A WINE sale by James Adams last Wednesday attracted a large crowd as scores of private buyers vied with the trade and restaurateurs for cases and bottles of vintage and wine, much of it from the smoke damaged cellars of the Coq Hardi restaurant.

A case of Mouton Rothschild was the top selling lot, making £3,400 under the hammer, while a case of 1978 Petrus 1978 sold for £1,700.

There were only eight lots unsold at the end of the afternoon and the sale totalled £80,000. According to Stuart Cole of James Adam, this was the best wine sale they have had since 1990, when the contents of the cellar of Whites on the Green restaurant made around £50,000.

A second sale is being planned for the autumn.