Nearly 8,000 bottles from the wine collection of billionaire William ‘Bill’ Koch are to be offered by Christie’s across three days of auctions in New York from 12 June.
With a low estimate for total sales at $15m (£11.2m), it’s a fresh window into the cellar of vinous treasures amassed by Koch over several decades.
Legendary Bordeaux wines going under the hammer are set to include a four-bottle lot of Mouton Rothschild 1945 and six- magnum case of Petrus 1990. Each lot carried an estimate of $38,000 to $50,000.
There will be more than 750 large-format bottles in total, including more than than 45 jeroboam and methuselah bottles from Burgundy’s fabled Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC).
Highlights are expected to include a three-litre jeroboam of DRC, Montrachet 1986 grand cru white wine (estimate: $20,000 to $30,000), and a magnum of Henri Jayer, Vosne-Romanée Cros Parantoux 1990 (estimate: $24,000 to $38,000).
‘One of the greatest cellars’
Adam Bilbey, Christie’s global head of wine and spirits, praised Koch’s dedication to ‘building one of the greatest wine cellars of our time’.
Koch told Christie’s, ‘Building — and then drinking — this cellar has been one of my life’s greatest joys. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know there is more down here than I could ever drink, even if I threw a party every night.’
He has previously auctioned bottles from his collection, most notably in 2016.
He began collecting fine wine in the 1970s and 1980s, telling Christie’s it was a time when ‘the price of a nice Petrus, Mouton, Lafite or Latour wasn’t beyond the means of a recent graduate with a relatively modest income’.
Alongside collecting, Koch has been particularly prominent in the fight against counterfeit fine wines. He was a prosecution witness during the trial of Rudy Kurniawan in 2013.
Buyer thirst in a tough market
The Bill Koch announcement marks a high-profile return to the New York live wine auction scene for Christie’s.
Fine wine prices have lost ground in a challenging market since late 2022, amid reports of buyers in general being more selective.
However, Christie’s recently saw every lot find a buyer at a sale of wines from luxury watch pioneer Jörg G Bucherer.
Held in Geneva in April, top lots included Petrus 1970 (12x75cl, original wooden case), which sold for £32,500 (high estimate: £26,000), plus six magnums of Château Haut-Brion 1989, which fetched £22,500 (high e: £20,000). Final sale prices include the buyer’s premium.
Edwin Vos, international head of Christie’s wine department, told Decanter, ‘When you get to that level of rarity, with a [collector] name and a story behind it, there’s still a lot of people out there who are willing to try to acquire some of those lots.’
Vos was recently in New York to help the team organise the Bill Koch wines for auction. ‘At one stage we had a wall of DRC wines,’ he recalled. ‘It’s one of the most high-level collections I’ve ever seen.’
Prices for several high-profile wines have risen over the long-term as the secondary market has expanded. The Liv-ex 100 index, which tracks some of the most collectible wines, has more than tripled in value since 2005.
