Top pedigree wines under the hammer

Great wines of Bordeaux worth $250,000 will attract wine investors from around Australasia when they are auctioned in Queenstown next month.

The sale by Webb's auction house is being held at luxury hotel The Rees on Lake Wakatipu, which the hotel's chief executive Mark Rose says has the biggest private cellar of Bordeaux wines in Australasia.

Rose says the standard of wines for sale is a first for New Zealand.

Whether or not wine is an investment comes down to history and pedigree - if a wine has had a history of appreciating in value, it is viewed as an investment.

The auction features wine from the five chateaux classified as the region's best wine producers: Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Latour, Haut Brion and Margaux. These wines boast a lengthy history of appreciating in value as investments over time, which is relatively rare in the wine world.

Simon Ward, director of Webb's fine wine department, says all wine being auctioned has come from New Zealand collectors - mostly private investors with a passion for fine wine "selling some of the cellar to fund further wine purchases".

There are opportunities to make money from good wine investments, "however if the wine doesn't appreciate, you can always drink it and the result's not too bad."

Vintages being auctioned range back to a 1947 magnum of Chateau Latour, expected to fetch more than $5000. Recent auctions in Hong Kong - regarded as a hotbed of wine investment - have achieved recession-defying results.

"It's a high-end event and people interested in fine wine and food will want to be involved," Ward says.

Broadcaster and wine buff Mike Hosking expects to bid by phone.

"Some of my favourites are Chateaux Pichon Comtesse and Palmer. Of the first grades I'm a big fan of Latour."