Wines as expensive as luxury cars at Christie's sale of fine, rare spirits

After a visit to a private cellar in California in 1972, Michael Broadbent, the late critic who introduced fine wine auctions in Christie’s, described it as “perfection”. 

The owner of the cellar was Benjamin Ichinose, a Japanese-American collector.

Ichinose was a US Army captain practising orthodontics in Yokohama, Japan, before he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and began a pursuit of wine with his wife. He would go on to amass a collection of over 55,000 bottles — mostly French, Californian and German wines, port, sherry and madeira. 

He also took care to find the choicest vintages corresponding to birth years in the family — 1929 (when Ichinose and his wife, Mayon, were born), and 1961, 1964 and 1965, dedicated to their two daughters and son.

Christie’s New York department has now announced an upcoming auction of Ichinose’s collection of fine and rare wines. The wines, 626 lots in all, will go under the hammer, virtually, from July 16 to 31.

These wines from the celebrated connoisseur’s collection are part of Christie’s fine wines department’s July sale calendar. Besides New York, there will be live auctions in Hong Kong, Geneva and London. The bids open in Hong Kong on July 12, and the global sales will feature more than 2,500 lots, including a vast selection of rare wines and fine spirits estimated between $500 and $100,000.

A bottle of Romanée-St-Vivant from the Benjamin Ichinose collection

The selection spans over 240 years, from a bottle of Madeira 1775 to Bordeaux 2015, says Edwin Vos, the international head of fine wines at the British auction house. At the heart of all sales are the Burgundy and Bordeaux wines, while Hong Kong will also offer sake lovers a curated selection of the Juyondai brand.

The auctions also present an opportunity for collectors in India, where wine has emerged as an alternative investment option for a niche segment.

The Madeira 1775

Nikhil Agarwal, sommelier and CEO of All Things Nice, a consultancy firm specialising in luxury wines and spirits, says the upcoming auctions represent wines that have always been sought after by the rich, both for consumption and investment.

Bringing them to India is, however, not the preferred choice given the high duties imposed on wines. The customs duty alone stands at 150 per cent. “So as an investment, the moment the wine reaches India, I have to pay that,” says Agarwal.

Even if a buyer chooses to keep the wine in a bonded warehouse and not pay customs duty, he or she has to eventually pay a high interest rate. “You’d want to keep it in bond either because you plan to re-export it or you don’t want to pay the duty for the moment. But nobody is going to buy fine wine coming from India,” says Agarwal.

Given the logistical hurdles of shipping to and storing wine in India, the preferred choice for Indian investors would be to rent a warehouse in Hong Kong, London or New York where the auctions take place. There is comparatively little paperwork involved and no logistical difficulties.

The pandemic has thrown up investment opportunities in sales, Agarwal adds, pointing out that in the en primeur — or wine futures, which refers to buying wine before it is bottled and when it is still in the barrel — market this year, some leading Cru Classe Chateaux have released their wines at a 30 per cent discount compared to the year before.