Restored 1890s Yquem Bottles from Nazi-Linked Czech Castle Collection Returned After Decade-Long Project

Five full original bottles of Château d'Yquem from the 1892 and 1896 vintages were returned to Bečov Castle after a ten-year restoration led by the winery. The bottles form part of a 136-bottle collection discovered in the 1980s beneath the floorboards of the castle chapel at Bečov nad Teplou in western Czech Republic.

The collection once belonged to the noble Beaufort-Spontin family, which left Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II after being suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.

The wine remained hidden alongside the Reliquary of St. Maurus, said to contain the bones of St. John the Baptist, until communist secret police located it decades later. In 1984 the Beaufort-Spontin family asked American businessman Danny Douglas to retrieve the wine.

Police discovered the collection during the permit process for the retrieval. The shrine was taken to Prague for reconstruction and returned to Bečov for display in 2002, while the wine stayed in place. Château d'Yquem, located in the Sauternes area of Bordeaux, oversaw the restoration of its eight bottles.

Cellar master Toni El Khawand tasted a small quantity to confirm the wine matched the expected aromatic and balance profile for its age. Laboratory tests verified the wine's authenticity. The winery replaced the corks, fitted the original bottles with capsules, and re-bottled the wine as it was exposed to oxygen.

Five full original bottles were returned to Bečov; the remaining three were re-bottled during the process. Toni El Khawand presented one of the restored bottles at Bečov Castle on June 1, 2026. He described the tasting as a magical experience and said the wine showed freshness on the palate with an almost acidic character.

El Khawand identified aromas of cedar, dried fruit, saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate, coffee, mocha, and oud. He attributed the wine's survival to its high sugar content. "What we're really doing when we open it is unveiling a time capsule," El Khawand said.

He added that the wine holds moral and historical value as a liquid memory of those who came before and the work that was done. More recent vintages of Château d'Yquem sell for hundreds of dollars per bottle. The Czech National Heritage Institute has valued the entire 136-bottle collection at around $5 million if sold at auction.

Bečov Castle plans to exhibit all bottles from the collection that contain wine and cognac, including an 1899 Pedro Ximenez sherry and an 1892 port. The castle has launched a fundraising campaign for the exhibition. Katerina Nyvltova, collections manager at Bečov, said that if funds are raised the castle will conduct a more thorough analysis of the wines and recondition additional bottles if possible.