| Acker's John Kapon talks about fine wine verticals in Hong Kong |
In this video, John Kapon of Acker, Merrill and Condit talks about the company's upcoming wine sale in Hong Kong in which he touches on the extraordinary value of vertical collections - wines from the same vineyard with examples from every year in sequence - and the increasing power of the Chinese wine market.
The auction has now taken place, and didn't disappoint. In fact a total of HK$72.75m (US$9.09m) achieved (with 92% sold) took Acker's sales for the year past the $100m mark.
The top lot was naturally the extraordinary superlot of 55 bottles representing every vintage of DRC Romanée Conti released from 1952 - the first post-World War II vintage of Romanée-Conti - through to 2007 (with exception of the 1968 which was never released by the Domaine).
It sold for a staggering, record-breaking price of HK$6,344,000 / US$813,333 to a Chinese phone bidder.
Likewise a vertical of Château Mouton Rothschild assembling 101 vintages and including the rare 1867 and numerous, practically non-existent pre-war vintages, together with every vintage from 1936 to 2008, sold for HK$3,904,000 (US$500,513).
Acker will have been supremely confident of the sale following their extraordinary auction in Hong Kong on November 4 and 5 which included part of Don Stott's Burgundy collection and was the year's largest-grossing wine auction and set more than 100 new world records.
At the time, John Kapon noted delightedly that it was a sign the Chinese markets were now setting their sights on Burgundy, extending out from their obsession with Bordeaux in general and Chateau Lafite in particular in recent years.
Likewise Christie's London had its best wine auction since 1997 when all top 10 lots were bought by Asian bidders, the top two being cases of Romanée-Conti Burgundy, whilst most of the rest consisted of Bordeaux from Chateaux Mouton and Lafite.
