The US entrepreneur "Bill" Koch (*1940) is a passionate sailor as the winner of the America's Cup in 1992, as well as an art and wine rarity collector. He owns works of art by many important artists (including Cézanne, Dali, Monet, Picasso, Renoir and Rodin) and valuable antiques worth several hundred million dollars, as well as an exquisite collection of 40,000 wines, some of them very old (see picture below). The well-known English auction house Sotheby's has offered wines from this cellar several times. In 2016, these were 20,000 bottles of absolute rarities of special vintages from Bordeaux and Burgundy, among others, from the famous wine estates Château Latour, Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Mouton-Rothschild and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. His private fortune is estimated at four billion dollars. However, he has been less successful in his wine purchases and has been the victim of counterfeit wines on three occasions.
![]()
As honorary chairman of the Domäne Wachau, it is the easiest and quickest way for me to access the wein.plus encyclopaedia when I have questions. The certainty of receiving well-founded and up-to-date information here makes it an indispensable guide.
Hans-Georg Schwarz
Ehrenobmann der Domäne Wachau (Wachau)