With a $6.1 billion fortune in electronics manufacturing behind him, Pierre Chen (Chen Tai-Min) has turned in his quiet, studied manner quite early in favor of collecting wine.
For decades, Chen put in the meticulous legwork of traveling to all the great wine-producing regions of France, where he spoke at length with vintners at the chateaux both big and small, buying heady amounts of only the best vintages. He did what it took to put together what is arguably one of the greatest collections in the world.
Chen has recently begun a new approach with his wine-collecting business, wherein he has curated, alongside Sotheby’s experts, five sales of some 25,000 bottles of his collection. They will be sold under the title The Epicurean’s Atlas.
The Epicurean’s Atlas
Sales began last November 24 to 25, with an evening in Hong Kong, which amounted to $16 million. The second event occurred on June 20 in Paris and will be followed by a July 2 sale in the Burgundy commune of Beaune of Chen’s Burgundies. The fourth sale will take place in New York, and the fifth and final sale will return to Hong Kong in November. In this regard, Chen’s sales, and pieces of his collection, will have rounded the earth.
Subtitled “The Ultimate Champagnes,” the most recent Paris sale was extraordinary. It was the first auction from a single seller ever dedicated to vintage Champagne. There were 1,850 bottles on sale, which totaled $1.45 million by the time it ended. About half of the lots exceeded their estimates, buyers were from 23 countries, and over a fourth of the bidders were under 40.
The top lot was three magnums of 1990 Salon Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs, which carried a high estimate of around $14,000 and brought almost double that at $26,850. The second highest lot was the 1966 P3 Dom Pérignon. Its high estimate was $10,000 and it was sold at $25,508.
Along the lots were fantastic buys. In lot 355, three magnums of Pol Roger’s Cuvee Winston Churchill, vintage 2006, were sold for $1269. The Cuvee was named by the vintner due to it being Sir Winston Churchill’s favorite Champagne, which he drank a pint of every day for decades, including during the war. To give a scale of his love for the Champagne, Churchill reportedly ordered 42,000 bottles of Pol Roger from just one purveyor alone.
A 50- or 60-year-old bottle of Burgundy, which Chen and Sothby’s will have plenty on offer on July 2 in Beaune, would be very special, especially since hearty reds age especially well. A 50- or 60-year-old bottle of Champagne is also extraordinary because of its infamously delicate construction, as well as the fact that this form of wine has been rested in cool temperatures and protection from light. Chen would have been the perfect collector to ensure that.
As a boy growing up in Taiwan, Chen’s family made wine. This sparked his interest in the craft and has added to the collector’s level of care for food and drink. More than half a century on, these meticulously collected prizes walked out the door. One can fairly presume that a healthy percentage of buyers in the room on June 20 were purchasing the bottles to drink.
