'Ultimate wine collection' sells at auction for $11.9 million

A COLLECTION of Burgundies and Bordeaux wines that Sotheby's auction house billed as the "ultimate wine cellar" sold for $11.9 million, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

Sold on April 2 and 3, it was the auction house's second-biggest haul for a single collection. The top-selling collection sold in November 1999 for $13.5 million.

As was the case in recent years, buyers in Asia dominated the bidding in the sales room, on the internet and over the phone, Sotheby's said.

The top lot, 12 bottles of Romanee Conti 1990 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, went to an Asian buyer for $224,408.

The collection-- which included a range of Chateau Haut-Brion, one of the world's premier Bordeaux wines - was put together by an unidentified person. Serena Sutcliffe, Sotheby's head of wine, called it the greatest collection of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti ever sold.

It was part of a wine auction that began with the $5.1 million sale of part of an American collector's wine cellar that included several prime vintages of Chateau Petrus.

The top lot of that sale, 11 bottles of a 1982 Chateau Petrus, sold for $68,962.