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A Chateau Margaux auction spanning more than 100 years of vintages was held by Sotheby's in New York. Sotheby’s said its Chateau Margaux auction held in New York on Saturday (17 October) fetched $2.77m, nearly double the firm’s pre-sale high estimate of $1.4m. Buyers from the Americas and Asia bid fiercely for top vintages of Chateau Margaux direct from the Medoc first growth’s cellars, reinforcing opinion within the trade that New York is a resurgent force in the fine wine auction game after several years as clear second best to Hong Kong. This latest result also offers a dose of perspective to those who decry Bordeaux as unfashionable and out of touch; albeit the auction scene is only one cog in a bigger fine wine trading market.

Chateau Margaux vintages sold during the auction dated from the early 1900s to 2010. A bottle of Margaux 1909 – recorked in 1979 – sold for $9,188, versus a pre-sale high estimate of $2,800.

Of the more recent vintages, many buyers showed interest in Bordeaux 2000. Several 12 bottle lots of Chateau Margaux 2000 were among the most sought after wines and the individual lots sold for $36,750 each against a pre-sale top estimate of $15,000.

Top lot in the auction was a vertical collection of Margaux magnums from 1978 to 2012 inclusive and all signed by the chateau’s managing director, Paul Pontallier. It fetched $67,375, including buyer’s premium, versus a pre-sale high estimate of $50,000.

Drinking a glass of wine with an evening meal could help those with type 2 diabetes improve the management of their blood sugar levels, according to a new long-term health study. The research also found that sufferers of type 2 diabetes increased their cardiac health and improved their cholesterol levels when they drank a glass of red wine – thanks to the presence of antioxidants such as resveratrol. 

The CASCADE (Cardiovascular Diabetes and Ethanol) trial is believed to be one of the first long-term alcohol health studies of its kind and was published in Annals of Internal Medicine. However, previous studies have urged caution in linking resveratrol in wine to specific health benefits. And diabetes support groups in the UK and US advise sufferers to manage their alcohol intake carefully to avoid potential problems.

The new study involved 224 people with type 2 diabetes, splitting them into three groups which consumed 150ml of mineral water, white wine or red wine with their evening meal every night for two years. Participants followed a Mediterranean diet without calorie restrictions.While red wine appeared to slightly improve heart health and suppress bad cholesterol, both red and white wine appeared to help to improve sugar control among those who metabolise alcohol slowly (roughly 80% of those studied). Those who drank wine also recorded a significant improvement in sleep quality, compared to those who consumed only mineral water.

Torres said that two revived wine grapes named Moneu and Gonfaus have ‘great promise’ for red wine production. It is the latest part of a long-running project that has seen Torres investigate and revive around 40 Spanish grape varieties previously cultivated in the Catalonia region since the 1980s.

And the move comes amid rising interest in forgotten grape varieties in several countries, with projects known to be underway in Italy, southern France, Switzerland and also Chile. Many of these are not deemed suitable for use in wine blends, but Torres is already using a couple of ancestral varieties – Querol and Garró – in its Gran Muralles blend. It thinks Moneu and Gonfaus could follow a similar path and may even be useful in dealing with the effects of climate change in Catalonia. ‘The Torres family discovered that these two varieties express their greatest potential in arid climates and under extreme conditions,’ said Torres. ‘Both varieties are extremely drought resistant.’