Christie's two-day sale of Fine & Rare Wines in New North (November 12-13) totalled $3,652,140 with 93% sold by lot and 96% by value, This is the highest total achieved thus far in 2010 for Christie's wine sales in the Big Apple.
In the end, the top lot was a "pristine" vertical of Château Lafite-Rothschild from vintages 1996-2003, which sold for $120,000 to an Asian private collector against a high estimate of $70,000.
"The two-day sale of fine and rare wines at Christie's New York this past weekend demonstrated once again the extraordinary vigour of this market," said Charles Curtis, MW, Head of Wine Sales, Christie's Asia and North America.
In terms of sales performance, DRC and Chateau Lafite continued to show their strength. Also of note was the consignment of Chateau Palmer direct from one of the proprietors, Mahler-Besse.
Most of these wines sold well above the high estimate "as buyers recognised the added value of this exceptional provenance," said Curtis.
Another interesting surprise was the great strength of the prices achieved for old Madeira, with the rarest wines selling at or above its high estimate: six bottles of 1795 Barbeito Terrantez for $21,600, a dozen 1830 Malmsey for $18,000 and the 1827 Bual for $16,800.
Elsewhere, a dozen 1900 Boal from Manuel de Sousa Herdeiros brought $11,400.
This sale also saw the re-emergence of the premium for large-format bottles, with five case parcels of Latour, Margaux and Mouton from '96 all selling above the high estimate, as well as a number of large formats from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
The DRC large formats included rare magnum assortment cases and a jeroboam of Romanée-Conti 2000, which sold for $28,800.
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