S otheby’s Wine is delighted to be leading our marquee, 50th Anniversary Spring wine sales at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with an extraordinary live, Single Owner auction: The Ethereal Cellar | Pinnacle of Provenance and Connoisseurship.

The astounding beauty of this wine collection is matched only by its breathtaking width and depth. On the following pages we present 583 lots of only the rarest, most iconic, and most sought-after Burgundy, Champagne and Rhône wines. Representing the pinnacle of dedicated collecting, this cellar is a veritable treasure-trove of France’s most famous and singular vineyard sites.

The line-up is lead by a staggering 85 lots from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, amongst more than 312 lots of Burgundy which are almost exclusively restricted to the region’s leading Grand Cru sites from only the most renowned producers. Beyond Burgundy, Champagne’s landmark names are represented across an amazing range of cuvées and vintages, in particular Krug and Dom Pérignon’s most coveted releases spanning decades back to the 1970s, before we finish with a select handful of gems from the northern and southern Rhône. Given this collector’s dedication to careful curation, we find all of these wines in impeccable condition and with the most stunning provenance.

The Ethereal Cellar | Pinnacle of Provenance and Connoisseurship will close with a live auction at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre at 12pm on Sunday 2^nd April. Bottles from this impeccable collection will be opened and shared with registered bidders in the auction room, and we encourage you to contact us early to confirm your in-person attendance. For those who cannot join us in the room, the live sale will be streamed online, as usual, on these pages.

Our thanks must go first and foremost to the owner of this extraordinary collection, for entrusting us with this auction; it has been a pleasure to work with them in bringing the sale to fruition, and their dedication and passion when it comes to having assembled one of the world’s most notable collections is laid bare for all to see in the subsequent pages. What a way to kick-off our 50^th Anniversary live wine sales, and we wish you all very happy bidding!

Lot 9001 – 9221: Pinnacle of Pinot Noir – Iconic Red Burgundy
Lot 9222 – 9312: Chardonnay’s Greatest Sites – White Burgundy Luminaries
Lot 9313 – 9572: Landmark Champagne – Krug, Dom Pérignon & more
Lot 9573 – 9582: Select Gems of the Rhône

Provenance
The vast majority of the wines offered here trace their provenance directly back to their original release from the domaines, and remain in their original cases (in many instances complete with domaine banding and almost always with consecutive bottle numbers where relevant). A smaller number of the wines were purchased from a selection of the most reputable Single Owner auction sales, including at Sotheby’s.

Storage, Inspection & Shipping
All of the wines in this sale were stored under ideal, professional storage conditions at Octavian’s bonded warehouse in the UK. They were inspected on site in the UK by a team of Sotheby’s Specialists from Hong Kong, New York and London. They were then shipped in a dedicated, temperature-controlled air shipment directly to Sotheby’s chamber at Crown Wine Cellars in Hong Kong.

The owner of this beautiful collection has been close to Sotheby’s for many years, and throughout their collecting journey has applied serious dedication and devotion to sourcing only the world’s very best wines with the most impeccable provenance. Over the years, we have spent many evenings together sharing, comparing and enjoying great wines. This is a very knowledgeable collector, who is serious about their wines, but knows how to appreciate them in a low key, understated, relaxed way. Their singular focus on the quality of provenance is even more noteworthy when you consider the exclusive selection contained herein, of only the most sought-after cuvées from the most admired producers.