Christie's hails wine buyer 'resurgence' at Hong Kong auction

Christie's said it saw resurgent interest from wine buyers at its latest auction in Hong Kong, which saw vintage Champagne and Super Tuscan wines compete with Burgundy and Bordeaux for headlines.

Total sales from the single-owner auction reached HK$62.4m (US$8m), including buyer's premium and with 96% of lots sold.

Christie's head of wine for China, Simon Tam, said the sale represented a 'resurgence of interest' from fine wine buyers, with bidders coming from 14 countries. All top ten lots were sold to Asia-based buyers.

It was many of the usual suspects securing the highest prices at the sale, and several lots strongly overshot their pre-auction estimated.

Top lot was six bottles of DRC's Romanee-Conti 1990, which sold for HK$980,000 versus a high estimate of HK$800,000. The 1995 vintage of the same wine was second best-selling lot, with six bottles fetching HK$857,500, strongly outperforming a high estimate of HK$480,000.

Three magnums of Petrus 1961 were the third best-selling lot, fetching HK$673,750 versus a high estimate of HK$450,000.

Further down the list, there was a strong showing of vintage Champagne and Italian wines. 'One of the largest Italian wine collections offered at a Christie’s Hong Kong wine auction and a comprehensive Champagne collection were all sold well above estimates,' said Tam.

Six magnums of Krug Clos du Mesnil 1985 sold for HK$134,750, against a high estimate of HK$120,000. There was more evidence of healthy consumer demand for the 2002 Champagne vintage. A dozen bottles of Louis Roederer Cristal 2002 sold for HK$26,950, versus a high estimate of HK$20,000.

Among the Italian wines, Tenuta Dell'Ornellaia's second wine, Masseto, sold well in larger bottle formats. Three magnums of Masseto 2001 sold for HK$42,875, versus a high estimate of HK$35,000.