Coming of age: a 1774 Vin Jaune from the Jura goes for €103,700 at auction

vin jaune old blogLast Saturday, a bottle of Vin Jaune from the historic 1774 vintage fetched a record breaking €103,700 at an auction in Lons-le-Saunier while two other bottles from the same vintage reached €76,250 and €73,200. These spectacular sums reflect the success that wines from the Jura have been experiencing in recent years.

We’ve kept a close eye on the Jura in recent years. The current craze surrounding Jura wines means that auction catalogues devoted entirely to this region are becoming more and more commonplace at iDealwine. We’ve been watching in awe as they smash record after record, notably the rare Vin Jaunes from Overnoy and Tissot. However, the auction held in the eastern France town of Lons-le-Saumier on the 26th May set a new precedent and saw some extraordinarily old bottles go under the hammer: three Vin Jaunes from 1774 made by the Arbois winemaker Anatoile Vercel (1725-1786) that have been conserved by Vercel’s descendants in an underground cellar. According to the auctioneer from the Jura Enchères auction house, where the sale was conducted, the wines were bought by “Canadians and someone who used to purchase wine for Americans with links to France”. “I didn’t think that these bottles would sell for so much, the last record, in 2011, was only €57,000. There were some winemakers in the auction room who applauded when the hammer went down. They were so happy and it was very moving”.

Considered to be one of the oldest bottles currently in circulation, this same wine was tasted in 1994 by a group of 24 wine professionals at Château Pécauld in Arbois. It was described as having a sublime amber robe and aromas of “nuts, spices, curry, cinnamon, vanilla and dried fruit”. The tasting panel gave it a score of 9.4 out of 10 and concluded that the wine should be tasted in another 100 years’ time.

Two cuvées from this same vintage were auctioned in 2011 for €57,000 in Arbois and in 2012 for 46,000 Swiss francs (€38,300) in Geneva.

The Devillard family, who recently entered into a partnership with the Dupuis family and the Flambert family to buy Domaine Rolet, also participated in this auction. They held the winning bid for several historic bottles including a 17th century bottle of Vin Jaune, some white Arbois in the 1945, 1939 and 1914 vintages and a bottle of red Arbois from 1942, the year that Domaine Rolet was founded. They will be stored in the cellars at Domaine Rolet to compliment their magnificent collection.

You too can build a collection of historic bottles. Be sure to peruse the wonderful selection of Vin Jaune currently available to buy on the iDealwine website at more humble prices!

See all Vin Jaune currently on sale

See all wines from the Jura currently on sale

See all wines currently on sale on iDealwine

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Other things to read on the iDealwine blog:

The Devillards (Chamirey, Perdrix) set up shop in the Jura

Jura booming | Auction report

Jura | The Jura’s out