SIR ALEX Ferguson is to auction of a portion of his expansive collection of vintage wines estimated to be worth in the region of £3 million.
"The wine at Chelsea was awful, which I could never understand."
Some 5,000 bottles of the Glaswegian’s personal collection, including a vast amount of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (DRC) - currently the ‘most sought-after label’ at auction - is to be sold By Christie’s alongside a selection of signed memorabilia in three separate auctions.
257 of the 482 lots will be sold at the first auction on 24 May in Hong Kong, before another 140 lots will be sold at a London auction on 5 June. The remaining 85 lots will be sold via an online auction from 9-23 June.
The pick of the collection, estimated at £50,000-£60,000, are six bottles of DRC 1999 accompanied by a signed 1999 Champions League shirt from Ferguson’s most triumphant year as Manchester United Manager. While a case of Petrus 2000 is expected to fetch £30,000-£40,000.
DRC '99
It is understood that Ferguson started collecting wine in 1991 after a trip to France, to relieve the stress of football management. It became a ritual at Old Trafford, with Fergie handing out gifts of wine and sharing a glass with visiting managers. Fergie said of Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho in his autobiography:
'Don't mind if I do'"The next time he appeared at Old Trafford, he brought a bottle of his own wine, a Barca-Velha, and that started a tradition. The wine at Chelsea was awful, which I could never understand."
Ferguson has previously compared wine-making to the beautiful game. “There are many similarities between wine and football,” Ferguson told a press conference in 2013, “In football we seek the best young players to develop and form them from their beginnings to making them outstanding Manchester United players.”
There is expected to be fierce competition between Asian fine-wine buyers who have been snapping up lots of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti. Last year, Christie’s auctioned a twelve bottle lot of 1978 vintage DRC in Hong Kong for nearly £300,000.
