By David Nathan-Maister,
Director, Oracle Paradis Wine Fund.
Smart investing in quality wines is not just a good idea financially – it’s also attractive because of the romance and history associated with great vintages. But good returns and great stories are not the sole preserve of wines. Rare spirits can be just as good an investment, and just as interesting. To help you select your next investment (or next drink!), we’ve listed the top 10 vintage spirits here, with an example below to get you started.
- Cognac Grande Champagne de Reserve 1811
- A magnum of Cognac Vieux 1811
- Lafeuillade 1811
- The Oldest Known Cognac: Clos de Griffier Champagne Cognac 1738
- Vieux Cognac Clos de Griffier 1788, with the label of the Cafe Anglais.
- Janneau Grande Armagnac 1872
- The Rarest Scotch whisky: Highland Park Reserve 1902, bottled by Berry Bros.
- Vieux Rhum Anglais 1830
- Absinthe Pernod Fils “Garanti Fabriqué en 1913”
- 19th century Chartreuse Verte
1. Cognac Grande Champagne de Reserve 1811
The 1811 vintage was regarded at the time as the greatest in living memory, and is now universally held to be the finest vintage of the 19th century. A long hot summer and a warm dry autumn meant an abundant harvest of perfectly ripe grapes, and in Cognac the distillers knew that they were dealing with a once in a lifetime harvest. The Cognac Grande Champagne de Reserve 1811 is a spectacular and unique magnum of this exemplary vintage.
2. A magnum of Cognac Vieux 1811
Many ascribed the extraordinary weather to the remarkable astronomical event that had
dominated the year – The Great Comet. For two months – September and October 1811, exactly the time grapes were harvested – the comet was clearly visible to the naked eye, illuminating the night sky with a luminous cloud that at one point exceeded the diameter of the sun. It was taken as sign of supernatural blessing on the harvest, which henceforth was known as “The Comet Vintage”. The Cognac Vieux 1811 has an extraordinary hand-blown black bottle which features the comet prominently.
3. Lafeuillade 1811
In October 1927, the Italian ocean liner SS Principessa Mafalda fractured a propeller shaft and sank off the coast of Brazil, killing 314 of the 1,252 people on board. The tragedy has been described as the Italian Titanic. The French Navy ship Formosa was nearby and made heroic efforts to save survivors. This bottle was given to the Formosa’s Commander, Captain Allemand, to acknowledge his bravery.
4. The Oldest Known Cognac: Clos de Griffier Champagne Cognac 1738
This bottle of cognac is an astounding 275 years old, and was found in the cellars of the famed Parisian restaurant Lucas Carton. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the oldest intact original cognac bottle in existence. Lucas Carton was founded in 1732 by Robert Lucas as a ‘taverne anglaise’, specialising in cold meats and puddings. You can still dine at the restaurant today, although it now serves French Nouvelle Cuisine under the watch of new owner and chef Alain Senderens.
5. Vieux Cognac Clos de Griffier 1788, with the label of the Cafe Anglais.
This Cognac comes from the cellars of the renowned Tour d’Argent restaurant in Paris, which has been serving discerning diners since 1582, when King Henry III would stop off there after a hunt for heron pate. Famous for its canard au sang – a dish made from smothered duck – the establishment’s famed cellars reached capacity in 2009, prompting the sale of many of its rare bottles.
6. Janneau Grande Armagnac 1872
Armagnac, distilled mainly in Gascony in the southwest of France, is recognised as the only brandy to come close to the quality of cognac – indeed some connoisseurs specifically prefer the more robust flavour of Armagnac. It was originally drunk for therapeutic reasons, including its ability to (apparently) “render men joyous, preserve youth and retard senility”. The 1872 Janneau Grande is the oldest reserve of the Janneau family, and a truly great Armagnac.
7. The Rarest Scotch whisky: Highland Park Reserve 1902, bottled by Berry Bros.
By virtue of both their age and their quality, these are arguably the most important bottles of Highland Park in existence. In the period 1900 – 1940, Berry Bros were the greatest wine merchants in the world, supplying not only the British Royal Family, but all the crowned heads of Europe, and most heads of state as well. Winston Churchill was a longstanding customer. Because of their success and their clientele, they had the absolute pick of the barrels when it came to their own label bottlings like this. The whiskies bottled under their name in this era are regarded as of absolutely incomparable quality.
8. Vieux Rhum Anglais 1830
The first distillations of rum took place on the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean in the 17th century, and were not known for their quality. A document from 1651 states that “the chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil, a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor”. By the mid-1800s the distillation process had been considerably refined and improved and the great rums of the 19th and early 20th centuries are quite superb: on the nose intense and complex, on the palate simultaneously both mellow and fiery. The Vieux Rhum Anglais 1830 pictured here is believed to be the oldest dated rum bottle yet discovered.
9. Absinthe Pernod Fils “Garanti Fabriqué en 1913”
Banned for almost a century until its recent revival, absinthe is something of a living fossil, a coelacanth amongst drinks, able to magically transport us back to the glittering world of Paris and the Belle Époque, a world of bohemian musicians and writers, of the Moulin Rouge and the cafés of Montmartre. The Garanti Fabriqué en 1913 is an extremely rare bottling – these were the very last stock produced by Pernod before the ban in 1914. They were sent to Holland for safekeeping and a small quantity were released 25 years later for export. The balance of the stocks was unfortunately destroyed by bombing during the war.
10. 19th century Chartreuse Verte
In the early 1600s, an already ancient manuscript bearing the title “Elixir of Long Life” found its way to La Grande Chartreuse monastery, where (after a number of attempts) the resident apothecary, Brother Antoine, completed the translation of the recipe in 1737. With 130 herbs and spices infused into a base of 71% wine alcohol, the result did not prolong life, but it did have many curative powers. Green Chartreuse — a milder and smoother form of the elixir at only 55% alcohol — was developed shortly after distilling began. An exceptionally rare bottle of 19th century Chartreuse Verte is pictured here. The quality of 19th century Chartreuse has never been equalled, and it is one of the very few liqueurs that benefits from prolonged ageing.
