Kevin Shaun Jirasinghe
06/08/2026
Its Auction Tells Us Something Valuable
How much would you pay for a bottle of wine made when Napoleon ruled France and Jane Austen published Sense and Sensibility?
For one collector, the answer was €10,250.
The bottle in question was an 1811 Forster Ungeheuer Riesling from Weingut Bassermann-Jordan in Germany’s Pfalz region. Believed to be the oldest full bottle of German Riesling from a documented single vineyard offered at a European auction, it had spent more than two centuries inside the producer’s cellar.
This was never simply a bottle to open with dinner. It was a surviving piece of wine history and a fascinating case study in rarity, provenance and the forces shaping the fine wine market.
The 1811 Forster Ungeheuer came directly from the historic cellar of Weingut Bassermann-Jordan in Deidesheim.
That matters.
Rather than passing through a succession of merchants and private cellars, the bottle remained under the control of the estate that produced it. It was regularly inspected and recorked in April 2026, using only wine from the original 1811 vintage rather than a younger top-up wine.
The estate reportedly holds just seven further bottles following the auction.
For serious collectors, that direct provenance is difficult to improve upon.
The bottle’s condition had not simply been assumed because of its age. When the estate sampled the wine during the recorking process, it reportedly remained in excellent condition after 215 years.
The wine’s appeal extends beyond its age.
The 1811 vintage became known as the Comet Vintage, named after the Great Comet that was visible across Europe that year. It developed a near-mythical reputation for producing exceptional wines in several regions.
Its cultural history is equally striking.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ordered wine from the Forster Ungeheuer vineyard in 1820, while the site’s name can be traced back to former vineyard owner Johann Adam Ungeheuer.
Stories like these cannot be recreated through marketing.
They build around a wine slowly, sometimes over centuries until the bottle becomes interesting to historians and collectors as well as drinkers.
Catawiki offered the bottle online between 24 July and 3 August 2026 with an estimate of €10,000 to €13,000.
The highest bid reached €10,250, placing it just above the bottom of the guide price. Catawiki subsequently noted that the sale would only become final once the successful bidder completed payment.
Was that a disappointing result? Not necessarily.
The price demonstrates that rarity and historical importance do not automatically produce unlimited demand. Buyers still judge the producer, wine style, condition and wider market appeal.
That is a useful lesson for wine investment. Age alone does not make a bottle valuable.
The right bottle needs a credible story, verifiable provenance and enough collector demand to create competition when it reaches the market.
The €10,250 result becomes more revealing when compared with other exceptionally old bottles.
These are not like-for-like comparisons. The wines come from different countries, producers and bottle formats, and were sold under different market conditions.
They do, however, show what collectors may pay when history and provenance align.
In 2020, a 70cl bottle of Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Goldlack Trockenbeerenauslese 1920 sold for €18,000 at the Kloster Eberbach wine auction.
The result set a record for the estate at the time and placed the century-old sweet Riesling well above the price achieved by the much older 1811 Forster Ungeheuer.
Why the difference?
Schloss Johannisberg is closely associated with the history of Riesling and Germany’s finest sweet wines. Trockenbeerenauslese is also produced in tiny quantities, giving the wine rarity through both age and production.
The comparison makes one thing clear: the market does not value age in isolation. Producer reputation and wine style can matter just as much.
A bottle of Grand Constance 1821 achieved £21,222 at the Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction in May 2021.
It had been estimated at approximately £4,000 to £6,500, meaning the final price more than tripled its upper guide. The bottle was believed to be one of only around 12 remaining and came from an allocation originally intended for Napoleon Bonaparte.
Its value was not driven solely by what might remain inside the bottle.
The connection with Napoleon, the tiny surviving supply and the importance of Constantia’s sweet wines in European history all strengthened its appeal.
Collectors were bidding on a story that could not be replaced.
The upper end of the historic-wine market can reach an entirely different level.
In April 2026, two magnums of Château Lafite Rothschild 1870 sold at Sotheby’s for a combined US$306,250.
One realised US$200,000, while the other brought US$106,250. Both had originally been bought by the 13th Earl of Strathmore and stored at Glamis Castle in Scotland.
The large format, First Growth status, pre-phylloxera vintage and documented aristocratic provenance created an almost perfect combination for collectors.
It also explains why comparing historic wines purely by age can be misleading.
The Lafite was nearly 60 years younger than the 1811 Riesling, yet the stronger global brand, magnum format and exceptional provenance produced a dramatically higher result.
There are old bottles in cellars across Europe.
Most will never be worth €10,000.
Without reliable storage records, authentic labels and a traceable chain of ownership, age may create doubt rather than value. Has the bottle been kept at the correct temperature? Is the liquid genuine? Has it been recorked or topped up? Can its history be verified?
The 1811 Forster Ungeheuer answered those questions better than most.
It came directly from Bassermann-Jordan, had remained in the winery’s cellar and was recorked under controlled conditions using wine from the same vintage.
That level of documentation gave the buyer confidence.
For anyone considering wine investment, the principle applies well beyond museum-level bottles. Provenance can materially influence the desirability and resale prospects of modern Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and collectible Riesling too.
The final price was lower than some comparable historic wines, but that makes the auction more useful rather than less.
It shows that collectors remain discerning.
The 1811 Riesling was extraordinarily old and exceptionally rare, yet bidders still stopped at €10,250. Meanwhile, the younger Schloss Johannisberg 1920 achieved €18,000, Grand Constance 1821 reached £21,222 and the two Lafite 1870 magnums realised more than $300,000.
The difference was not simply age, it was the combination of:
Those same factors influence pricing throughout the fine wine market.
The 1811 Forster Ungeheuer Riesling is unlikely to become a conventional investment bottle.
There are too few examples, too little regular trading and too much historical importance for it to behave like a typical case of investment-grade wine.
Its auction still tells us something valuable.
Rarity attracts attention. Provenance creates confidence. History adds emotional appeal. But the final price depends on whether buyers are willing to compete.
At €10,250, this 215-year-old Riesling found a collector prepared to pay for all four.
And with only seven bottles reportedly remaining at the estate, the next opportunity may be a very long time coming.
To understand how fine wine investment works or discuss current opportunities, book a complimentary consultation with Moncharm Wine Traders
04 Aug 2026
