A wine that Louis Pasteur, the ‘Father of Microbiology’, is said to have drunk to celebrate his election to the Academie Francaise in 1881 is up for auction.
On Saturday the 26th of May, the last 102 bottles from a famous wine cellar of Arbois in France will be sold at auction by JURA ENCHERES in Lons le Saunier (Jura).
Among the last bottles of this collection are three bottles of “Vin Jaune d’Arbois”, millésime 1774. They have been carefully kept by eight generations of celebrated wine maker, Pierre Vercel’s heirs (1694-1754), a family of winemakers from Arbois known since the fourteenth century.
The three bottles are estimated to sell for €15,000-20,000 each.
This “Vin Jaune” of 1774 is one of the oldest preserved wines in the world. Its exceptional longevity comes from the particular way it is made. A bottle from this lot was tasted in 1994 by 24 connoisseurs, scientists and oenologists who evaluated it. They awarded it a mark of 9.4 / 10 and concluded with a comment “to revisit in 100 years”.
Two bottles of the same original lot were presented for sale by auction in 2011 and 2012 and sold for €57,000 and €38,000.
Among the 102 bottles of this collection, and alongside the mythical “Vin Jaune”, will be offered a white wine of Arbois from 1811.
