Stamp specialist to hold Hong Kong wine auction

A Geneva-based stamp specialist, David Feldman Auctions, is to hold wine sales in Hong Kong – with an 1894 Barolo as a highlight lot.

Feldman Wine Auctions will host its first wine sale on 30 October at the Park Lane Hotel in Causeway Bay, with a video-linked sale room in Beijing.

Feldman group CEO Dan Flesher said the company has added wine to its auction business because of Asian buyers’ growing passion for fine wine, and the declining interest in stamps in most of the world – though the latter activity is still flourishing in China.

‘We already had an office in Hong Kong to support our stamp collecting clients there and on the Mainland, and had started to explore other opportunities,’ he said.

‘We saw the explosion of wine business since Hong Kong did away with the duty on wine, and we looked at how that could work for us.’

London-based consignment director Stuart George said most of the 500 lots have been sourced from the UK and Europe. Wine will remain in situ, buyers dictating where they would like it shipped.

This benefits sellers as well, since wine won’t move until it is paid for.

Highlights include what may be the oldest Barolo to be offered at auction – a bottle of 1894 Fontanafredda (estimate HK$32,000/£2,577); an 18-bottle collection of Chateau D’Yquem including 1937 and 1967 (HK$270,000); 59 lots of Chateau Lafite from 1954 to 2005; and 40 lots of ex-cellar grand cru Burgundy – including Clos de la Roche and Latricieres – from Nicolas Potel‘s Collection Bellenum.

Written by Maggie Rosen