Private Bin is not an expert on wine cellars but knows enough to be impressed.Or at least, enough to be embarrassed to bring a €10 bottle randomly selected during a self-itinerated bicycle ride near Creon in the Bordeaux region, to a French family li
Private Bin is not an expert on wine cellars but knows enough to be impressed.
Or at least, enough to be embarrassed to bring a €10 bottle randomly selected during a self-itinerated bicycle ride near Creon in the Bordeaux region, to a French family living in a converted barn in a tiny town south of Paris.
Not only did the family have a wine cellar dug out of the basement, but beautifully aged Burgundy reds with labels impossible to read for the dust.
Private Bin was was knocked by a recent visit to a local restaurant cellar - or
library as it was called - featuring collectors' wine from New Zealand and overseas.
Magnums and even jeroboams (holding four times the amount of normal bottles) were in evidence with such famous Kiwi reds as Antipodes and Coleraine.
Among the French premier crus were sauternes from Chateau d'Yquem.
Private Bin salivates when recalling that in 2006 The Antique Wine Company in London sold a 135-year Yquem "vertical" (containing every vintage from 1860 to 2003) for $1.5 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a single lot of wine.
Equally renowned drops from California and Australia made one wonder who will ever get to drink them.
