Alex Ferguson's wines expected to score with buyers: Christie's

Employees pose with a six litre imperiale "Sassicaia 2005" wine, signed by retired Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, at Christie's auction house in London on April 14, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Employees pose with a six litre imperiale "Sassicaia 2005" wine, signed by retired Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, at Christie's auction house in London on April 14, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Employees pose with a bottle of "Petrus 1988" wine and a Manchester United Retro Champions League shirt from 1999 signed by retired boss Alex Ferguson, at Christie's auction house in London on April 14, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A six litre imperiale "Sassicaia 2005" wine, signed by retired Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, is seen with other wines owned by Ferguson, at Christie's auction house in London on April 14, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
An employee poses with a case of twelve bottles of "Petrus 1988" wine owned by retired Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, at Christie's auction house in London on April 14, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson takes his seat in the stands before their English Premier League soccer match against Liverpool at Old Trafford in Manchester, northern England, on March 16, 2014. -- FILE PHOTO: REUTERS
An employee poses with a selection of fine and rare wines owned by retired Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson, at Christie's auction house in London on April 14, 2014. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON (REUTERS) - To take his mind off the pressure of "the beautiful game", retired Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson collected vintage wines that will be sold at auction starting in Hong Kong in May, Christie's said on Wednesday.

The collection of about 5,000 bottles assembled by one of soccer's most successful managers will be sold along with memorabilia signed by Ferguson and has a pre-sale estimated value of £3 million (S$6.3 million), the auction house said.

The cellar consists almost 75 per cent of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, a French Burgundy which Christie's International Director of Wine David Elswood said "is probably the wine in vogue, the wine of the moment in terms of demand. "So hopefully that's going to draw the attention of not just Alex Ferguson fans but wine fans too," he told Reuters.

He expects big interest among Asian buyers, who have been snapping up top-flight wines for years and where about 60 per cent of the lots will be on offer on May 24. About a third of the cellar will be offered in London in June and about 10 per cent through Internet sales later that month. "Even if you disregard the Alex Ferguson connection, the quality of the wine, the type of wine, is generally what sells very strongly in Asia at the moment," Elswood said.

The cellar spans every year of Ferguson's career with United from 1986 until he retired in 2013. It includes lots from 1999, the year United won a treble of the English Premier League, the Champions League and the FA Cup, a feat never previously accomplished and not duplicated since.

"People keep saying, 'What was the best moment of your life as a manager?' and '99 is without question," Ferguson is quoted as saying in an interview with Elswood to promote the sale. "There was always this thing about my career that I never had won the Champions League, so to win it in the way we did win it was absolutely fantastically special. And it coincided with a vintage; you were talking about Romanee-Conti '99, a really special year. I think we deserved that," Ferguson is quoted as saying in the conversation with Elswood.

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