American wine auction house Zachys has reportedly closed its Hong Kong office after 17 years of operation, marking a shocking retreat from Asia’s key fine wine hub.
The company held its final auction in the city on May 9 and laid off three local staff members, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s not clear if it still has retail and admin staff in the city.
Zachys declined to confirm the office closure but acknowledged it would no longer offer wine storage services in Hong Kong.
“Zachys HK continues to offer exceptional auction opportunities globally. We will no longer be providing storage services in Hong Kong,” Ching Wong, interim Head of Asia at Zachys, said in a statement to Vino Joy News.
In a WeChat post, the company advised its clients to move all of their wines from JAS Hong Kong account before June 13 deadline.
The move follows the departure of Terrence Tang, the company’s former Head of Hong Kong, who joined rival auctioneer Bonhams last year as its head of wine and spirits for Asia.
Zachys was among the first international auction houses to enter Hong Kong’s wine scene after the government removed wine import duties in 2008. That same year, the firm staged its inaugural auction in the city. In 2013, it made headlines with a sale at the Mandarin Oriental that brought in over HK$ 52 million.
The company also courted controversy in 2017 for holding a Hong Kong auction featuring wines from collector Eric Greenberg, who had previously been convicted in the U.S. of selling counterfeit bottles. In 2020, it was accused of selling a bottle of fake jeroboam of 1999 Domaine Romanée Conti La Tâche to a Hong Kong wine collector, as we have exclusively reported.
Zachys’ withdrawal signals a shift in Hong Kong’s position as a global fine wine hub, as changing market dynamics and broader economic pressures continue to reshape the industry.
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