200-Year-Old 'Presidential Collection' Cognac Up For Auction At Christie's

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A piece of presidential history is up for auction at Christie's in Midtown in the form of cognac.

CBS2's Raegan Medgie reported that 39 bottles – labeled as "The Presidential Collection" – are up for auction, filled with the French liquor cognac and Armagnac. The bidding is for all 39 bottles as a set, and someone must buy all of them.

The bidding starts at $100,000.

"Each vintage coincides with a presidential term in office, starting with George Washington in 1789 and ending with Jimmy Carter in 1977," Bart Laming, who is representing the cognac collector, said.

Laming referred to the collection as "liquid history."

"So this is 1789. Imagine George Washington was elected, first president of the United States, when the grapes of this cognac were harvested," Laming said.

Other bottles include one distilled in 1850 – the same year 12th president Zachary Taylor died and 13th president Millard Fillmore took over. Another bottle is from 1884 when 21st president Chester Arthur was in office.

"There's a story behind each bottle and that each bottle, in a sense, is a relic of a certain era in history," Stephen Tsou, of Great Neck, said.

A select few will get an opportunity Tuesday night to taste other bottles from a different part of the collection, like the 1811 bottle when President James Madison was in office, and 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson was in the White House for World War I.

"You have a very round taste, a very chocolatey, dark taste which everybody likes," Laming said.

However, not everyone stopping by the display is a collector and would actually open up a bottle of the 200-year old cognac.

"If Uruguay wins the World Cup again, in that case I would open," Joaquin Sarroca said.

Tsou said, "Personally, my anniversary or something that would make sense."

The auctions starts Wednesday at 11 a.m.