Asian buyers show thirst for expensive wine
PLUNGING global markets and deepening fears of another world recession failed to dampen Asian buyers’ thirst for vintage wines at Sotheby’s October wine auction in Hong Kong. The two-day event held from 1-2 October put rare Imperials of Chateau Lafite, Latour and Cheval Blanc and Jeroboams of Mouton and Haut Brion under the hammer, as well as a selection of Lafite from the Rothschild’s private cellars. The sale raked in $12.7m (£8.15m) in total.
New York-based Sotheby’s said its first day sale, the eighth part of the long-running Classic Cellar of a Great American Collector, sold all bottles, fetching a total of $3.5m, just under Sotheby’s highest pre-auction estimate of $4m. One of the auction highlights was the sale of 12 bottles of 1990 Chateau Petrus at $43,436.
The second day of the auction raised $9.2m, including The Ultimate Nine from The Bordeaux Winebank Collection, with the auction led by 12 bottles of 1988 Domaine de la Romanée Conti for $116,346.