Many novice wine investors are only just realising how rare and good some fine Burgundy wines are, such as 1996 Domaine de la Romanee Conti and 2000 Chateau Latour.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal after Sotheby's auctioned $5.6 million (£3.5 million) of wine owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the auction house's head of wine in Asia, Robert Sleigh, appeared reassured about the continued health of the fine wine investment market.

He told the newspaper: "The prices we saw over the weekend were strong.

"Bordeaux is steadying; Burgundy will keep its upward trajectory. People are learning how good it is and how rare it is."

Earlier this week, two leading world economists suggested that the growing value of the fine wine market owes its success to factors that have also contributed to oil price rises over the last decade.

Details of a study carried out by Serhan Cevik and Tahsin Saadi Sedik published in the Economist reveal that the value of fine wine has fluctuated in line with oil price since 1998.

They also suggest that this fluctuation is due to growing demand among investors in Asia, but especially emerging economies such as China.