NEWS
“TRAN-SCEND-ENT" COLLECTION BEAT HIGHEST EVER ESTIMATE BY 50% IN HK AUCTION
By Siulan Law Mathews DipWSET
1-4-2019
The “Tran-scend-ent 超凡釀” fine wine auction hosted by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong over the weekend has beaten the lower end of its record breaking estimate by over 50% realising HKD233.6m (USD29.8m), helping sealed Hong Kong’s status as world’s fine wine auction capital.
Adam Bilbey, Asia Head of Sotheby’s Wine, said: “These results reinforce the fact that Hong Kong is the most important wine auction sales destination in the world. Collectors’ thirst for an increasing variety of wines demonstrates a broadening of the market and ever-diversifying tastes.”
The three-day auction took place from Friday to Sunday, featuring the private collection of the anonymous “Transcendent Collector” said to be a 5th generation property developer. The collection had set a new pre-sale estimate record at USD19m to 26m for private fine wine collection.
Over 2,500 of the 2,704 lots featured were sold. The lots achieving highest bidding prices were three 12-bottle cases of 1990 Romanée-Conti from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti which was sold for HKD2.7m (USD347,520) each.
A case of 1985 Romanée-Conti came second having realised HKD2.3m (USD300,131), followed by three cases of 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild sold for HKD1.9m (USD252,742) each.
Jamie Ritchie, Worldwide Head of Sotheby’s Wine, commented: “The scale, quality and value of this collection is totally unprecedented, and the superb result is a fitting outcome, as collectors continue to compete for the world’s greatest wines. To present the most important single-cellar collections at auction is to quench the insatiable thirst of today’s enlightened collectors who are buying to open and enjoy the bottles, a sentiment very much in tune with the man who put together this outstanding collection.”
Apart from fine wines from Burgundy, the “Transcent Collection” also featured some best expressions from Champagne, Rhône, Bordeaux and Italy, including more than 250 lots of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, some 600 lots of Domaine Coche-Dury, 350 lots of Dom Pérignon and 140 lots of Domaine Guigal.
The final total of USD29.8m comes close to the USD34.5m record set by the sale of Henri Jayer’s private cellar last June in Geneva and has surpassed the USD21.9m made at the sale of Bill Koch’s collection in New York in 2016.
(the writer can be contacted at: SLawMathews@thewinechronicle.com)
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