Former Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen might have failed in his bid to become Hong Kong's chief executive, but there is one area in which he has not failed - impressing people with his rare and expensive wine collection.
And wine lovers with fat wallets are being given a chance to savour his collection when 810 lots go on sale at auction house Christie's tomorrow and Saturday in a sale expected to raise HK$29 million.
Wine expert Keith Wong Wing-kit, business development manager of the company Wine Explorer, said Tang had some of the rarest wine in the world.
He said that the top lot - six magnums of Romanée-Conti 1995 - is arguably the rarest in the world. Only an 18th Century Lafite can beat this lot in terms of rarity, he said.
"It's so rare it's hard to find it anywhere, except in auctions, no matter how rich you are," Wong said.
He added that it is rare because Romanée-Conti - the name of the French wine and also name of the vineyard - is one of the best vineyards in the world and changed its selling policy several years ago.