Most single-owner cellars tell you something about the person who built them. The Imperial Collection, crossing the block September 18th, tells you about someone who decided early and never wavered from it: if a wine was worth buying, it was worth buying big.
A Single-Owner Cellar Built Around Large Format Wine
Roughly 40% of the lots in this sale are in large format. That number is worth sitting with because it is not how collections normally look. Even excellent cellars tend to hold large format the way most people hold a good suit, one or two, brought out for the right occasion. Here there are 139 lots of double-magnum and larger, 159 bottles in total, and 64 lots of imperials alone. Assembled over more than five decades by a single collector, it stands as one of the deepest large-format offerings to come to market.
Rare Large Format Burgundy: Dujac, DRC and More
The cellar holds several methuselahs from producers who barely make them at all; it’s a collection full of unicorns. A 1995 and a 2009 Clos de la Roche from Domaine Dujac, each the sole methuselah of that wine known to exist. A 2009 Echezeaux from Dujac, also one of one. To top of the Burgundy unicorns, a 1990 and a 1999 DRC Romanée-Saint-Vivant and a 1993 DRC La Tâche, all in methuselah. One can’t think of these bottles in the same way as one does a good vintage of a scarce wine – these are exceedingly rare and unique bottle formats of already scarce wines produced in the best vintages. They are singular objects, and once they change hands, there is nothing else of their kind to pursue.
Burgundy Depth Beyond the Methuselahs
Beyond the large formats, the Burgundy holdings run to about 40 lots of Mugnier, over 60 of Rousseau, nearly 80 of Dujac, and close to a 100 combined from Georges and Christophe Roumier, with substantial depth in Raveneau, Leroy, Ponsot, Mugneret-Gibourg, P.Y.C.M., Bouchard, Ramonet, Leflaive, and Vogüé. Much of it comes in magnum and jeroboam alongside standard bottlings, which is its own kind of statement about how this cellar was built.
Large Format Bordeaux: From La Mission Haut-Brion to Pétrus
Alongside the Burgundies sit five imperials of La Mission Haut-Brion, 1989 among them, which anchor the Bordeaux side of large formats. Yet, the rest of the extraordinary Bordeaux wines reads like a list of the region's most storied names in its most storied years: three imperials of 2005 Petrus, 1982 and 2000 Mouton Rothschild, 2005 Lafleur, 1982 La Mission Haut-Brion, 1989 Palmer, and 1990 d'Yquem. Any one of these would headline a smaller sale given this cellar’s provenance. Here they share a catalog.
The Judgment of Paris, Fifty Years Later
Without need for introduction, the 1976 Judgment of Paris is the tasting that rewrote the hierarchy or global wine; when a panel of French judges blind-tasted California against Bordeaux and Burgundy and gave the top marks to Napa. Fifty years on, this sale offers a bottle of the 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, the two winning wines, presented together in a custom box marking the anniversary. (Not to mention individual lots of the ’73 Stag’s Leap on its own.)
Rare California Wine and Other Collection Highlights
The California holdings continue with other unicorns like a 1978 Diamond Creek Lake Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, the cuvee’s inaugural vintage, and six bottles of the inaugural 1992 Sine Qua Non Haven Cellars Black and Blue in original wooden case. Elsewhere: 1996 Salon, 1985 Krug in Magnum, 2008 Krug by the case, a full set of the original "La La's," and 1962 Vega Sicilia.
Why Provenance Matters in the Imperial Collection
Anyone who has read our recent piece on starting a collection knows where Zachys lands on provenance: it is the difference between two bottles that look identical on paper, and it is the factor most buyers underweight.
Five Decades of Careful Acquisition and Storage
This cellar answers that question about as well as a cellar can. Over five decades of buying, the collector developed direct relationships with wholesalers, importers, and producers, which means most of these wines were purchased on release, on allocation, straight from the source. That shows up physically in the catalog, in the number of lots still in original wooden case across the library. From acquisition forward, the wines have been held in professional storage or under temperature- and humidity-controlled conditions. Bottles sampled by our specialist team have shown consistent with that care.
How Large Format Wine Performs at Auction
If you are new to bidding on large format, a word on how it behaves. Demand does not simply climb with volume. Magnums and 3L bottles have broad appeal, better aging and a longer life. Once you get to 5L and 6L, the pool of buyers narrows, because that is a great deal of wine (around which to plan an occasion). What sustains value at that scale is singularity, the one-of-one Dujac methuselah, the imperial of a vintage that defined a domaine or château. That is precisely the theme upon which this sale is built. If you’re looking for more reason to buy in large format, check out what we wrote on the topic last week.
Rare Magnums Returning to Auction
Worth noting as well: a few of these lots here have not surfaced at auction in years, Lots 1023 and 1040. The former, a magnum of 1950 Latour a Pomerol, has not been sold since October 2006, the latter, a magnum of 1947 l’Evangile, since March 2014. For a handful of these wines, the last opportunity to buy at auction predates most collectors' current cellars entirely.
The Imperial Collection: September 18, 2026
The Imperial Collection runs September 18th after our September 17th online portion of the auction – an impressive collection in its own right, certainly not worth missing before the live sale at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on September 18th. Full catalog and lot details are available now.
Davis A. Steller | Published: September 11, 2026
