January 8, 2011

Zachys again

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It's been more than 2 years since I went to the inaugural Zachys auction in Hong Kong.  After a period of almost a year, during which they sent me catalogs of every one of their auctions - some of which were returned or destroyed by Fedex upon non-delivery while there was no one at home - I was taken off their mailing list.  No skin off my nose, since I ended up giving all my business to Acker.

I showed up late today - some time after 4:30 p.m. Turns out I had just missed a few lots I was interested in, but no matter.  The room was perhaps a quarter full by then, but there were still very few bargains to be had.  Hammer prices for Lafite-Rothschild still blew through the high-end of estimates time and again.

As usual, I did my homework beforehand so I knew the street prices for the lots I was interested in.  And as usual, there was always somebody who was willing to pay more money than they needed to, and I lost out when I exercised restraint.  I did end up taking down 2 lots: a bottle of Yquem from mom's vintage, and a case of Araujo Eiesle from one of California's best vintages in recent years.

I also managed to taste these during the 3 hours I spent at the auction:

2000 Alter Ego - classic nose of smoke, earth, fruit and mint. Very easy to drink.

2001 Le Vieux Donjon - what a beautiful wine! Big, floral nose along with notes of tea leaves, spruce, exotic spices, sweet, and a bit alcoholic. Still a little tannic. Very lovely.

1975 Mouton-Rothschild en magnum - smoky, chalky, sweet like strawberry, grilled meats and soy sauce.

2 comments:

Hälsporren said...

I just want to say "hello". I'm from Stockholm, Sweden, and started reading your blog some weeks ago. LOVE IT! And I can't wait to go to Hongkong (which we are planning to do in November later this year) and eat my way through the city.

I love the pictures you post and what you write about the food.

Thank you for a wonderful foodie-blog!

Peech said...

Hi there, thanks for your compliments. Glad to see that someone all the way from Sweden finds this interesting!

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