Sotheby’s fine wine auction breaks more records in Hong Kong

Asian fine wine buyers have shrugged off the downturn to spend just under HK$53m (US$6.8m) in a single day at a record-breaking Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong.

The sale at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Saturday sold all 840 lots, comfortably beating pre-sale estimates of HK$40m (US$5.1m) and breaking Sotheby’s record for a single day auction.

Highlights among the Bordeaux-dominated lots included two magnums of Château Pétrus 1982, which sold for HK$435,000 (US$56,000), more than three times their pre-sale estimate, and a six-litre bottle of Château Lafite 1982, which netted HK$363,000 (US$47,000).

A jeroboam of Château Latour fetched HK$338,800 (US$44,000), while three magnums of La Tâche Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1985 were sold for HK$242,000 (US$31,000).

Buyers from Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan dominated the bidding, with Sotheby’s having to install a second sales room to cope with demand for the auction.

During the ten-hour sale, the fourth in a series from The Classic Cellar of a Great American Collector, bidders were served with a host of fine wines, including Louis Roederer Blanc de Blancs 1993 and Château Haut-Brion 1998.

Financial commentators say wealthy Chinese are increasingly keen to invest in fine wine, partly because of growing fears of inflation on the Chinese mainland.

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Written by Richard Woodard