Sotheby’s sale to offer ‘best of the best’

Auction house Sotheby’s is to offer the “best of the best” at its next Hong Kong auction next month with over 200 lots of the world’s finest wines up for grabs.

Taking place on 12 December, the sale is expected to realise HK$20-28 million (£1.65-3m) with over 200 lots of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhône, Spain and Champagne to be sold.

Serena Sutcliffe MW, Sotheby’s head of International Wine, commented: “An evening sale should always be festive, especially at this time of year. This fabulous collection is Wine Fireworks, explosively exciting and, quite simply, The Best.

“All the wines in this superb collection deserve our full attention. They have so many facets to them, so much to unveil and give. There are wines that I would like to drink tonight (La Tâche 1990 and Vega Sicilia Unico 1970, for instance), while there are others where I would try and exercise a little more patience – Ausone 2005 is well worth waiting for.”

Particular highlights include 70 lots of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, 54 lots of which are La Tâche spanning the 40 vintages 1966-2006 and there are a further five magnums of 1971 Romanée-Conti as well as magnums of the 1990, 1996, 2003 and 2005 vintages.

Pétrus is represented in 19 vintages (between 1970 and 2005) and there are a further 82 lots of first growths and blue chip Right Banks such as Ausone, Le Pin and Cheval Blanc.

The 1978 Hermitage La Chapelle by Paul Jaboulet Aîné will be available in bottle and magnum, 11 vintages of Vega Sicilia between 1921 and 1986 and two very rare Methuselah of Dom Pérignon 1995.