\u201cA lot of love and care has gone into this cellar, but the time has come, and we\u2019ve made the decision to work with Webb\u2019s to let these wines go to people who will appreciate the cellaring that\u2019s gone into each bottle and appreciate aged wines,\u201d Bergin said.<\/p>\n
The collection achieved the rare feat of a complete sell-through, also called a \u201cwhite glove auction\u201d. Of the 530 bidders, 201 bought every bottle up for auction; a rare feat. Typically, Webb\u2019s sells 90% of wines up for auction, but this was not your typical auction.<\/p>\n
Bergin said the hardest bottle to let go of was not a classic from Bordeaux, Burgundy or the Douro Valley in Portugal, home to vintage port. It was a South African Pinotage that tugged at his heartstrings.<\/p>\n
Asked why he was so attached to this wine, Bergin says: \u201cIt\u2019s possibly one of the most fantastic wines made in a very underrated country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI visited the winery and had the most wonderful experience. The wine is not exported and almost impossible to get in South Africa, let alone outside the country.\u201d <\/p>\n
The providence of the 2006 Meerandal Pinotage from Durbanville is what made it compelling for him.<\/p>\n
Webb’s Fine wine and whisky specialist Finn McCabe holds a bottle of Meerendal The Heritage Block 2006 Pinotage. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The highest number of bids (21) was for a Spanish Rioja (a long-aged Tempranillo and Garnacha blend, typically). In close second, with 20 bids, was a Marlborough wine, not the standard Sauvignon Blanc but a 2018 Fromm Beerenauslese Riesling, a rarity from an unusual vintage with ideal conditions for an ultra-concentrated expression of Riesling.<\/p>\n
Finn McCabe, Webb\u2019s Fine Wines & Whiskies Specialist, said it was fun watching people trying to outbid each other and watching less famous wines receive high bids, especially when big-name classics such as Ch\u00e2teau Latour and Margaux were also present. <\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, people\u2019s interest dives into wines that unlock a rich history that you don\u2019t see very much.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1979 Mildara Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra in Australia and a 2007 Vergelegen Stellenbosch Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon were also in high demand. While the estimate was $30 to $50 a bottle, they sold for $120 each.<\/p>\n
Bergin\u2019s collection was never a conventional one, as these and other wines in the auction showed.<\/p>\n
John Bergin’s collection of wine. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
He says one of the most quirky and hard-to-find wines in his collection was the 2009\u202fCasas del Toqui \u201cLeyenda del Toqui\u201d,\u202ffrom the Cachapoal Valley in Chile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI carried this wine back from Chile when bottles were allowed on planes. It has a lead crest on a very heavy bottle and was typical of the sort of wine I would seek out when travelling for work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The collection also represents an unusual range of wines that doesn\u2019t come across the desk at Webb\u2019s every day, McCabe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see unusual wines from people who, at various stages of their lives, want or need to sell them. Perhaps they can\u2019t drink any more or they\u2019re moving overseas or they\u2019ve had their collection for yonks and don\u2019t know what to do with it, so auctioning allows other people to unlock the potential of the wines.\u201d <\/p>\n
When Bergin began the Auckland Wine Club, he and fellow founders of the club loved drinking aged wines, so they wanted to cellar bottles for the future.<\/p>\n
Classic wines from traditional regions of the world were also among the collection. Two 250ml bottles of Hungary\u2019s famous wine, Royal Tokaji Asz\u00fa 5 Puttonyos, sold for $320, far more than the expected $30 to $40.<\/p>\n
John Bergin’s collection of wine. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Southern Hemisphere wines were as sought after as those from the north. There were high bids in New Zealand wines, such as Kumeu River Mate\u2019s Vineyard Chardonnay and Sacred Hill Rifleman\u2019s Chardonnay, which Bergin describes as some of the greatest wines ever made in this country. Another wine he rated highly was Rod McDonald RM Syrah, a rarity made in small volumes.<\/p>\n
These wines sold alongside Ch\u00e2teau Latour, Ch\u00e2teau Haut-Brion, Ren\u00e9 Rostaing C\u00f4te-R\u00f4tie and Cannubi Boschis Barolo DOCG. There was vintage port, with one bottle dated to the 1950-60s, purely by the branding on the capsule, as the label had come off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWine is a snapshot in time. I don\u2019t know of any other product that captures a place, its history, geography and the culture of the people who made it, all in one bottle. It\u2019s more than just a drink,\u201d McCabe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone in the far-flung hills of Italy or the middle of France crafts something and lo and behold, someone in New Zealand buys it years later. That\u2019s pretty outstanding. It\u2019s bottled history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA lot of love and care has gone into this cellar, but the time has come, and we\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23562,244191,74,13916,51,1978,244193,244190,68692,102592,6144,51688,244192,156,2082,244194,5126,3025,111,139,69,116033,1128,3235,544,64872,4276,1754,1530],"class_list":["post-486645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-23562","tag-1500bottle","tag-after","tag-asked","tag-auckland","tag-auction","tag-bergin","tag-bergins","tag-bottles","tag-cellar","tag-collecting","tag-collector","tag-connoisseur","tag-entertainment","tag-for","tag-joelle","tag-john","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prized","tag-sells","tag-sold","tag-some","tag-thomson","tag-why","tag-wine","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}