The world’s oldest charity wine auction, held on behalf of a medieval hospital in the Burgundy region of France, raised a record 6.3 million euros (US$8.5 million), boosted by bidding from China.
China-based businesswoman Yan Hong Cao paid 131,000 euros for the “president’s barrel,” containing 456 liters of Meursault-Genevrieres Premier Cru, Cuvee Philippe le Bon, at the 153rd edition of the Hospices de Beaune auction.
The annual event, held in collaboration with Christie’s International, sells barrels of Burgundy’s latest vintage from vineyards owned by the hospital, founded in 1443.
Photo: AFP
This year’s vintage is problematic. For the second straight year, vineyards in Burgundy were pounded by hailstorms in the summer, dramatically reducing yields for some winemakers.
The total production of the region was forecast to be 126 million liters, about 20 percent down on a typical year, according to data released this month by the Burgundy Wine Board.
“It is a tricky vintage,” said Paul Hammond, a part-director at the London-based merchants IG Wines, in an interview. “Because of the low yields, pricing will be high and the market will take it, even though the quality isn’t as good as 2012. The risk is that people will become disenchanted with Burgundy, as they have with First-Growth Bordeaux.”
This year’s difficult growing season produced a smaller-than-usual auction of 443 barrels, divided between 333 red and 110 white. All of them sold. The total, which includes fees, beat the record of 5.9 million euros achieved last year from a sale of 516 barrels.
This was the first time a Chinese bidder had bought the president’s barrel since Christie’s had become involved in the sale in 2005.
Christie’s had courted Asian bidders with tastings in Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.
Bidders from Asia bought 9.5 percent of the auction, the London-based auction house said.
Last year their purchases represented 12 percent of its value.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”