This must be the first time such an array of wines has been shown in London since the time of the Pontacs,” said Prince Robert of Luxembourg last week, referring to the end of the 17th century when the Pontac family owned so many Bordeaux estates that their name became synonymous with claret, in particular the top wines of the Graves that were so popular in London then.

“Ho Bryan” is the only red bordeaux to which Samuel Pepys refers by name in his famous diaries. The prince’s great grandfather, American financier Clarence Dillon, picked up Château Haut-Brion for a song during the economic slump of the 1930s and in late 1983 the Dillon family acquired its neighbour, Château La Mission Haut-Brion, from the Woltner family. Robert remembers how as a boy of 15 he was summoned from school in England by his mother to witness the signing of the sale documents in Bordeaux.