A California man has sold a rare bottle of wine he kept in his basement.
Mark Paulson said he bought the bottle for $250 in the 1970s but left it unopened for decades.
According to the auction house that handled the sale, the bottle sold for over $100,000.
California’s Mark Paulson made over $100,000 thanks to a rare bottle of wine he bought in the 1970s that he never opened. According to a report by the “Washington Post“It was a bottle Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche. Paulson originally bought the 1971 bottle for $250. Adjusted for inflation, this corresponds to a price of 1889 dollars today, i.e. around 1750 euros.
However, he left the wine unopened in a box in his cellar for decades. “I never really thought much about it,” he told the Washington Post.
In March it was announced that the wine would be put up for auction. According to auction house Bonhams Skinner, the bottle should fetch between $50,000 and $80,000. Eventually she became sold for $106,250.
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The three-liter bottle of wine is exceptionally rare
When he bought them, Paulson was working as a painter. However, he had an interest in rare, high quality wines.
In the late 1970s, Paulson met wine merchant Roger Brandt at a wine tasting group in San Francisco. He convinced Paulson to buy the bottle of La Tâche, believing it to be “a once in a lifetime opportunity,” according to the “Washington Post„.
The bottle is a Jeroboam, also known as a double magnum. It corresponds to four normal wine bottles. According to Bonhams Skinner, around 1300 cases of La Tâche are produced annually. However, the vast majority are standard bottles with a capacity of 750 milliliters. Very few three liter bottles were made and the quality of the wine itself is considered exceptional.
Despite his reputation, Paulson never found the right opportunity to open the wine
After some research, Paulson’s son found an article about Bonhams Skinner coming October 2022 a similar bottle 1971 La Tâche sold for $81,250.
“We were shocked. Just amazed and speechless. We just hugged and smiled a lot,” Paulson told theWashington Post“. Bonhams Skinner handled the sale of Paulson’s bottle of La Tâche.
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“We see amazing bottles every day. But that bottle, along with the story of how Mark got it and how important it was to his life, I’ll never forget,” Louis Krieger, associate director of fine wines at Bonhams Skinner, told Business Insider.
The auction house estimated that the wine bottle at the auction between April 16 and April 26 could fetch between $50,000 and $80,000. Paulson, on the other hand, was hoping for a retail price of $100,000 (about 93,000 euros). Ultimately, Paulson’s expectations were even exceeded and the bottle was sold for $106,250 (about 98,493 euros) sold.
Other bottles from Paulson’s collection also reached the auction more than double its estimated value.
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