The wine collection of a rugby great could fetch $25,000 in an online auction.
Andy Haden played 117 games (41 tests) for New Zealand between 1972 and 1984, and caused controversy on and off the rugby field.
Auction house Webbs secured the rights to his personal collection of 29 wines and bidding ends on Monday at 8pm.
Rugby great Andy Hadens wine collection is up for auction.
Haden acquired many of his wines during his All Blacks tours. He died in July 2020 after a long illness.
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His son Chris Haden, 39, said his father was proud of his wine collection.
He and mum lived in France and Italy for a couple of seasons in the late-1970s, and I guess he developed a bit of a taste for it over there, he said.
Haden, who died in 2020, was supermodel Rachel Hunter’s long-time manager after he retired from rugby.
“The collection had been sitting under the house in a cellar, close to 40 plus years some of those bottles have been down there, and it just seemed the right time to clear some of it out.”
Webbs online auction is its highest value virtual auction ever, with a total estimate of more than $300,000.
Webbs head of fine wines and whiskies Marcus Atkinson said Haden’s collection was an amazing treasure trove to come across.
The wine collection of late All Black Andy Haden includes an intriguing Chateau Lafite, of an unknown vintage.
A friend of Andys family came in with an incredible collection of wine that he’d been collecting when he was playing for the All Blacks and travelling around Europe, he said
“He had a really good mate who was advising him of the best win to buy, so he seems to have picked the best wines of that time.”
Atkinson said the highest estimate in the collection is on a Domaine de la Romanee Conti Echezeaux, at $3,000 to $4000, and the most intriguing is a vintage unknown Chateau Lafite.
Included in the sale is a special bottle of 1978 Nobilos Huapai cabernet, which was specifically labelled for the 1981 All Blacks tour of Romania and France.
Nobilo’s Huapai Cabernet Sauvignon, specially labelled for the All Blacks test against France in Paris 1981, is another wine for sale at Webbs online auction. Bidding ends on Monday at 8pm.
Haden made his first appearance for the All Blacks in 1972, and went on to captain his country on eight occasions.
His controversial “dive tactic that allowed the All Blacks to snatch victory from Wales in 1978 became a major talking point of his career.