Zachys said every lot found a buyer in its recent auction of a wine collection held by the late Jacqueline (de Rothschild) Piatigorsky, a direct descendant of the first Rothschild family owners of Château Lafite.
Strong bidding for 19th century Bordeaux wines helped total sales hit $11.16m (£8.3m), around four times the estimate, after the collection was offered in New York.
Despite a challenging period for the fine wine market over the past couple of years, Zachys’ results offer more evidence that collectors remain alert for opportunities.
‘History was made within the first minutes, when the opening 35 lots set world records,’ Zachys said.
All the wines were originally acquired on release, before being cellared in Pauillac in the Médoc ever since, it added.
A magnum of Château Lafite Rothschild’s celebrated 1870 vintage sold for $387,500, including buyer’s premium, eclipsing a pre-sale high estimate of $75,000. That’s a new record auction price for the wine in this format, said Zachys.
Lafite 1870 is regarded as one of the finest wines of its era, produced just two years after the Rothschild family acquired this Bordeaux first growth estate.
Michael Broadbent, the late Decanter columnist and fine wine expert, tasted the wine from magnum in 1971 and described it as ‘perfection’ – also advising that it would pair well with lamb.
Zachys said a single 75cl bottle of Lafite Rothschild 1870 also sold for $187,500 (high estimate: $30,000).
Both the bottle and magnum were recorked and topped up with wine from the same vintage at Château Lafite Rothschild, although the date of the reconditioning wasn’t clear.
In total the auction auction featured 177 lots of Lafite wines, with 498 bottles and large formats selling for $6.49m, said Zachys.
Of the 19th century wines, a double magnum (three litres) of Lafite Rothschild 1878 sold for $312,500 (high estimate: $40,000). Several magnums of the 1869 vintage also featured in the auction, with the highest-priced of those realising $231,250 (high e: $30,000).
Beyond Lafite, a three-bottle lot of Château Haut-Brion 1899 (recorked in 2025) sold for $106,250, versus a high estimate of $18,000.
A six-bottle lot of Château Giscours 1875 (recorked in 2006) achieved the same price, despite carrying a pre-sale high estimate of just $6,000.
Charles Antin, Zachys’ global head of wine auctions, said, ‘This auction was truly a pinnacle of my wine-auction career.
‘At every step in the process, from the time I first saw the inventory on paper, decades ago, to inspection of the bottles in Pauillac with my colleagues earlier this year, we knew we were making wine-auction history.
‘It was gratifying to see so many of our collector friends and clients respond to what was truly a once-in-a-lifetime offering of unmatched provenance.’
Zachys CEO Eileen Rizzo praised the auction house’s longstanding relationship with Château Lafite Rothschild. In 2019, it offered wines direct from the first growth estate’s cellars.
In other recent US auction news, Christie’s sold a one-off, 40-vintage collection of Spottswoode Estate Cabernet Sauvignon wines sourced directly from the Napa Valley winery’s owner, the Novak family, earlier in September.
Featuring every vintage from 1982 to 2021 inclusive, the collection sold for $32,500, including buyer’s premium, versus a high estimate of $20,000. Proceeds will be donated by the Novak family to non-profit group Napa Green.
