The general news about Acker Merrall & Condit’s recent sale in Hong Kong was certainly upbeat: the company sold 92% of over 800 lots offered for a total of $9.09m. The specific news was even better. A superlot of 55 bottles of DRC Romanee Conti containing every vintage released between 1952 and 2007 sold for an astounding $813,333—or almost $15,000 a bottle. That was the highest price paid for a lot of wine this year, as well as the highest every paid for a lot of Romanee Conti at auction.
Another superlot of 101 vintages of Chateau Mouton Rothschild, beginning with the rare 1867 and containing every vintage from 1936 to 2008, achieved a price of $500,513, and a third superlot of Chateau Petrus with 57 vintages, including all from 1959-2007, sold for $250,256–the highest price ever achieved by a lot of Petrus at auction. The auction brings Acker Merrall’s 2011 Hong Kong sales total to $69m, reaffirming its number one position in the Asian market. With expected global revenues this year of over $110m, Acker Merrall becomes the first wine auction company to cross the $100m mark.
Read more at Yahoo.
