Auction bidders vied for a piece of American history as Christie’s hosted an online auction in Los Angeles featuring lots from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, one of the California wineries that shot to fame in the the Judgement of Paris tasting 50 years ago.
A bottle of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon ‘SLV’ 1973 sold for $22,500 (£16,724), including buyer’s premium, far outpacing a pre-sale high estimate of $6,000.
Christie’s said that’s a record price for the 1973 vintage of this Napa Valley wine, famous for outshining top red Bordeaux in the 1976 tasting organised by Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher.
Results helped to put California on the world wine map after a first report by George Taber in Time magazine, under the Judgement of Paris headline.
‘We were delighted with today’s world record price for one of America’s truly historic wines,’ said Chris Munro, Christie’s head of wine, Americas, after the auction finished on 15 July.
Among other lots in the auction, 12 bottles of the Cabernet Sauvignon SLV 1974 sold for $13,750 (high estimate: $5,000). A nine-litre ‘Salmanazar’ bottle of the 2023 vintage, along with a private tasting, tour and dinner, fetched $4,000 (e: $4,000 – $5,000).
Objects that ‘made America’
Following this year’s anniversary celebrations, there will be 19 bottles of the Cabernet Sauvignon SLV 1973 left at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, said a Christie’s spokesperson.
One bottle is preserved in the Smithsonian collection of American historical artefacts – donated by the late winemaker Warren Winiarski, alongside another of California’s famous Judgement wines: Chateau Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay.
In 2013, Smithsonian named this duo among the ‘101 objects that made America’.
Juan Muñoz-Oca, estates director at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, said the recent Christie’s auction result is ‘a powerful testament to the enduring legacy of the 1973 SLV Cabernet Sauvignon and the vision of our founder, Warren Winiarski’.
Judgement wines surface for 50th anniversary
This year’s 50th anniversary of the Judgement tasting has put a new spotlight on the wines involved.
A joint-lot offered by Montelena and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars at this year’s Auction Napa Valley charity event on 6 June featured one bottle each of the wineries’ 1973 ‘Judgement’ vintage.
The lot, which also included other wines, estate visits, a bespoke winemaking experience and one-year winery club memberships, sold for $110,000, said charity auction cohost Sotheby’s.
Looking further back, in March 2022, Heritage Auctions sold a bottle of the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon SLV 1973 for $12,300 – a record auction price for the wine at the time.
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