By JAMES BROOKS Associated Press
LYNGBY, Denmark (AP) — It was a wedding that captivated the world — in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer said “I will” to Prince Charles, becoming Princess of Wales and bringing youth and glamour to Britain’s royal family.
More than 40 years after the wedding and many years after the marriage fell apart, royal fans will be able to buy a rare part of that historic day — or perhaps a sip of it.
Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen is putting an exclusive magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the occasion under the hammer this Thursday.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen it,” Thomas Rosendahl, head of the auction house’s wine department, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
“It’s really, really rare and a bottle with that royal provenance,” he added. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Prince Charles, now King Charles III, married Lady Diana Spencer in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981. The ceremony was followed by a lavish reception at Buckingham Palace.
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. A year later, she and companion Dodi Fayed died in a high-speed car crash in Paris.
The champagne was a limited-edition wedding release, created to celebrate the union.
A unique label reads: “Specially shipped to honor the marriage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. 29 July 1981.”
Rosendahl says only 12 were made and were intended to be opened on the day. It’s not known what happened to the others, perhaps gifted to guests.
“It was a celebration from Dom Pérignon to the wedding,” explains Rosendahl.
“They also got … normal bottles that were served at the wedding, but these bottles were just forgotten or kept away.”
Little was revealed about the seller. Rosendahl only said that it’s a Danish collector who previously purchased the bottle from a London wine merchant.
The bottle is expected to fetch up to 600,000 Danish kroner (around 81,000 euros or $93,000) when it is auctioned at Bruun Rasmussen’s auction house in Lyngby, 12 kilometers (7½ miles) north of Copenhagen.
Rosendahl said that he’s been contacted by “a lot of wine collectors” asking about the magnum, its provenance, and how it was stored. And tests suggest it’s still drinkable.
“There’s a lot of collectors out there for royal memorabilia, special memorabilia from Lady Diana’s wedding. So, it could be a collector of royal memorabilia, or it could be a collector of wine,” he said.
Henrik Smidt, who is the fine wine manager at Danish wine merchant Kjaer and Sommerfeldt in Copenhagen, expects the magnum to achieve a high price.
“You have the combination of one of the most famous weddings ever, Lady Diana and Prince Charles. A Dom Pérignon, one of the most famous brands in the world from a very rare vintage,” Smidt said. “All wine connoisseurs, all wine collectors would love to have Dom Pérignon in their cellar.”
“My guess is that it will not be a wine connoisseur who will buy this bottle of wine, more likely a collector of royal artifacts or even potentially a museum,” he said.