The only remaining bottle of the world’s oldest Cognac, a vintage Gautier 1762, sold at an online auction on May 28th to a private collector in Asia for $144,525 (132,000 €). It’s the largest amount of money a bottle of Cognac has ever sold for in any auction. Only three bottles of this Cognac are left. One was sold in New York at auction in 2014 to a Polish company and the other is in the Maison Gautier museum. Those two bottles are small, only about 375 mL or so. But this one just sold was a larger size, most likely around 750 mL, nick named “Grand Frère,” or “Big Brother,” because of its size. The winning bidder also got a bonus prize including a bespoke experience at the Gautier distillery.
These bottles have been 100% authenticated as being distilled 258 years ago. That was during the reign of King Louis XV of France, three decades before the infamous French Revolution. All of the bottles were in the possession of the same family, held in some sort of storage for generations, with the original labels still attached and mostly legible.
The story goes that the bottles were traced back to the 1880’s in Lachaise, a town in the Cognac AOC. They were owned by a family by the name of Donsir. The glass bottles themselves date from around 1840 when at some point, they were filled with Cognac distilled by Gautier in 1762. To be clear, by the time the bottles were filled, the Cognac was already 78 years old.
So, how did the Donsir family get these bottles in the first place? Well, they adopted a son named Alphonse. He moved to Cognac in 1870 to find work, but that was right about the time that the phylloxera outbreak started. A decade later Alphonse went back home and brought a cart full of Cognac bottles with him. Fun fact, since vineyards were ruined financially by the outbreak, they would often pay wages with bottles of Cognac they produced because they had no money to pay their employees. And lo and behold, amongst the bottles he had were these three bottles of Gautier 1762. Unfortunately, when WWI came around in 1914, Alphonse joined the French army and wasn’t heard from again.
It’s noted that the seals are still intact and the liquid inside hasn’t evaporated much at all. The Cognac itself should definitely be drinkable and would be quite an experience given all the history behind it. Whether the proud new owner will keep it as a show piece or open it to enjoy is unknown, but I’m hoping if the latter happens that my invitation doesn’t get lost in the mail.
