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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Bidding frenzy for old wines
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APPROXIMATELY 2,000 bottles of vintage French burgundy wine from the venerable Maison Bouchard Pere et Fils, including one from 1846, were snapped up at a Hong Kong auction yesterday.
The 1846 vintage, from the Meursault-Charmes region, sold for HK$134,750 (US$17,451) — far exceeding a top-ranged estimate of HK$80,000 — to an undisclosed bidder after enthusiastic bidding at Christie’s Hong Kong office.
The auction house described it as the oldest bottle in the Bouchard cellars, with a pale golden color.
Tim Triptree, senior specialist and head of sales for Christie’s wine department, said he was “delighted” with the results from the Bouchard sale.
“Early examples of Burgundy like those presented in the sale are extremely rare, with 16 bottles in our sale dating from the 19th century,” Triptree said following the auction.
“The strong results from today’s sale, reflect how Burgundy wines continue to be avidly collected in the [Asian] region,” he said, adding that the bottles were recorked after they were opened.
Another highlight of the sale saw a 1865 Montrachet sold for HK$196,000, much more than the top range estimate of HK$60,000.
Hong Kong, which abolished duties on wine imports in 2008, has been a gateway to the booming wine market in Chinese mainland, but an austerity drive in China has made officials wary of bagging high-end bottles.
The crackdown on excess depressed sales in 2013 and 2014, but the Chinese market has since picked up.
Gilles de Larouziere, president of the Henriot wine group, which owns Maison Bouchard, had previously said the sale was taking place in the southern Chinese city because of “extraordinary enthusiasm for great French wines.”
The vineyards of Maison Bouchard Pere et Fils, which the Henriot family of Champagne took over in 1995, was founded in 1731 and has a collection of some 150,000 bottles.
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