Czech Republic's oldest wine bottle sells for 107,000 Kč

A 74-year-old vintage wine thought to be the oldest bottle of wine in the Czech Republic has sold for 107,000 Kč ($5,960) at a charity auction in Prague.

The lot auctioned Nov. 23 was a gift from prize-winning Moravian winemaker Radomil Baloun, who bought three bottles of the aged Sauvignon Blanc from an Austrian winery 15 years ago.

The vintages were corked in 1936, the year of former Czech President Václav Havel's birth. Baloun gave two of them to the former president for his 60th birthday Oct. 5, 1996. The third bottle went to the winemaker's father, who decided to keep it until now.

For his part, Havel said he tasted the vintage for his birthday and thought it was "a really good year." He told the charity it was even better that the remaining bottle would serve good causes.

Apart from the wine, other unusual lots at the auction included lunch for two with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, with the parting gift of a signed copy of the stateswoman's latest book, Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box.

"A lot of people wanted this, and in the end we auctioned it for 60,000 Kč," Auction Coordinator Petra Krystiánová of Nadace Via told The Prague Post.

Securing a role in the next film by Czech filmmaker Jan Hřebejk, was also up for grabs, going for 45,000 Kč at the charity event. 

The director's World War II drama Musíme si pomáhat (Divided We Fall) was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2000 Oscars, and his latest, Kawasakiho růže (Kawasaki's Rose), is the Czech-language nominee for next year's Academy Awards.

Another item was a statue awarded by the charity itself in memoriam earlier this year to Professor Lubomír Kohout, who gave a total of 2.2 million Kč to two NGOs supporting education for children and countering human trafficking.

Donated back to Nadace Via by the late professor's friend, the statue sold at auction for 105,000 Kč.

In total, the auction raised some 820,000 Kč. Krystiánová said the charity was "very glad" at the amount raised, which exceed expectations by more than 200,000 Kč.

"Last year, we netted 460,000 Kč. This year, the auction's fourth, we had hoped to net 600,000 Kč," she said.

Proceeds from the auction at Hotel Prague Marriott are divided between Nadace Via and the South Moravia Community Foundation.

"Via uses the revenue to build its endowment, through which we fund community development projects," Krystiánová said.

The spokeswoman said projects that received funding included those aiding in "public advocacy and revitalizing public spaces," as well as local groups around the country that worked to "build more active, engaged communities."

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com