After an absence of seven years, Christie’s wine department will be back in Asia for an auction on 29 Nov2008 at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre.
The headline wines in the auction are ‘an exceptional collection of Latour sourced directly from the château cellars’. Christie’s describe this a ‘tightly focused’ sale. Does that just mean small, I wonder? (It must help that Francois Pinault owns Christie's as well as Ch Latour.)
Whatever the size of the sale, there’s not much doubt it will attract plenty of attention given the high level of fine wine trading (and consumption) in Hong Kong and the recent abolition of wine duty.
According to Christie's, the evening sale will feature:
250 selected lots, with 150 lots from Château Latour. The Latour selection will comprise bottles, magnums and many large formats from a wide range of vintages up to 2005 with a number of rarities from older vintages dating back to 1865. Classic vintage and highlights will include many classics from 1900, 1929, 1945, 1959, 1961 and 1982 include a 1900 magnum (estimate: HK $140,000-190,000); 12 bottles of 1959
(estimate: HK $300,000-380,000); one 1961 imperiale (estimate: HK$480,000-600,000); imperiales of 1982 (estimate: HK $180,000-220,000 each); and a 2000 jeroboam (estimate: HK $75,000-100,000). The Latour selection in its entirety is expected to realize in excess of HK $10 million. Alongside the unique offering from Château Latour will be a further range of fine and rare wines, all sourced from impeccable European cellars, including rare Pétrus and other First Growth Bordeaux, a selection of exceptional Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, vintage Champagne and venerable Vintage Port and Old Cognacs.
See also Hong Kong highlights for Jancis’s comments on Acker Merrall’s auction earlier this year.