KEY POINTS:
They are the new "must have" for the man and woman with everything - and represent a cheeky little investment for risk-taking bon viveurs.
The finest selection of rare vintage and boutique wines to go under the hammer in New Zealand is unlikely to leave buyers with a
hangover.
With prices soaring, "investment wines" have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars a case in London and New York auctions.
Simon Mickleson, the wine expert at Webb's auctioneers in Epsom, said the collection would be sold on Monday and was attracting big interest overseas.
"It's the greatest single wine auction held in NZ in terms of fine and rare Bordeaux - beautifully cellared wines which you don't often see.
"They are single owner in the sense the people selling them bought them en primeur [before being released on the open market] and have stored them here so they haven't been traded 50 times like a lot of wines you can buy from London."
If it is possible to pity the owner of such fine wine, spare a thought for one of the sellers, who has been told he can no longer drink.
"The biggest vendor, selling several hundred thousand dollars worth of wine, has been told by his doctor he can't drink any more so he has no choice," said Mr Mickleson.
Another is trading in his collection because his wife wants a new Audi.
"The recent vintages of Bordeaux are so expensive that a lot of people might have bought it for a few hundred dollars a bottle and now it's worth three thousand. They just can't bring themselves to drink it.
"Our vendors are generally New Zealand residents and they have bought it through a merchant in New Zealand or they are expats who have returned with their cellars.
"The big buyers are the Asians, especially the Chinese."
Mr Mickleson is reluctant to recommend wine as an investment but says savvy buyers can see big returns.
"Certainly some people are treating wine as investment but by far my most prolific customers are drinking it.
"If you had bought premium Bordeaux wines at the beginning of last year and are selling them now you would make 30 per cent but it's not guaranteed. It's like art. As long as you enjoy that wine, even if it never goes up you can still enjoy drinking it.
"It's 25 years ago but the '82 Chateau Petrus was $175 on release but now it is $11,000 [a bottle].
He said many of the vendors were very wealthy, "but at the same time there are also a couple of people who come along and spend $600 and get 10 bottles of really nice New Zealand or Aussie wine and are just as happy".
"There's a winning bid on lot 224 at $2000 a bottle, $24,000 for the case and its a 2003 Chateau Ausone. But it's a 2003 vintage. You can't drink it for 10 years. So you are paying $24,000 for it and you have to put it in the cellar for 15 years. It's ludicrous."
But if you don't have a cellar with controlled temperature and humidity, forget it. "I turn away plenty of people with top wines because it might have been stored in a box in the cupboard and I don't want to know," said Mr Mickleson. "Storage conditions are vital. If it's in a cupboard in the hall, it's 10 degrees in winter and 20 degrees in summer. It's that variation of temperature that is the destroyer."
He said wine must be stored at 13C with 74 per cent relative humidity.
"Those are our requirements."
