Princess Margaret was born in this property, where she and her sister, Queen Elizabeth II, enjoyed very happy parties.
The legend goes that the Scottish castle of Glamis inspired William Shakespeare to write the tragedy Macbeth. Located 19 kilometers south of Dundee, it is the ancestral residence of the Earls of Strathmore, with the most famous member still being Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother and grandmother of King Carlos III.
Although the property is not widely known to the public, it holds a special meaning for the Windsors as the Queen Mother grew up in the castle before marrying who would become King George VI, and her daughter, Princess Margaret, was born in one of its rooms.
According to Ingrid Thomson, archivist of Glamis Castle, "the princesses spent many happy parties at Glamis where we keep letters from Lilibet - a fond nickname of Isabel II - thanking her grandparents for their pleasant stay."
Almost by accident, in 1971, a collection of wines over a century old was discovered in the depths of the castle's cellar. Michael Broadbent, the late founder of Christie's wine department, found them after his first visit to the castle.
The estate had meticulous records of these wines, such as the Cellar Book 1885-1894, documenting the purchase and placement of 48 bottles of Lafite from 1870 acquired by the 13th Earl of Strathmore in 1878. "The wine was so astringent that he didn't like it, and when he died, it was practically untouched, so his successors simply left it," wrote Broadbent on Sotheby's website about how the Earl banished the bottles to his castle cellar as it was undrinkable.
Among this treasure were two magnums from Château Lafite Rothschild 1870 Bordeaux wine. On April 17, Sotheby's global headquarters in New York auctioned these bottles, which due to their date have a high historical value, as the vintage predates the phylloxera that destroyed many vineyards in Europe, leading to the replanting of many vineyards with grafted vines.
Initially, each bottle was valued at $50,000, but the expectations were so high that it multiplied its value significantly. The first was sold for $106,250, and the second reached a staggering $200,000 in less than four minutes. The latter has been preserved in its original state since its discovery, as it was never uncorked or reconditioned. The names of the buyers remain unknown to date.
According to sommelier and writer Jason Tesauro, the delicacy of these wines "is like appreciating Sophia Loren at 90 years old. You don't look at her for her 19-year-old beauty. You seek the engraved lines of experience on her face. So what this wine had, which surprised us all, was that we could still smell fruit."
The castle archivist mentioned that the cellar is currently used "for general storage and cleaning products."
In total, 250 bottles from the same owner were auctioned, with the magnums being the centerpiece of the sale, raising $2.1 million.