YOU WON’T FIND THEM IN TESCO — HIS VINTAGE HITS AND MISSES
AN ‘IMPERIALE’ (eight bottles in one) of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1986 with label signed by Sir Alex. Estimated price:
£7,000-£10,000 Original price: £350 Canny transfer deal? 2,700 per cent profit
Tasting notes: ‘Elegant and finely flavoured. Lafite of a great vintage is always subtle, austere and quite dry.’
Fergie factor: A very important football vintage — 1 986 was the year Sir Alex arrived at Manchester United. TWELVE bottles of Petrus 1988
Estimate: £11,500-£13,800 (£950-£1,150 per bottle)
Original price: £750 (£62.50 per bottle)
Canny transfer deal? 1,800 per cent profit
Tasting notes: ‘Generally ripe and quite exotic. Full f l avoured and with intense black fruit taste.’
Fergie factor: An inconsequential season. United ended as First Division runners-up to arch-rivals Liverpool and suffered an embarrassing League Cup exit at the hands of Oxford United. SIXbottles of Romanee-Conti 1999
Estimate: £50,000-£65,000 (£8,300-£10,800 a bottle).
Original price: £2,150 a
bottle
Canny transfer deal?: 400 per cent profit
Tasting notes: ‘Perhaps the rarest and most sought-after wine. Ripe fruit, intense fragrance.’
Fergie factor: Best season of his career. The club became the first to win the treble of the European Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup. Ferguson received a knighthood.
AN IMPERIALE of Chateau Haut-Brion 2005 with label signed signed by Sir Alex.
Estimate: £2,700-£3,500
Original price: £3,500
Canny transfer deal?:
Lucky to break even
Tasting notes: ‘Earthy and peppery. Quite tannic.’
Fergie factor: No need to raise a glass. A dreary season. Third in the league, no trophies and United were nearly knocked out of the FA Cup by non-League Exeter City.
AN IMPERIALE of Ornellaia 2006 with label signed by Sir Alex Estimate: £770-£920
Original price: £1,000 Canny transfer deal?
Not his finest.
Tasting notes: ‘Dense flavours of ripe fruit and warm Italian sun.’
Fergie factor: Only the League Cup to brighten the trophy cabinet. United came second in the League, well behind Chelsea, after a disastrous European campaign in which they failed to reach the knock-out stage.