Singapore wine auction nets S$5.8 million, as valuable whisky fails to sell
OCT 18, 2023 09:48 AM
THE oldest wine merchant in the US held its first live auction in Singapore on Saturday (Oct 14), seeking to capitalise on Asia’s increasing interest in big ticket vintages.
Instead, the sale by the wine auction house Acker fell short of projections, bringing in just S$5.8 million. (Results were not announced until Tuesday.) The value of the lots had been estimated to be S$7.5 million.
The auction featured more than 600 lots that included magnums of such esteemed wines as a 1995 Domaine de la Romanee Conti; 14 vintages of Bordeaux first-growth Chateau Latour dating back to 1982; 2008 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon from California; and 14 vintages of Krug Champagne. Rare spirits on offer included 46-year-old Bowmore and 52-year-old Macallan whiskies from Scotland, and a 34-year-old Karuizawa Japanese whisky.
Around 250 people attended the in-person event, which took place at the Koma restaurant at the Marina Bay Sands hotel. Initial interest was so high that potential bidders in Singapore had to join a waitlist to try to get into the auction room, fuelling expectations of frenzied bidding. But the results were mixed as some of the top lots attracted little interest.
A 72-year-old Macallan single malt in a Lalique decanter went unsold, as did a 35-year-old Karuizawa single malt in an emerald geisha cask.
Screaming Eagle fared better: 12 bottles of 2006 Screaming Eagle went for S$53,125, a new world record per bottle for the vintage. And a 2005 Domaine de la Romanee Conti sold for S$37,500, notably above the S$25,000 low end estimate