of uncompromising excellence at Quintus that they have applied over generations at Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion.

SOTHEBY’S COMMUNICATIONS TEAM 

MATTHEW FLORIS | MATTHEW.FLORIS@SOTHEBYS.COM | ZOE MALLIAROS | ZOE.MALLIAROS@SOTHEBYS.COM | FEI YIP | FEI.YIP@SOTHEBYS.COM