Koch's collection goes to auction

Fine wine from US billionaire Bill Koch’s legendary collection, containing Bordeaux and Burgundy icons, will be auctioned by Christie’s in New York this June.

Nearly 8,000 bottles from Koch’s Palm Beach cellar will be sold over three days from 12 June, with a low total estimate of $15m (£11.2m).

Christie’s described the cellar as a “climate-controlled cathedral” of wine treasures. It features rare large formats, including 45+ jeroboams and methuselahs of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC) and icons like Mouton Rothschild 1945 and Petrus 1990.

Koch 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.”

He said, “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.”

Christie’s hailed it as “one of the greatest wine cellars of our time.” Despite market headwinds, recent auctions suggest strong demand persists for rare wines with provenance. “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,” said Christie’s international head of wines, Edwin Vos.