M L
THE CURIOUS QUAFFER
THE SKY ’ S THE LIMIT
How expensive can a bottle of wine be ? Generally speaking the most expensive wines on sale today , although often very hard to find , are those from Burgundy , from the most prestigious Bordeaux properties , Sweet Mosel Riesling wines and Napa Valley reds .
If we take a look at the wine-searcher ‘ most expensive wines ’ database you will discover that the average price ( i . e . so for some vintages much more ) for a single bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti ’ s ‘ Romanée-Conti ’ is $ 20,405 ; for Domaine Leroy ’ s ‘ Musigny Grand Cru ’ $ 15,680 ; for Egon Muller ’ s ‘ Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese $ 13,558 ; for Domaine Georges & Christophe Roumier ’ s ‘ Musigny Grand Cru ’ $ 13,050 – the list goes on . Big money ! For those with the money to buy them there are , therefore , a number of very prestigious , and very expensive , wines to buy . But it is at auctions that we find the most expensive of the expensive :
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti ‘ Romanée-Conti ’ ( 1945 ) - In October 2018 two standard 75cl bottles of this wine were sold at auction by Sotheby ’ s in New York . The hammer for the first came down at $ 558,000 , setting a new world record , quickly followed by the second at $ 496,000 . The original estimate was $ 32,000 for each ! In today ’ s terms , with sterling struggling , that equates to somewhere in the region of £ 455,000 and £ 405,000 a bottle . Assuming that a standard bottle of wine holds five glasses of wine ( each one holding five fluid ounces ) – then £ 91,000 and £ 81,000 a glass !!
Why so much ? Firstly , the name of the estate , the vineyard and the wine itself are all iconic the world over - the crème de la crème in the world of wine . The vineyard itself is a single 4.47 acre plot planted with the pinot noir grape . It nestles in the tiny , beautiful , village of Vosne Romanée just outside Beaune . You can visit the vineyard , as I have , and will discover that it is not fancy and looks , to the naked eye , like many of the other vineyards in the area .
Secondly the 1945 vintage in Burgundy was a legendary one . A stellar and , some would say , the perfect vintage . Thirdly only 600 bottles of the wine were produced . The harvest tied in with the end of WW II in September 1945 , following which the vines were pulled up and replaced . The next vintage of the wine was not then produced until 1952 . Fourthly , over many years , the 600 bottles of the perfect wine , from one of the greatest estates and from one of the best wine producers in the world , started to gradually disappear ( after being consumed no doubt ). We end up with what is known in wine circles as a ‘ unicorn wine ’ ( like the mythical unicorn , they are extremely rare and hard to find ). By 2018 it had become super scarce - a real collector ’ s item , an icon and something that either very few people , or possibly nobody , would ever be likely to get their hands on again . Finally provenance – a huge issue in the world of fine wine today , particularly with wine fraud on the increase . Here the wines on sale were from the private cellar of the famous Robert Drouhin . Immaculate provenance for an iconic ‘ unicorn ’ wine . To cap it all , shortly after the two bottles were sold , three bottles of 1937 Romanée-Conti were then sold for $ 930,000 ($ 310,000 a bottle ). Not a bad day for everyone involved , I guess ?
Château Cheval Blanc ( 1947 ) - This wine was auctioned in 2010 by Christie ’ s and was considered by many to be one of the best wines ever made . It was purchased by an anonymous private collector for $ 304,375 . The bottle was a very rare Imperial ( otherwise known as a Methuselah - a six litre bottle ) and therefore the equivalent of eight standard bottles ( so effectively $ 38,046.87 per standard bottle ). Notwithstanding it , at the time , set a new world record for a single bottle of wine sold at auction . Yet again it was a very old vintage and a very rare wine from one of the most prestigious wineries in the world .
The properties own website probably can ’ t be improved here : “ 1947 is considered a miraculous vintage , the greatest Cheval Blanc of the 20th century . It is both very powerful and extremely well-balanced . Due to its high percentage of alcohol , combined with some residual sugar , many tasters consider this wine totally extraordinary and unique in the world of wine . Despite its age , it is in spectacular form and utterly fascinating ”. No wonder someone paid a fortune for six litres of the stuff !
Château Lafite ( 1869 ) - But sip by sip , glass by glass , the 1947 Château Cheval Blanc did not match the HK $ 1.8 million ($ 230,000 ) per standard bottle achieved when a bottle of 1869 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild went under the hammer at Sotheby ’ s in Hong Kong a short time later . In fact , an anonymous businessman purchased three bottles of this wine for the equivalent of $ 690,000 . At today ’ s exchange rate we are talking about £ 188,000 a standard bottle – or about £ 37,500 a glass ! According to various media sources the bottle was only expected to fetch $ 8,000 !
Again , this was purported to be an exceptional wine and , again , extraordinarily rare . The 1869 vintage of Château Lafite was also reported to be the first to be Château bottled and marked the first vintage when the estate was under the ownership of Baron James de Rothschild . For many reasons it was , therefore , one of the most iconic wines in the world – and with a story to go with it .
Heidsieck ( 1907 ) – This champagne was destined for the Imperial Court of Tsar Nicholas II , the last Tsar of Russia , and was travelling on board a Swedish freighter in 1916 when it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U - boat off the coast of Finland during WW I . The ship , and its cargo , were lost to the bottom of the Baltic Sea .
30 merseylife . com