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JANUARY 13, 2013 - HONG KONGINTRODUCTIONIt is with great pleasure that we presentthe first edition of our revamped auctioncatalogue of fine wines.Spink Fine Wines, a fully owned divisionof Spink, will bring the expertise andintegrity that we are synonymous with inthe world of collectables.Spink was founded over three hundredyears ago, in 1666, almost a full centurybefore the Prince de Conti paid 8,000livres outbidding Madame dePompadour, the mistress of Louis XV of France, for theDomaine Romanée-Conti. Sadly, DRC was not boughtin a Spink auction, but we are always looking for newideas, in terms of business strategy, client services andtechnology. Like the good vine Spink has deep rootsand is not averse to a bit of flamboyance from time totime.Over the years travelling to Asia, where we have beenholding auctions for several decades in Hong Kong andSingapore, I was often asked by our Asian based clients,“why don’t you start a wine business? It would fit sowell in your portfolio, you know where there are a lotof rare wines, we trust you, and the vast majority of yourcustomers are also wine lovers”. Finally we did it withthe recent acquisition of Oeno China in Hong Kong,and this is the first fully rebranded edition of our newcatalogue, under the direction of our two wine expertsAnna Lee, Vice-Chairman, based in Hong Kong, andGuillaume Willk-Fabia, Director of our Fine WinesDepartment.I trust you will find our catalogue slightly different fromour main competitors. We shall try to stay away fromthe recent and speculative wines, which account formost of the market volume, to focus on rare bottles forcollectors or ready to drink treasures. So our auctionswill be necessarily smaller, but hopefullymore interesting.As we do in our other 60 plus non-wineauctions per year, the focus will be onprovenance and quality with a specialemphasis on relationships with theChâteaux.As you will see in this catalogue forexample, a very rare original woodencase of 6 bottles of sought afterChâteau Cheval Blanc 1947 and anoriginal wooden case of Châteaud’Yquem 1929 are on offer. Both ofthese have been checked by the Châteaux and thesuccessful purchaser will be offered a private tour of theChâteau. Similarly we are offering very rare Imperialesdirectly from the cellar of the newly classified ChâteauPavie as a Premier Grand Cru Classé A. It was a welldeserved promotion and to celebrate this rareachievement, the owners of Château Pavie would bedelighted to welcome the buyers of the Imperiales totheir estate.While it is our current intention to have all our wineauctions in Hong Kong, and maybe occasionally inSingapore, a good proportion of the lots are sourcedfrom our clients in Europe, so located in the EU. Henceour collectors from Europe and USA have a chance tocompete on some lots with our clients from Asia.I hope you will recognise Spink’s unique style in ourwine catalogues, and enjoy the sale.Olivier D. Stocker, CFAChairman and Chief Executive OfficerChairmanOffice@spink.comCALL FOR FUTURE AUCTION CONSIGNMENTSAnna Leechina@spink.com+852 25 300 100Guillaume Willk-Fabiagwillkfabia@spink.com+65 6339 8801+65 9780 5421