Investors bid aggressively for rare Bordeaux wine at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong at the weekend.

The sale showed that Asian collectors were still prepared to pay high prices for wine, even in a global economic slowdown.

Christie'sbooked HK$31.5m ($4m, €3.2m, £2.6m) from the sale of 231 lots of wines on Saturday, surpassing a pre-sale estimate of about HK$20m.

The wine auction, Christie's first in Asia since 2001, included 127 lots from the reserve cellars of Chateau Latour, which raised HK$18m, compared with its estimate of HK$10m.

A subsequent auction of south-east Asian modern and contemporary art fetched HK$28.5m yesterday, against a pre-sale estimate of HK$26m. Edward Dolman, Christie's chief executive, said the performance of the art sale had been better than expected. Nearly threequarters of the lots were sold, which Mr Dolman said was a very good rate.

"Our estimates were set about three months ago. They may be a bit high in this environment," said Mr Dolman.

The art market has started to show signs of faltering amid the economic downturn, after a six-year boom. Sotheby's suffered poor sales in New York and London in November after it booked only US$140.7m in its Hong Kong autumn auction in October, down from $200m in 2007.

Even white truffles, the prized culinary delicacy, could not escape the slump. In a separate charity auction in Macao on Saturday, Stanley Ho, the casino tycoon, paid US$200,000 for a 1.08kg truffle, or $185.19 per kg. A year ago, he paid a record $330,000 for a 1.5kg specimen, or $220 per kg.

Mr Dolman said bidding at the Christie's wine auction was aggressive, reflecting strong demand in Asia - all top 10 of the lots were sold to Asian private buyers.

The Hong Kong government's decision in February to abolish wine duties also helped, he said. The rest of Christie's five-day autumn auction, which is expected to raise $224m and ends on Wednesday, will include Chinese 20th century art, Asian contemporary art, paintings and ceramics.

Mr Dolman said the other sales were unlikely to perform as well as the wine auction..

"It's not all doom and gloom. There will be slight price correction but not a bubble bursting," he added.