4. 1971 Romanée-Conti, 1971 La Tâche and 1966 Montrachet
In 2012, UK merchant Vanquish and US auction house Spectrum withdrew 13 lots of DRC from a London auction that took place on 8 February. The removal occurred after London wine merchant Corney & Barrow, Jancis Robinson and Don Cornwell voiced concerns about the bottle’s apparent discrepancies.
The DRC wines featured in the 13 lots included a case of 1971 Romanée-Conti with an estimate of £80,000 (US$106,348), three jeroboams of the same vintage estimated at £65,000 (US$86,408), six magnums of 1971 La Tâche at £30,000 (US$39,880) and two seven-bottle lots of 1966 DRC Montrachet with estimates of £37,000 (US$49,186).
Corney & Barrow’s managing director Adam Brett-Smith commented on Corney’s website about the doubts after Jancis Robinson reacting to an extraordinary list published by Don Cornwell.
Cornwell presented 15 detailed points, counting the spelling mistakes on a slip label, missing and incorrect accents, missing digits in bottle numbers, inconsistency in the condition of capsules and labels, lack of provenance details and more.
