In a most telling trend, Asians made up the highest bidders in a recent wave of fine wine auctions in the US.

At the June 13 Sotheby’s auction in New York, an Asian wine enthusiast bid the highest: $48,400 for a dozen bottles of the 1990 Chateau Le Pin. Pre-sale, the price range of the Bordeaux wine just hovered between $12,000 and $20,000.

Nine out of the 10 highest-grossing lots in the Sotheby’s auction went to wine collectors from Asia. Of these, five are the most expensive, including six bottles of Krug 1995 Clos d’Ambonnay Champagne, which sold for $27,225; a dozen bottles of the 1990 Chateau Petrus for $30,250; and three double magnums of the 1982 Chateau Lafite for $36,300.

Sotheby’s, in a statement, esteemed the bidders who drove the sales twofold from previous estimates. The auction hauled in more than two million dollars, with only a dozen unsold lots.

A similar scene played out at a Christie’s auction in South Hampton, New York on June 6. Asian buyers acquired the three most expensive lots, including 12 bottles of a 1982 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild. The bidder shelled out $16,900 for the case.

Traditionally, Americans and Britons are the fondest collectors of decadent Bordeaux wines. Lately however, the playing field has evened for their Asian equivalents, the auction market ultimately offsetting losses in Europe and America.

This year’s prices are up from 2008, when the economic meltdown dragged them by 40%. According to Sotheby’s, prices for fine wines have so far slumped by only 20%. London’s fine wine exchange, Liv-Ex, hints of recovery for the wine auction market this year.

Bloomsbury in New York City held its very first wine auction on June 19 to a good start, taking $1.35 million for hundreds of lots. The Hart Davis Hart (HDH) auction house in Chicago meanwhile accumulated $1.9 million for a June 9 auction.

Wine Spectator magazine estimates the fine wine auction market to be worth $300 million.