THE United States' leading wine seller Acker Merrall & Condit said yesterday it was cherishing big hopes for what it dubbed Asia's largest ever wine auction, which will come to Hong Kong on Saturday following a recent tax scrap.
The sale will feature more than 900 lots, with an estimated value of more than HK$5 million (US$640,000), potentially making it the largest wine auction ever held in Asia, said John Kapon, president and auction director of the company.
Kapon said the company already had more than 200 registrations for the auction, with the majority of the buyers from Hong Kong and some from Macau and China's mainland.
He said the company was expecting a very high turnout for the auction, the second of its kind in Hong Kong since the city scrapped the 40-percent wine tariffs in February.
Acker Merrall & Condit said Hong Kong has the potential to recapture the title of "wine capital of Asia" and that it was offering many "cream of the crop" wine lots.
"This is one of the best catalogues I have ever made. I told them I wanted only the best of the best that they have," Kapon told a press conference yesterday.
Top lots at the auction will include a case of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti of 1990 worth between HK$1.44 million and HK$1.92 million, a case of Chateau Mouton Tothschild of 1945 worth HK$1.04 million to HK$1.28 million, and six magnums of Chateau of 1945 worth HK$1.04 million to HK$1.36 million.