A 27-litre Liber Pater bottle leads Bonhams auction, estimated up to $1m

Bonhams is auctioning what it calls the greatest, rarest and most impressive bottles Liber Pater has produced, in a 20-lot sale marking the winery's 20th anniversary. The star lot is a unique 27-litre bottle of the 2019 vintage, estimated at HK$5 million to HK$8 million, or about $637,700 to $1 million at current exchange rates.

The sale, titled Liber Pater Jubilee: 20 Years of Wine History in Motion, runs at Bonhams Hong Kong on November 21. It gathers 20 lots drawn from the 2006 to 2021 vintages, spanning large formats and multi-vintage cases that together read as a miniature retrospective of the estate's rise.

This is the first time owner-winemaker Loïc Pasquet has opened his private reserves directly to collectors. The 27-litre bottle is one of one, made from nine indigenous Bordeaux grape varieties grown entirely on 100 percent franc de pied, or ungrafted, vines. It is signed by Prince Albert II of Monaco.

The top lot carries an experience alongside the bottle: a private estate visit, an inside view of the Conclave during the annual blend discussions, a private dinner and an invitation to the Francs de Pied Gala Dinner. The lot is aimed at Bordeaux collectors rather than casual drinkers.

Amayès Aouli, Bonhams' global head of wine and spirits, describes the 2019 as the essence of purity. He names black cherry, violet and crushed graphite, then warm earth and dried rose as it opens, with fine-grained tannins and a long finish of licorice, iodine and graphite that lasts minutes.

Pasquet planted the gravel of France's Graves region in 2005, using ungrafted vines of rare, historic varieties such as Castets, Mancin, Pardotte, Tarnay and Saint-Macaire. These survived before phylloxera ravaged European vineyards in the late 19th century, and his stated goal is to recreate Bordeaux as it was before that crisis.

The farming methods limit output to around 500 bottles per vintage, and Pasquet releases only the best years. Just ten vintages have appeared since 2006. That scarcity underpins every estimate in the Hong Kong sale.

Liber Pater was thrust into the spotlight in 2019, when Pasquet released the first vintage made wholly from ungrafted vines. He had set the price of the 2015 at $34,110, a figure that made it the world's most expensive wine. The prices drew criticism, yet Pasquet stands by his valuations.

What else the sale carries

Beyond the 27-litre 2019, the auction includes an 18-liter bottle of Liber Pater 2011, offered with another winery experience and estimated at $255,000 to $383,000. Seven lots of the Seven Virtues/Seven Sins collection carry estimates of $127,400 to $191,000 each.

Those seven mixed lots hold between nine and thirteen bottles of Liber Pater from 2006 through 2019, joined by selected bottles from Denarius spanning 2019 to 2020 and from Tetradrachm in 2021, the winery's other labels.

Asked in 2024 about the prices his wines command, Pasquet put the question back: what is the price one is ready to pay to have dinner with Napoleon? The line captures the estate's self-conception, a revival project priced as history rather than merely as wine.

Announcing the auction, Pasquet said: "For the first time in our history, we are opening our private cellar for a direct release to celebrate our 20th anniversary." He described the milestone as two decades of restoring Bordeaux's pre-phylloxera heritage and saving antique grape varieties.

His aim, stated with the sale, is to revive the taste of a terroir-driven wine in Bordeaux itself. The estimates for the two largest formats, the 27-litre 2019 and the 18-liter 2011, both come bundled with a visit to the estate.

What the top lot is testing

The one-of-one status, the Monaco signature and the bundled experience make the final price of the 2019 a test of how far buyers will follow Pasquet's reasoning about value, which has already produced a record-priced wine.

Bidding takes place in Hong Kong on November 21, and the Hong Kong dollar estimates, HK$5 million to HK$8 million for the top lot, are the figures against which the hammer prices will be read.