Spectrum Wine Auctions and Vanquish Wines will host their first Hong Kong-style sale on the evening of 8 February at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
The joint venture represents the first auction for London-based Vanquish, and the first London auction for Spectrum, which has concentrated since its launch in 2009 on the US and Hong Kong markets.
The organisers are touting the sale as a ‘social’ evening, with Champagne and canapés in a glamorous venue. The sale itself will be deliberately brief, comprising just 177 lots.
‘The pace will be brisk and lively – the sale should take two, two-and a-half hours,’ said auctioneer Richard Brierley, head of fine wine for Vanquish.
‘It’s meant to be a social occasion, something people can pop into on their way home or stay for an hour to bid on what they want, and then out for supper.’
Jason Boland, president of Spectrum Wine Auctions, said the event would combine elements of a ‘really great show’ with the ‘firepower’ of a wine marketing machine.
‘Going to London requires something different and special. The first thing we did was to plan to bring the flair and fun that already sets us apart in the US and Hong Kong,’ he said.
Highlights include Domaine de la Romanee Conti, Romanee Conti 1990 in jeroboam and methuselah, as well as a jeroboam of the same wine from the 1962 vintage, Chateau Haut Brion 1945 and Mouton-Rothschild 1949, both in magnum; and magnums of Henri Jayer Richebourg 1978 and 1985.
Spectrum’s most recent auction, held in Hong Kong on 3-4 December 2011, yielded over HK$40.6m (£3.2m), with 85% of the 1612 lots sold – with the majority by value made up of Burgundy.
Written by Maggie Rosen
