Crisis, what crisis? Auction of liquid assets nets HK$52m

One day after Hong Kong officially went into recession, Asia's wealthy still proved big spenders, with one paying more than HK$300,000 each for three big bottles of vintage wine at an auction yesterday.

The unnamed bidder bought three jeroboams of La Tache 1990 vintage red burgundy - considered one of the most collectible wines - for a total of HK$919,600. A jeroboam has four times the capacity of an ordinary wine bottle.

Another paid HK$2.1 million for a collection of 144 bottles from the same sought-after winemaker Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, working out to HK$14,500 a bottle.

A case of 12 initial vintage 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon fetched HK$871,200 or HK$72,600 per bottle, while a case of six bottles of Krug Vintage Champagne, which came with tickets to Paris and a stay at the Krug maison, brought HK$396,880.

About 300 collectors and traders packed the auction, the second to be held this year by wine merchant Acker Merrall & Condit at the Island Shangri-La Hotel.

But prices failed to reach those paid at the American wine merchant's first Hong Kong auction in May, before the economic downturn began to bite.

Yesterday's sale realised an estimated total of HK$52 million compared with HK$64 million in May - which at the time was the highest total for any wine auction held in Asia.