Lot 33
Around the World in 80 Wines

12 – 375ml 2000 Fonseca Porto Vintage Port
23 – 750ml 1998 Château Haut-Brion
6 – 750ml 1998 Château Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2 – 750ml 1998 Penfolds Grange
6 – 750ml 1998 Château Mouton Rothschild
12 – 750ml 1998 Château Lafite Rothschild
12 – 750ml 1998 Ornellaia
10 – 750ml 1997 Gorelli Brunello di Montalcino le Potazzine
3 – 1.5 Liter 1997 Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli
6 – 750ml 1997 Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Montosoli
12 – 750ml 1997 Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Vendemmia
6 – 750ml 1996 Chateau Rayas Chateauneuf-du-Pape
6 – 750ml 1995 M. Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie la Mordorée

Like Jules Verne’s hero Phileas Fogg, this lot circumnavigates the globe, traversing the world of wine in 80 (really 116) bottles. This lot is a grand tour of the old world and visits the highlights of Portugal, France and Italy with a brief stopover in the land down under.

The first stop on the tour is Portugal. Lisbon was just recovering from the earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the world-leading city in 1755. Luckily the port-producing tradition survived, and in 1822 Fonseca Guimaraens began creating what was to become this magnificent example of the country’s prized wine. Its 2000 vintage is an exotic and unctuous wine that will last for two decades.

Moving on to the Gallic portion of the tour, this lot includes many of the best and most from historical French Domaines. Château Haut-Brion is the oldest and smallest of the First Growth Properties and has been classified in the 1855 classification of the Premier Grand Cru wines. The first record of a vineyard at Château Haut-Brion is in 1423, and in 1998 this vineyard produced a prodigious wine - liquid nobility.

Two of Haut-Brion’s First Growth brethren also produced ascendant wines in 1998. A draconian selection process at Château Lafite Rothschild allowed it to produce a spectacular wine that gains in depth and weight with each passing year. Similarly, Château Mouton-Rothschild from that vintage has filled out splendidly. Massive, with awesome concentration, this beast requires at least a decade to tame its wild side and promises decades of aging beyond that.

Moving down to the south of France, from Chateauneuf du Pape are two wines: Château Beaucastel and Chateau Rayas. Château Beaucastel is one of the largest estates in the region and one of the first to practice organic viniculture—no herbicides, insecticides or other chemicals. Similarly steeped in tradition, Chateau Rayas embodies the antithesis of modern wine-making, prompting Robert Parker, Jr. to puzzle, “I still have not figured out what magic takes place in these cellars. Given the extraordinary quality that emerges in the finest years, I can live without the answers.” The journey through France ends just up the Rhône with the 1995 Michel Chapoutier Côte-Rotie La Mordorée, made from 60 year old vines on the Côte Blonde in the northern Rhone valley.

Skipping over the border to Tuscany visit the 450 metre high hill known as Montalcino - home to the majestic Brunello wine exemplified here by four magnificent examples from the region. The relative youngster Ornellaia was not established until the late 1970s in land southwest of Florence but quickly took its place as one of the “Super Tuscans.”

Finally end in the new world with a 1998 Penfolds Grange, widely held as Australia’s greatest red wine as well as one of the worlds’ finest. A 99-point beauty, the 1998 Grange will be legendary.

This is a truly massive lot — enough to start a collection of old world wines for a new traveler, or for a seasoned adventurer to revisit old favorites.

DONORS: Eileen & Joe Small