Rare wines, stashed away in castle’s cellar for a century and once considered undrinkable, head to sale

Wine discovered in the cellar of Glamis Castle after almost a century is now considered among the best in the world. (Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Glamis Castle has a rich history. Reputed to be the most haunted castle in Scotland, it once hosted Mary, Queen of Scots and has strong links to the British royal family. It’s also said to have inspired William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth.”

But perhaps one of its most alluring offerings is what lay deep in its wine cellar, described by an expert as an “Aladdin’s cave.”

For almost a century, bottles of Bordeaux wine previously considered undrinkable were hidden in the Scottish castle. Today, their contents are considered some of the best – and most valuable – in the world. Now, two magnums of Château Lafite 1870 are going on sale.

The two bottles, central to the upcoming “Immortal Vintages” auction at Sotheby’s on April 17, are considered “legendary” by those in the know. Described by Sotheby’s as “a landmark single-owner sale,” the overall auction is made up of more than 250 lots of Bordeaux wine spanning two centuries and is expected to fetch in excess of US$1 million.

Discovered in Glamis Castle’s wine cellar in the 1970s the two magnums are expected to sell for up to $50,000 each when they go under the hammer in New York.

Glamis Castle, situated in the east of Scotland, about 12 miles from Dundee, has been the ancestral home of the Earls of Strathmore and Kinghorne since 1372. The castle’s cellar, dubbed the “catacombs,” was fitted out in 1765 for John, the 9th Earl of Strathmore.

According to Ingrid Thomson, the archivist at Glamis Castle, the cellar is currently used “for general storage and cleaning supplies,” but during the decades that it housed the long-forgotten bottles, history was being made above stairs.

The late Queen Elizabeth II’s mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, grew up at Glamis Castle before marrying the future King George VI in 1923. The couple’s younger daughter – and Queen Elizabeth’s sister – Princess Margaret, was born at Glamis.

“The princesses spent many happy holidays at Glamis, and we have letters from ‘Lilibet’ to her grandparents thanking them for stays at Glamis,” said Thomson.

The two magnums, hailing from the Château Lafite Rothschild estate of Bordeaux wine in France, were discovered almost by accident. They were among 42 bottles found shortly before a Christie’s auction in 1971 titled “The Finest and Rarest Wines from Private Cellars.”

Michael Broadbent, the late founder of Christie’s wine department, said he found the bottles of 1870 Lafite when he first visited the castle. The cellar’s log book showed that the 13th Earl of Strathmore had purchased 48 bottles of 1870 Lafite and stored them in the cellar in 1878.

“The wine was so astringent that he did not like it and, when he died… the wine was virtually untouched, and his successors just left it,” wrote Broadbent of his account, which is on the Christie’s website.

“In fact it took a full 50 years to become mellow enough to drink, and it was already a century old at the time of my visit and then agreement to sell all the Glamis Castle old wine.”

Broadbent decided it would be “prudent” to sample the wine before the sale, he wrote. “The level was perfect, the cork was sound, the colour of the wine impressively deep, its nose was sound – not a trace of oxidisation or acidity, and its balance and flavour perfection.”

Richard Young, Sotheby’s wine head of auction sales, Americas, explained in an email to CNN the vintage’s “legendary” status. “When the cellar was rediscovered and auctioned in 1971, the bottles emerged in remarkably pristine condition – an almost unheard-of survival for wines of this age,” he said.

“Importantly, bottles from this cellar that have since been opened are widely regarded as the best-preserved examples of the 1870 Lafite, giving them an almost benchmark status among collectors.”

‘Lost’ style of winemaking

Part of what makes it so special is that it pre-dates the phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century, when tiny insects attacked the roots of vines.

“It swept across Europe’s vineyards, including Bordeaux, and destroyed vast areas of vines by feeding on their roots,” said Young.

“The long-term solution was to graft European vines onto resistant American rootstocks, a practice still used today. However, this fundamentally changed vine biology, and many believe it altered the character of the wines. Pre-phylloxera wines such as the 1870 Lafite are therefore prized because they were made from original, ungrafted vines, offering a glimpse into a ‘lost’ style of winemaking.”

According to Young, wine from vintages like 1870 and 1865 appear at auction only once or twice a decade and are becoming “exceedingly rare” – while magnum formats, which hold 1.5 liters of wine, are even less common.

‘Aladdin’s cave’

Jason Tesauro is a sommelier, writer and photographer who knew Broadbent.

“He called it Aladdin’s cave,” Tesauro said of Broadbent’s description of Glamis, adding: “This once-in-an-aeon vintage forgotten in a once-in-a-century cellar led to a once-in-a-lifetime find.”

Tesauro said he sampled an 1870 Lafite at an invite-only event in 2023.

“I have a sensory memory of that particular wine, which doesn’t happen with every wine, even great ones.

“There were wines at that table that would’ve been the greatest wines that other people have ever seen in their life, and yet they were completely upstaged by the 1870,” he told CNN.

“It’s like appreciating Sophia Loren aged 90,” he added. “You’re not looking at her for her 19-year-old beauty. You’re looking for the etched lines of experience in her face. So what this wine had that was a complete shock to all of us, was we could still smell fruit.

“To pull back the curtain and still see what was there – not echoes, not shadows – but still getting the firsthand inputs from the fruit and the color were extraordinary.”

Tesauro believes the auction, which also features an even older Château Lafite from 1865, will appeal to two kinds of bidders – those who will keep the wine on a shelf as part of a collection and those who “are so passionate” that “they want to experience what was going on in the world in 1870.”

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN