It is a “unique and very special” bottle. On December 11, a rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 served at the wedding of Lady Diana to the Prince of Wales in 1981 will be put up for auction, announced the Bruun Rasmussen house.
“There are only twelve magnums, and this is one of them,” Thomas Rosendahl Andersen, responsible for wines at the Bruun Rasmussen auction house, explained to AFP, presenting the imposing bottle with the already slightly yellowed label.
Vintage 1961, year of birth of Lady Diana
According to him, the bottle, currently kept in the house’s cellar before being presented to the public from December 4, could attract both wine lovers and collectors eager for monarchical items.
“It might be a classic wine collector, who finds it fun to have this bottle in their collection, but also a royal collector, who collects things perhaps related to Lady Diana or English royal memorabilia,” he said.
(2/2) Mamadou Traoré, the devil’s child
Vintage 1961, the year of Lady Diana’s birth, this champagne was disgorged and labeled on the occasion of her marriage to Prince Charles, which took place on July 29, 1981 and brought together hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.
Estimated between 67,000 and 80,000 euros
It is estimated between 500,000 and 600,000 crowns (between 67,000 and 80,000 euros). “We can absolutely drink it,” assured Thomas Rosendahl. “All the wine bottles we sell at auction are examined and analyzed,” he added.
“For this type of bottle, we carry out several tests, in particular by lighting the bottle to verify that the contents, that is to say the wine itself, has a very beautiful and clear color, and that it is not brown and cloudy,” detailed the specialist.
The current owner of the magnum, a collector who does not wish his identity to be made public, purchased the bottle himself from a London dealer. In 2004, a magnum of champagne failed to find a buyer at an auction in the United Kingdom.
Four years later, Heritage Auction sold a magnum of this vintage for around $12,000. The auction will take place in Kongens Lyngby on the outskirts of Copenhagen on December 11 at 5:50 p.m. (4:50 p.m. GMT).