NEWS
HK SALE OF RECORD-BREAKING DRC BOTTLE CANCELLED DUE TO AUTHENTICITY FEARS
By Susan Lewis
29-11-2021
Source: Acker
The sale of a 6-litre bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) 2002 at a Hong Kong auction in September was cancelled due to doubts raised about the wine’s authenticity.
Sold by US-based Acker auction house for HKD3.1million (USD398,400) in Hong Kong, the deal showed how many questionable bottles of fine burgundies are there in the market.
“Regarding the six-litre [bottle] of 2002 DRC Romanée-Conti recently sold in a prior auction, the sale had already been rescinded,” Acker auction house said in a statement.
Acker also said: “We have a longstanding practice that if we find a bottle to be inauthentic, we will refund the buyer. Acker is very confident in our authentication department and work with some of the best internal and external authenticators in the world.”
Doubts about the wine’s authenticity were raised by lawyer and wine fraud expert Don Cornwell on the Wine Beserkers website.
Cornwell pointed out that he had compared the Acker lot of 2002 Romanée-Conti with a 2002 6-litre sold in the Joseph Lau Cellar sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2020.
"In the case of the Sotheby's Joseph Lau bottle, the same bottle had been authenticated at Zachy’s when it was originally purchased by Mr. Lau and had provenance traceable to the importer," Cornwell said.
He went on to list 15 discrepancies between the Lau bottle and the one on offer at the Acker sale, including the absence of the original wooden case, different-coloured wax on the seal, wrong-sized and poorly printed labels among others.
Cornwell also raised doubts about another wine, a 6-litre bottle of DRC Romanée-Conti 2000, which was originally scheduled to be included in an Acker auction earlier this month, saying that it shared the same defects of the 2002 bottle.
Acker subsequently removed the 2000 bottle from this month’s auction. It said: “The six-litre [bottle] of 2000 DRC Romanée-Conti was printed in the auction catalogue, but once our final inspection came through, we withdrew the lot prior to the auction.”
Despite the negative news of the questionable DRC bottle, Acker said the clients are still confident in their processes.
“Clearly, our clients are confident in our processes, as we will have a record shattering USD170m in auction sales this year, representing 40 percent of the global auction market. We will continue to do our best to detect and prevent the bad actors in the fine and rare wine market,” said Acker.
DRC is the most expensive wine in the world and has long been a target for counterfeiters. In 2002, 5548 bottles in total were produced while 6286 were made in 2000, according to Wine-searcher figures.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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