May 2025 Fine & Rare Wine Auction Results

Our May 2025 Fine & Rare Wine auction held plenty of delights for wine lovers with some legendary vintages and iconic producers. Read on for some of the highlights.

Legendary Vintages

Amongst the top bottles in the auction were a handful of examples from the legendary 1961 vintage, a year with near perfect growing conditions in France that gave us our top lot of the month from Paul Jaboulet Aine, this 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle. This stunning 100 pointer from one of the Rhone’s steepest and most picturesque vineyards, sold for a hammer price of £4,300.

Speaking of 100 pointers, another of the top lots, this time from Bordeaux’s Pauillac region, also achieved this accolade with Robert Parker calling it ‘one of the 20th Century’s most profound wines’. The wine in question was this 1961 Chateau Latour sold in the auction for £1,600.

Also featuring from this outstanding year were a 1961 Chateau Mouton Rothschild (£1,100) and Chateau Haut Brion (£1,050).

Another of the last century’s most revered vintages was 1982 and second spot in the auction was taken by a 1982 Chateau Petrus sold for £2,500, while a 1982 Chateau Margaux fetched £420.

The turn of the Millennium provided a more recent vintage afforded legendary status, particularly in Bordeaux, and on offer was this strikingly bottled 2000 Chateau Mouton Rothschild that ended the sale with a winning bid of £800.

Large Format Bottles

What’s better than a bottle of wine? An even bigger bottle of wine! And for those who enjoy entertaining, or just have a particular thirst, there was a range of large format bottles available.

The Champagne category held the majority of these big bottles, ideal for special occasions, and included magnums of 1973 Bollinger RD, bottled to celebrate the wedding of the then Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 (£330), 2005 Louis Roederer (£130), 2013 Pol Roger (£130 each) and 1992 Nicolas Feuillatte Cuvee Palmes d’Or (£140).

Outside of Champagne, there were two magnums of 1996 Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse De Lalande sold for £410 each, a 2000 Chateau Montrose £270 and a 2010 Chateau Gruaud Larose (£150). California’s Napa Valley served up a bold red in the shape of this magnum of 2002 Groth Oakville, sold for £65.

For fans of fortifieds, a couple of magnums of Dow’s 1985 Vintage Port fetched £85 a piece.

And if a magnum just isn’t enough, then there was a Jeroboam of 1981 Leoville Las Cases (£450) or a hand painted jeroboam of 2016 Castello di Albola Acciaiolo, donated as a charity lot that raised £340 for The Drinks Trust.

New World

Multiple vintages of Opus One, the Robert Mondavi and Baron Phillippe de Rothschild collaboration, always popular at auction, led the New World category with 2003 (£250), 2005 (£320) and 2018 (£230) vintages available.

Also among the best selling lots were multiple cuvees from Australia’s Penfolds with the top lot amongst them being this 1998 Penfolds Grange, sold for £230. A 1970 Penfolds Grange Hermitage fetched £85 and a bottle of the less oaky 1998 Penfolds St. Henri Shiraz sold for £70.

For those looking to try something from outside of what are regarded as the world’s traditional wine regions then perhaps this 2021 Long Dai from China’s Qui Shan Valley (£75) would tick that box. Although coming from a region maybe unfamiliar to some wine drinkers, the wine is produced by the very familiar name of Domaines Barons de Rothschild.

Roundup

Among the dessert wines were a few vintages from the revered Chateau d’Yquem. This 1959 vintage sold for £875, while a 1983 fetched £370.

There was some competitive late bidding on one of the oldest vintages in the auction, this 1942 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, eventually ending on £300. A late forties vintage of 1949 Chateau Margaux was also available and also fetched £300.

The Burgundy category contained a bountiful choice of great wines including a 1990 Gevrey Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques (£925) from Armand Rousseau and a pair of 2005 Musigny Grand Cru from Domaine Comte Georges de Vogue (£550-£575) as well as some delicious whites such as a 2016 Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru (£525) and 1996 Batard Montrachet Grand Cru (£440), both from Domaine Leflaive.

See the full May Fine & Rare Wine Auction results here.

See our past auction roundups here.