Meanwhile, Stott’s day job (he’s also been a director of the New York Stock Exchange) took most of his time, and when he wasn’t trading, he was sport fishing. After the sale of his company, he says, wine became number one.
Even for a mega-collector, the purchase path hasn’t always been smooth. At an auction in 2006, he snagged some bottles of Roumier wines that had been consigned by now-convicted fraudster Rudy Kurniawan. A year later, he staged a tasting of them and invited Christophe Roumier. “They were fakes,” Stott says. “I returned them and went to the FBI.”
Last May, Sotheby’s New York auction room was packed with wine advisors like Tim Kopec, who was buying for clients in Asia. Bidders called in from Hong Kong, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada. The top bid was $58,188 paid by Asian private collector for a case of DRC Montrachet 1973.
If you go to Sale II, bring a fat wallet.