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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 WWI. The ship, and its
cargo, were lost to the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The wreckage was subsequently rediscovered a little more than 80 years
later in 1998, some 63 metres or so below the surface. On board some
20,000 bottles of the sparkling wine were discovered. For more than 80
years the wine had remained undisturbed at the bottom of the sea, at six
atmospheres of pressure, in near freezing temperatures and in darkness
– the perfect resting place and storage conditions for champagne!
And so it was that what became known as the famous 1907 Heidsieck
& Co. Monopole Diamant Bleu “Shipwrecked” Champagne that came
back into the world from the bottom of the sea. With its condition and
historical significance, the bottles were sold off at numerous auctions,
for various sums, but with one bottle fetching a whopping $275,000. Not
a bad find at the bottom of the sea.
Château Margaux & Château Lafite (1787) - These bottles of wine were
purportedly two of the famous ‘Jefferson bottles’. The third President of
the United states, Thomas Jefferson, was not only the primary author
of the ‘Declaration of Independence’ but was known as one of the
countries great, and probably first, wine connoisseurs. He was an avid
oenophile and a wine collector of repute. When he was ambassador to
France, and living in the country, he spent much of his time visiting the
vineyards of Bordeaux and Burgundy and, upon his return to America,
continued to order large quantities of Bordeaux wines for himself and
for George Washington. He apparently stipulated that their respective
shipments should be marked with their initials.
In the 1980’s a number of wines were reportedly discovered behind a
bricked-up cellar wall in an old building in Paris. On the bottles were
found the names of a number of the most famous Bordeaux Châteaux -
‘Lafitte’, ‘D’Yquem, ‘Mouton’ and ‘Margaux’. The bottles were all etched
with, and bore, the initials “Th.J.”
In 1989 an American wine merchant was asked to try and sell one of
the infamous ‘Jefferson bottles’; the 1787 Château Margaux. He had
apparently been trying to sell it for in excess of some $500,000 but,
having not sold it, took it to a Margaux wine tasting at the Four Seasons
restaurant in New York (presumably to see if there was any interest).
During the evening the bottle was accidently smashed. Fortunately, it
was insured. The insurance pay out was $225,000. This wine was never
actually, therefore, sold at all. However, another of the alleged collection
of ‘Jefferson bottles’ that was sold at auction, at Christie’s in London
in December 1985, was the 1787 Jefferson ‘Laffite’. The hammer came
down at £105,000 (apparently the bidding started at £10,000).
Château d'Yquem (1811) - This wine holds the record for being the
most expensive white wine ever sold. It was purchased in 2011 by a
French wine connoisseur, and private collector, for $117,000. It was
then put on display in his restaurant, behind bullet proof glass, in Bali
(although he did say he intended to drink it at some stage).
Château d’Yquem is the world’s greatest, most esteemed, most famous
and most highly sought after sweet wine and has the capacity to age for
ever. It sits at the top of a hill near Sauternes in Bordeaux. As those film
buffs amongst you may remember it is one of the delicacies enjoyed
by Hannibal Lecter in the Thomas Harris novels. From a historic point
of view the 1811 d’Yquem was made during the Napoleonic wars and
in the year of the great comet. It is renowned as the most famous of
the ‘comet vintages’ (years in which an astronomic event has occurred
before harvest). It was also only produced in small quantities. Ten
barrels only were produced – equating to some 3,000 bottles.
Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon (1992) - Perhaps slightly
different for many reasons, but nonetheless worthy of mention. Charity
is a place where expensive wines can become even more expensive. The
annual Auction Napa Valley is often such a place and not infrequently
sees records being smashed. So it was with this wine. No particular
history, a fairly young wine, but an iconic wine from one of North
America’s most iconic wineries purchased for charity. This Imperial (six
litre bottle) fetched $500,000.
Those of you who read Wirral Life magazine regularly will know that
when I talk about individual wines, I will invariably add a tasting note.
Such tasting notes are always based on my own tasting of the wine in
question. Alas, this month there are no tasting notes. I have never tasted
any of the wines that feature in this month’s article and, sadly, am never
likely to. Notwithstanding I do have an interest in watching the fine wine
market and at the sort of astronomical prices that some wines can fetch.
So why is it that some wines fetch such huge sums of money? What
makes the world's most expensive wines so expensive? The first thing to
say is that expensive wines normally cost more to make than inexpensive
wines. Yet this cannot come close to explaining the discrepancy between
that which it costs to produce a wine and the amount that someone is
willing to pay for it.
The truth is that there are a number of factors that play a part in
explaining this discrepancy. Firstly prestige. It is no surprise to find that
all of the worlds most expensive wines come from the most prestigious
producers and vineyards in the world. Secondly scarcity, rarity and
collectability. Like anything else – if there aren’t many about and you are
a collector; you want it. Of course age plays a factor here to – the older
the wine, the less there will be around. Thirdly, history or something
that perhaps makes the wine a novelty in some way (the ‘shipwrecked’
Hiedsieck and the ‘Jefferson bottles’ perhaps being the prime examples
of how this factor can drive prices up). Fourthly provenance. This can
really drive price up and it is not unusual in the wine world to see big
sums paid for prestigious wines with perfect provenance. Fifthly, and
perhaps most importantly, you have to have someone who has the
money to spend. It seems that there are plenty of such people out there.
Ultimately a bottle of wine is as expensive as the amount someone is
willing to pay for it - so I suppose exactly the same as with many other
luxury and highly sought after commodities like fine art, vintage cars
and antiques.
How long will it be before a bottle of wine fetches $1,000,000? Who
knows; but it seems highly possible that it will happen at some stage in
the future. What we do know, however, is that really prestigious wines
continue to sell for higher and higher prices. I suspect, one way or
another, that the ‘sky’ really is the limit.
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