The Auswine Forum

In August 1993 Christies Auction House in Sydney comibined with Langtons for a major auction of Decorative Arts, Paintings, Furniture and Fine Wine.

The Catalogue for this auction was a collectible in itself, over 300 pages with colour plates of many of the lots. If you happen to have a copy, don't cheat!!.

The Wine component of the Auction was remarkable in that all the wines came from one collection. "The Anders Josephson Private Wine Collection"

The catalogue lists the wines, along with Langton's Estimate per Bottle.

The quiz is to give me the Estimate per bottle listed by Langtons for the list below. Note that this was in 1993 and the estimates do not include License Fee or Buyers Commission.

Bannockburn Pinot Noir 1986
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 1987
Lindeman's Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet 1985
Lindemans Bin 3110 Hunter River Burgundy Vintage 1965
Virgin Hills 'Gold Hill' Dry Red 1988
Yarra Yering No 1 1986
Wynns Michael Shiraz 1990
Penfolds Grange 1966
Penfolds Grange 1971
Penfolds Grange 1986

What; No One?

... and I had this whole Larry Emdur thing going as well..

This looks easy enough to join in the fun and easy enough to be way out.


Bannockburn Pinot Noir 1986 $20
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 1987 $20
Lindeman's Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet 1985 $15
Lindemans Bin 3110 Hunter River Burgundy Vintage 1965 $25
Virgin Hills 'Gold Hill' Dry Red 1988 $13
Yarra Yering No 1 1986 $25
Wynns Michael Shiraz 1990 $30
Penfolds Grange 1966 $150
Penfolds Grange 1971 $120
Penfolds Grange 1986 $100

Wild Guesses really. I got into wine seriously around 1995 so I know the retail prices from then on but that's when things just started going mad. Interested to see what the estimates were.

Don't forget this is the last friday before Christmas so I expect a few people are out christmas shopping or having long lunches rather than surfing the web!

All right I'll have a bit of a go - only have a vague idea

I went to one Langton's auction that year 71 Grange was just making $200 and 51 Grange sold for a then record price of $3000. 90 Michael was released in 93 and landed for just under $18 - too expensive for the Uni Wine Club I was running at the time. Just guessing for the others - but I remember I thought back vintages of St Henri between $25 and $40 was expensive

Bannockburn Pinot Noir 1986 $30
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 1987 $50
Lindeman's Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet 1985 $20
Lindemans Bin 3110 Hunter River Burgundy Vintage 1965 $50
Virgin Hills 'Gold Hill' Dry Red 1988 $20
Yarra Yering No 1 1986 $30
Wynns Michael Shiraz 1990 $66
Penfolds Grange 1966 $150
Penfolds Grange 1971 $200
Penfolds Grange 1986 $150

Thanks for the responses guys, great guesses, here's the estimates as listed with the closest picks.

Bannockburn Pinot Noir 1986 $25 (tie, both $5 out)
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 1987 $28 (babe)
Lindeman's Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet 1985 $32 (DJ closest but still way under)
Lindemans Bin 3110 Hunter River Burgundy Vintage 1965 $100 (DJ closest but still way under, babe $25????)
Virgin Hills 'Gold Hill' Dry Red 1988 - oop magnum price $50 (give it to DJ for hte $20 single bottle)
Yarra Yering No 1 1986 $40 (DJ)
Wynns Michael Shiraz 1990 $30 (Spot on Babe)
Penfolds Grange 1966 $170 (equal)
Penfolds Grange 1971 $180 (DJ)
Penfolds Grange 1986 $95 (babe)

I make it 5 for Kris, 7 for DJ.

I'm off to organise Christmas for the entire Castle.

I get as much thanks for my hard work there as I do here.

Bah. Humbug.

We would all be very well off with a little hindsight.

If my memory is correct the estimates were well exceeded given the prominence and provenance of the collection. It was my birthday 10 years ago. I did not get one of many circled lots.

The best buy was Brett Whiteley's "Summer, Lavender Bay" oil on canvas 61 x 97 cm painted in 1978 acquired from the artist's studio. Estimate $45,000- $60,000. Probably worth $250- 350,000.

Bannockburn Pinot Noir 1986 $25
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 1987 $28
Lindeman's Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet 1985 $31
Lindemans Bin 3110 Hunter River Burgundy Vintage 1965 $100

Virgin Hills 'Gold Hill' Dry Red 1988 #Note it was a magnum estimate for 2 magnums $50

Yarra Yering No 1 1986 $40

Wynns Michael Shiraz 1990
#Note it was bundled with 85,86 & 88
John Riddoch $30
Penfolds Grange 1966 $170
Penfolds Grange 1971 $180
Penfolds Grange 1986 $95![/b]

Neville,

From memory Vintage Cellars came out with a series of "Anders Josephson Collection" of packaged sets with mxed selectin of aged wines, so I presume they snapped up some from this auction which may have driven up resultant prices.

Bit of fun I guess. The stars of Langtons back then I think were more the Victorian classics, Virgin Hills and Yarra Yering, so I'd imagine they would attract some bigger money. Had Grange fully taken off (ie everyone collecting, including non wine buyers)?

Bannockburn Pinot Noir 1986 $10-20
Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 1987 $20-30
Lindeman's Limestone Ridge Shiraz Cabernet 1985 $15-20
Lindemans Bin 3110 Hunter River Burgundy Vintage 1965 $45+(?? I really have no idea)
Virgin Hills 'Gold Hill' Dry Red 1988 $30-40
Yarra Yering No 1 1986 $40-50
Wynns Michael Shiraz 1990 $25

and I think DJ was pretty close with the Grange targets

Penfolds Grange 1966 $100-150
Penfolds Grange 1971 $150-200
Penfolds Grange 1986 $100-150

TA

Neville K wrote:
The best buy was Brett Whiteley's "Summer, Lavender Bay" oil on canvas 61 x 97 cm painted in 1978 acquired from the artist's studio. Estimate $45,000- $60,000. Probably worth $250- 350,000.

b]

That would have been a good buy if the provenance was ok. I have seen many allegedly original works by Whitely.
When I was a student there was a guy called Jeffrey Smart having an exhibition and you could buy early ones of his for 25 000 dollars.
michel

Murray wrote:Neville,

From memory Vintage Cellars came out with a series of "Anders Josephson Collection" of packaged sets with mxed selectin of aged wines, so I presume they snapped up some from this auction which may have driven up resultant prices.

Murray

Vintage Cellars had their Anders Josephson stuff in 1997 - mostly Josephson's overstocks, all bought directly from Josephson, very small volumes of the really good stuff. The hassle of the Josephson stuff is burnt on my memory it happened in the one year I worked for VC full time. (Even on the worst day in the Public Service I am glad I'm no longer in retail). From memory the Josephson auction was partly a publicity event as the Josephson collection was launched. The VC brand was only launched in about 1993, so I'd be surprised if they had much to do with the auction.

David

The Christie's -Langton's auction I think was the first Sydney Live auction for the Auction Houses where hitherto no buyer's premium was applicable under NSW legislation.

Langton's levied 5% Buyer's premium and Christie's 10% for this sale.

Being a big roadshow into the Sydney market the auction was held at the Ritz-Carlton over 3 days and the wine auction trumpeted Anders Josephon's investment into blue chip aussie classics stored under temperature controlled conditions which Andrew Caillard termed "impeccable provenance". It was perhaps the first large scale marketing strategy of ultra premium wine on the secondary market.

Many of this forum's persuasion would curse the advent of the ultra wine investment index which commodified wine from a pleasurable accompaniment to friendship and fine food to a soulless trading venture.

DJ wrote:

Murray wrote:Neville,

From memory Vintage Cellars came out with a series of "Anders Josephson Collection" of packaged sets with mxed selectin of aged wines, so I presume they snapped up some from this auction which may have driven up resultant prices.

Murray

Vintage Cellars had their Anders Josephson stuff in 1997 - mostly Josephson's overstocks, all bought directly from Josephson, very small volumes of the really good stuff. The hassle of the Josephson stuff is burnt on my memory it happened in the one year I worked for VC full time. (Even on the worst day in the Public Service I am glad I'm no longer in retail). From memory the Josephson auction was partly a publicity event as the Josephson collection was launched. The VC brand was only launched in about 1993, so I'd be surprised if they had much to do with the auction.

David

Thanks David,

I'll cede to your on the spot knowledge!