My Article: Conclusions from The Ultimate Wine Game

The Ultimate Wine Game finished last Friday in Hong Kong when Christie’s auction house sold close to $7.7 million worth of dozens of vintages from the famous first growth Château Latour. All the bottles, as our video The Ultimate Wine Game shows, came directly from the cellar of the winery in Pauillac, France. Watch the different parts or the director’s cut, which lasts just over 30 minutes.

The top bid was for six-bottle cases of 1961 magnums that sold for about $232,000 each; three were sold in total. Ten lots of 1961 were sold in all, with the lowest going for about $170,000 for one jeroboam. The next most highly sought-after vintage was 1959 with six magnums selling for about $155,000, followed by 12 bottles of 1945, also for about $155,000. All the old bottles sold at very high prices. The young vintages were sold at near current market values.

What this proves primarily is that wine collectors in Asia will pay a premium for provenance. They understand that rare, old bottles from the original source of production will more likely be in better condition. And they are buying for drinking, not for keeping in their cellars for show purposes. Therefore, they want the wines to be in impeccable condition when they open them to drink.

Before the auction, during the filming of The Ultimate Wine Game, Latour President Frederic Engerer commented about how provenance is a big issue with all serious wine buyers today, and how he wanted to underline this in the sale, especially in Asia. I think he proved his point.

Another factor in the sale that many people do not comment about is “face.” Buying directly from the château garners respect from many wine drinkers in Asia. Some even like to boast about the high prices they pay – sometimes higher than current market prices – for the better quality of chateau-direct wines.

Whatever the reasons, buyers were happy with their purchases of old and new bottles of Latour last Friday. Here is part of an email from a friend of mine who went to the sale:

“Yes, I went to the auction. Yes, got five lots – including two lots of the 19th century (one bottle each lot). I would say I was one of the fans who stayed till the end…”