Ian Mill QC, of Blackstone Chambers, has been collecting wine since 1985, four years after he called to the Bar of England and Wales, The Times reports.

“The collection of Ian Mill, QC” as the Manhattan sale was labelled, ranged from £190 to £350 for a three-litre bottle of Benjamin Leroux at the bottom end, to between £46,000 and £70,000 for a case of Corton-Charlemagne Coche-Dury 2005.

He told the newspaper that the started collecting wine “partly for fun and partly to fund my pension”.

However, he added that “much of the money” raised from the sale at a New York auction house “went to repay debt”, so he is not sure how big of a profit he made.

Mr Mill, whose star-studded list of past clients includes Bob Geldof, David Beckham and Radiohead, still has around 3,000 bottles in his collection.

Mr Mill has said that he has no immediate plans to retire from law, he intends to open a restaurant in Healdsburg, in the heart of California’s wine country in Sonoma county.