STRUTH – 200 year old wine under the hammer

STRUTH !

IN his continuing search for the more weird, whacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says someone with an expensive taste in Cognac has paid a Paris restaurant the equivalent of AU$55,000 for a bottle of the stuff made in 1788 – the year the First Fleet landed in Sydney, Bonnie Prince Charlie died and twelve months before the French Revolution.

The restaurant, La Tour D’Argent, which first opened its doors in 1582 and has been rebuilt and renovated numerous times since, decided to clear out some of its cellar to make way for new stock, and put 18,000 bottles of wines and spirits up for auction.

It included the 1788 Cognac, but diners can be assured they’ll still have plenty to choose from: the restaurant’s got more than 420,000 bottles from around the world in its cellars, and diners need plenty of time to peruse its Wine List because its 400 pages long.

FOOTNOTE: The $55,000 bottle was bought by an investor and the restaurant gave the money to charity; another bottle from the same vintage fetched only AU$30,000 – because its label and seal were in poorer condition than the more expensive bottle.