THE 2008 ESPRESSO GUIDE’S FINE WINE AUCTION SET FOR OCTOBER 11TH AT STAZIONE LEOPOLDA IN FLORENCE. TOP OF THE LINE LABELS TO BE AUCTIONED OFF BY PANDOLFINI: FROM SOLAIA TO SASSICAIA, TERRA DI LAVORO, BAROLO GAJA, MOUTON ROTSCHILD AND ROMANEE CONTI

To inaugurate the 2008 edition of “Guida dei Vini de L’Espresso” (Espresso Wine Guide), the Pandolfini auction house will be holding an auction on October 11th at the Stazione Leopolda in Florence, in collaboration with the Espresso publishing group and Pitti Immagine. 160 lots divided between numerous fine Italian and French wines will be auctioned off. Some of the most interesting labels are listed here below.

Italian wine bids will open with what national and international wine critics are calling one of the best Italian wines: Terra di Lavoro Galardi, represented in a series of lots made up of magnum and double magnum bottles, with vintages from 2001 to 2004 (not only for the multiple awards this wine has received for quality, but also the fact that there is very limited production and very high demand, particularly in the U.S., these lots make for a very interesting acquisition).
Another wine from the Campania region that has become an important niche item in the wine world is Montevetrano, created by enologist Riccardo Cotarella, which will have vintages from 1998 to 2000 on the auctioning block. There is also a strong presence of “Supertuscans”: from those of the Marchesi Antinori, like the Guado al Tasso, Solaia and Tignanello (also available in larger sized bottles and quantity, with, for example, the double magnum Solaia that should start at 350 euros), to Sassicaia, which will have various vintages available (of particular interest the 1988 two-bottle lot that will start bidding at 280 euros); from Ornellaia and Masseto of the Ornellaia Estate (the most interesting lot being a 1995 Masseto magnum starting at 350 euros – one of Lodovico Antinori’s most successful creations). There are also some excellent occasions for Piedmont region wine enthusiasts, with Gaja offering two lots, composed respectively of 10 bottles of 1990 Barolo Speers, starting at 1,000 euros, and 11 bottles of Barbaresco of the same vintage, set to start at 1,100 euros.

But the top lot of the auction will be an incredible French vertical of Mouton Rotschild: 50 bottles from 1957 to 2004, estimated at 13,000 euros (a value given not only for the quality of this “premier cru”, but also for its artistic worth for the labels that were created by the likes of artists from Picasso to Matisse, Dalì, Warhol, Mirò, Kandinsky, and Bacon). There will also be a lot with a selection of 4 “premier cru” Bordeaux of 1945 vintage to be auctioned off: Château Latour, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Haut-Brion and Château Margaux, starting at 3,000 euros. And the exceptionally formatted Château d’Yquem in a 6 liter bottle, the top Sauterne in absolute, starting at 2,200 euros (though on international markets it surpasses 10,000 euros).
As for Burgundy wines, there is an assortment of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2004: a lot of 12 bottles starting at 6,000 euros, including some of the most coveted and rarest wines of the international wine sector, like that of the 1988 vintage estimated at 2,200 euros and a rare 1957 exemplar for 800 euros.