Selling a 1959 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in Toronto - thoughts?

Your ability to sell a bottle of this age for anything near its "fair market value" will depend on provenance. Any serious wine collector will want some assurance that the wine has been stored in temperature controlled conditions since its release in 1962. If you can provide such provenance, you'd be best off selling it at auction. For a single bottle, you'd probably want to use winecommune.

HTH Mark Lipton

This is awesome (winecommune and your advice) -- many thanks!

The latest average auction price for that wine was $1552.00(US).

You will have major problems shipping across the border. In fact you're unlikely to proceed without it being seized. If they open it and see a bottle they will keep it as far as I know. You may want to look into that as most purchaser on winecommune or American.

"megatron" wrote

What a load of paranoid crap.

I am a foreigner - I have travelled into and out of both the US and Canada on many occasions, and always with as few as four and as many as a dozen bottles of wine in my bags (imported from NZ in my baggage through LA or San Francisco or even Vancouver.

Sure, you Americans and Canadians have the most archaic wine transshipment laws on earth - particularly when you consider that you can drive unhindered from Spain to France to Italy to Switzerland to Germany or Austria without some demented customs officer strip searching you to see if you have a bottle of wine stashed up your ass!!!!!

I have driven from the US into Canada and return - with wine in my possession. I have also driven interstate - from Ca into Az again with a few bottles in my vehicle - and never was I apprehended - and certainly nothing was ever seized.

Methinks that although the law is the law; very rarely is it enforced, particularly in the case of one lousy bottle.

I would agree, however, not that long ago, a person in the wine industry in VA sold a bottle of wine to an individual in dc or MD, and all hell broke loose. think the seller was someone who wrote in the wash post, but not certain any more.

There is a difference between carrying a wine across the border and trying to ship it across the border. Rarely is there a problem carrying it unless it's an excessive amount. Shipping is more difficult. Many shippers won't even accept it if they are told it's wine.

Andy

Andy, in my haste, I thought, maybe mistakenly, that if anyone from the US was interested in purchasing this bottle (or two - as the OP stated) then they would not be spending $US1,000 or $US1,500 without taking a look-see first.

Besides, Toronto is just across the border isn't it?

st.helier

by car, maybe an hour from Buffalo, NY in non-rush hour traffic, and a good 4 hours from Detroit, MI.

Dennis

I certainly would, but I don't know if that is really an option if an internet auction site is used.

Yes, close to Buffallo NY, but I wouldn't expect the market for this type of wine to be very large in that area. I think there would be more potential buyers in a major US city which would be much farther from Toronto.

Andy