Old liquor collection up for grabs(2)
"My father said: 'You are out of your mind to collect liquor. Why don't you invest in something worthwhile?'
"Well, I didn't listen," he said smiling.
His collection has grown to more than 5,000 dusty bottles, kept safely behind lock and key in a converted cow shed at his rustic farmstead on the outskirts of the southern Dutch city of Breda.
The collection consists mainly of bottles of rare cognac and armagnac, distilled from French grapes, as well as a variety of ports, madeiras and rums.
Asked whether he preferred cognac or armagnac, Van der Bunt just laughed: "It's like asking a polygamist which one of his wives he loves the most."
The crown prince of the collection is undoubtedly a six-liter bottle of 1795 Leopold Brugerolle, bought at an auction in 1990.
It is the last remaining hand-crafted bottle in the world that accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte's army on its campaigns and is valued at $182,000, according to Van der Bunt.
There's also three complete sets of eight bottles of A.E. Dor cognacs, dating from 1805, 1811, 1834, 1840, 1858, 1875, 1889 and 1893 and valued at between 70,000 to 80,000 euros per set.
Or a hand-blown bottle of 1789 Courvoisier & Curlier which will set a potential buyer back 49,000 euros, or an Armagnac Eau de Vie from the same year.
"The year of the French Revolution," Van der Bunt said proudly.
"I have even been approached by some of the cognac houses in France wanting to buy back their own historical product," he added.
By his own admittance, as his collection grew buying at auctions and stock from famous restaurants such as Maxim's in Paris so did his need to possess some of the old spirits in existence.
"It became a passion, an obsession and ultimately a form of avarice."
He tells the story of bidding at a Sotheby's auction in London in the 1970s on a rare 1789 vintage cognac.
"I told my wife Ria: 'This is the one bottle I must have, it simply has to be removed from the market, no matter the cost'," eventually paying 5,000 pounds an astronomical amount at the time for the privilege.
"Two months later, another existing bottle is up for auction at Christie's. That one too, simply, had to be 'removed from the market'," he laughed, adding "I paid way too much money for it."
But after 40 years of passionate collecting, the Dutch businessman is now putting his collection up for sale.
"I promised my wife when she turns 65, I will sell the collection and we'll use the money to build a smaller house,"said Van der Bunt, who has no children.
There will, however, be one bottle not for sale.
It's a 1780 Remy Martin, believed to be one of the world's oldest existing bottles of cognac, "a gift from my father".
