Bundled into a single lot, 300 bottles of Château Lafite-Rothschild sold over the weekend for $539,280 to an anonymous Chinese phone bidder at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong, making it the most expensive single lot this year and boding well for a slew of autumn sales in the city.

While normal lots in top-tier wine auctions are typically made up of around a case, Lot 44 comprised 25 cases of Lafite from every year between 1981 and 2005, averaging around $1,800 a bottle. The entire two-day sale raised $7.6 million, with Burgundy's Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Moët & Chandon champagne from 1911, and Bordeaux's ultra-rare 1982 Le Pin making up other top slots.

"It was an extraordinary Lafite collection, and the seller actually trades wine for a living," said Christie's Charles Curtis, head of wine for Asia, who estimated the vendor received a 20% premium by selling it as a multi-year collection, or vertical. "We had several bidders, and they were all from China, and they are just getting into wine."

Zachys kicks off next with a two-day sale this weekend at the Mandarin Hotel, forecast to raise $10 million, and joins Christie's in selling verticals (also called instant collections), albeit on a lesser scale than the 300-bottle Lafite extravaganza. Examples include a set of 48 bottles from various years of Bordeaux's Château La Mission Haut Brion, and 28 bottles plus a magnum from Napa Valley's Shafer Vineyards.

These bottles can be used to "host a lavish evening with an incredible wine tasting, expand your palate into truly understanding the depth and breadth of some of the best wineries, or highlight these verticals as a centerpiece in your collection," says Zachys.