Billionaire Bill Koch's wine cellar fetches record $28.8m at auction
Billionaire US collector William I. ‘Bill’ Koch offered a portion of his vast wine cellar over three days via auction house Christie’s and total sales hit $28.8m (£21.2m), with several top lots beating high estimates.
That’s a new record for ‘a single-owner wine collection sold in North America’, said Christie’s, which marked its return to the New York City wine auction scene in style.
Every lot found a buyer as bidders competed for thousands of bottles from cellar of Bill Koch, a well-known US collector who began .
Large-format bottles of Burgundy wines from the 1980s and 1990s created particularly strong interest among bidders.
Top lot was a 600cl ‘Methuselah’ bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s lauded Romanée-Conti Grand Cru from the 1999 vintage. This sold for $275,000, including buyer’s premium – above a pre-sale high estimate of $160,000.
Three 150cl magnums of the same wine also collectively sold for $237,500, versus a high estimate of $90,000.
Domaine Georges Roumier wines also led the auction. Six magnums of Bonnes Mares 1985 sold for $200,000, outstripping a pre-sale high estimate of $85,000, while three magnums of Chambolle-Musigny, Les Amoureuses 1985 sold for $162,500 (high e: $48,000).
A magnum of Roumier Bonnes Mares, Vieilles Vignes 1988 also sold for $87,500, against a pre-sale high estimate of $14,000.
Prices didn’t soar above estimates on every lot, although many still fetched large sums. On day two, eight bottles of Domaine Leroy, Musigny 1999, sold for $187,500 – within a pre-sale estimate range of $140,000 to $200,000.
Latour 1961 was a Bordeaux highlight of the sale. Photo credit: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2025.
Bordeaux was another major section of the sale. is a Decanter Wine Legend and the Bill Koch auction featured several lots of the wine in different formats.
Two lots of six magnums fetched $187,500 a-piece (high e: $110,000), while a 600cl Imperial bottle sold for $87,500 (high e: $45,000).
Fellow Decanter legend also featured strongly, 80 years since this ‘victory vintage’ in the aftermath of the Second World War. A four-bottle lot sold for $106,500, while a second lot fetched $87,500 (high e: $50,000 per lot).
Koch’s cellar also featured a collection of Australian fine wines, including Penfolds Grange spanning several decades.
Six bottles of Grange 1971, the oldest vintage of the wine up for sale, fetched $10,625 (high e: $7,00). A magnum of Henschke’s Hill of Grace 1984 also fetched $1,625 (high e: $900).
Bill Koch said of the sale, ‘I hope these wines that I have spent years collecting and curating will bring joy and great memories to their new owners.’
Adam Bilbey, Christie’s global head of wine and spirits, said, ‘Including wines of incredible rarity, this magnificent selection attracted collectors of all ages from across the globe, and we were delighted to see incredible competition online on Christie’s Live, from the phone and in the room for the entire duration of the three-day sale.’
Koch, who has an estimated net worth of around $2bn according to , has previously sold bottles from his cellar, .
As a collector, Koch is also known for his relentless pursuit of counterfeiters. He was a witness for the prosecution in the trial of fine wine fraudster .
