Sotheby's in Hong Kong to hold first global wine auction of 2012 on 14 January

The most valuable lot in the sale is a case of Romanée-Conti 1990 estimated at HK$1 - 1.5 million / US$130,000 - $190,000*. Overall 982 lots are estimated to fetch HK$50 - 70 million / US$6.2 - 8.7 million.

Serena Sutcliffe, MW, Worldwide Head of Sotheby’s Wine Department said: “We are excited to begin 2012 with another fabulous selection from Bordeaux Winebank. It goes without saying that these classic classed growths from this Collection are in superlative condition. Every time we have shown bottles from this source, the reaction of tasters has been nothing short of ecstatic as the wines have shown so beautifully and so youthfully – the last occasion was with the 2000s which were bursting with health and flavour. I could certainly envisage a 50th anniversary tasting for these 2000s and, perhaps even more, the 2005s, but unfortunately I know that I shall only be there in spirit!

True Champagne connoisseurs will be impressed by the offering of three rare lots of historic vintage Veuve Clicquot, all direct from their Reims cellars. The extraordinary vintages of 1921, 1929 and 1947 are wines of enormous intensity and length of flavour, with all the black grape vinosity for which Veuve Clicquot is renowned. These are true rarities of phenomenal interest and I shall haunt the buyers if they do not open them in my presence – just joking, but only just!”