Sotheby’s in Hong Kong described it as ‘one of the greatest private collections of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Burgundy in the world’.
The auction house expected ‘The Masterpiece Collection: A Grand European Cellar’ to achieve total sales of 42,500,000 Hong Kong dollars (£4.27m).
However, the high-profile auction beat that estimate by more than 17%, ultimately generating 49,745,625 HKD (£5,001,715) in sales.
There were 400 lots in total, and 218 of them featured wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC).
The DRC vintages went all the way back to the 1960s, including many large formats, covering Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, Richebourg, Romanée-St-Vivant, Grands Échezeaux and Échezeaux.
There were also lots from Rousseau, de Vogüé, Leflaive, Drouhin and Faiveley, plus extensive cuvées from the Hospices de Beaune.
The anonymous Swiss collector purchased most of them on release, sourced directly from the wineries’ agents in Switzerland and London. However, some were purchased at Sotheby’s auctions in the 1990s and 2000s.
The lots had estimates ranging from 1.3m-1.9m HKD to 2,000-3,000 HKD, making it the largest online auction ever staged by Sotheby’s in Asia.
Approximately 80% of the lots were sold, but many of them exceeded estimates, ensuring that the overall auction was a success.
George Lacey, head of Sotheby’s wine in Asia, said: ‘It is incredibly rare that we come across a collection of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti which is this extensive.
‘Even rarer still that it has been so meticulously sourced and stored, with truly unimpeachable provenance. Particularly unusual was the large quantity of mature large-formats, with such stellar histories, having lain unmoved since release rather than traded around the world.
‘This is a magnificent cellar, full of masterpieces, one that has been assembled with the most extraordinary care and dedication over many years, by a renowned European connoisseur with close links to the Domaine and their agents.’
The lot with the highest estimate, featuring six magnums of Romanée-Conti 1994, did not sell, according to the auction results.
However, a methuselah of Romanée-Conti 1983, beat estimates by fetching 1,062,500 HKD (£107,000). Meanwhile, six bottles of Romanée-Conti 1991 sold for 812,500 HKD (£82,000) and two jeroboams of La Tâche 1979 achieved the same price.
A jeroboam of Romanée-Conti 2000 fetched 750,000 HKD (£75,000), while six bottles of Romanée-Conti 1989 attracted a winning bid of 687,500 HKD (£69,000).
