Jason Boyer, managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald (Hong Kong) Capital Markets Ltd., pulled a matte-black American Express Co. card from his wallet and clinked it against a wine glass. ``Look at this thing, feel the weight of it: pure titanium. Indestructible,'' said the 39-year-old, the biggest buyer at Hong Kong's first wine auction in a decade. ``If I die in a plane crash, this thing would survive me.'' A story out from Bloomberg today on how Hong Kong’s abolishment of wine duties brought one former explosives bunker packed with top-notch wine roaring back to life.

Guffaws broke out; more wine sloshed into glasses. At 9:30 p.m. yesterday, Bonhams was just half-way through the 246 lots on offer in a World War II bunker-turned-wine cellar. Boyer said he had already bought 100 bottles, costing more than HK$500,000 ($64,183). Still, he lost the lot he most wanted: a six-bottle set of Chateau La Conseillante 1990, with a top estimate of HK$15,600. Boyer bid until HK$30,000; it went for HK$32,500.

``Buying wine is like investing,'' said Boyer. ``There's a price for everything. Beyond that, you let go.''

Boyer, who said he buys wine for his own consumption, was among about 200 people who packed the underground bunker, used to store explosives in the city's 1941 fight against Japanese troops. ``Kung Fu Hustle'' star Stephen Chow and Platinum Wines Ltd.'s Gregory Brossard were among the bidders -- mostly bankers, lawyers and entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s.

Bonhams's sale followed the Hong Kong government's decision in February to abolish duties on wine. The city is trying to capture part of the market for trading, storing and shipping wine. Most Asian wine investors buy and keep bottles in London.

About 96 percent of the lots were sold, Bonhams said, fetching a combined HK$11.5 million, matching the auction house's presale high estimate.

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