The sale of billionaire Bill Koch’s wine collection has set a $28.8-million record for a single-owner wine collection sale in North America, say sellers Christie’s.
Mr Koch’s wines – just a small proportion of his collection – were sold in a three-day sale in New York earlier this month.
The auction series was billed as a “once-in-a-generation” event for wine collectors and the lowest estimate going into the sale was $15 million.
This is a $200,000 bottle of wine, a 1985 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
William I Koch is a well-known collector of art and wine.
His personal dedication to great, authentic vintages has extended to appearing as a prosecution witness in a wine faking case.
Mr Koch, 85, known as Bill, is a member of the Koch family that built a huge fortune from oil businesses and is one of the best-known political donor families in the US. Bill left the business in 1980.
His wine collection has been kept in Palm Beach, Cape Cod and Aspen cellars.
These sales brought huge interest for Bordeaux and Burgundy vintages in particular, with buyers eyeing large-format bottles.
The most valuable lot in the sale was a Methuselah (600cl) of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Romanée-Conti Grand Cru 1999. It realised $275,000 against a top-estimate of $160,000.
An estimate of $90,000 for three magnums (150cl) of the same wine proved wildly inadequate. They achieved $237,500.
Mr Koch’s Palm Beach home also showcases some of his famous art collection. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
A set of six magnums of Domaine Georges Roumier Bonnes Mares 1985 made $200,000, well over double their $85,000 prediction.
Mr Koch said: “I hope these wines that I have spent years collecting and curating will bring joy and great memories to their new owners.”
The Koch collection can now certainly be considered one of the most valuable ever assembled.
The Pierre Chen collection was sold from 2023 in a series of sales expected to realise $50 million in total. The first sale made $16.8 million, with a single bottle making just short of $250,000.
The most valuable bottle of wine ever sold was a 1945 Romanée-Conti that made $558,000 in 2018. The sought-after vintage came from a year of almost zero production because of the effects of World War II.
