The Most Expensive Bottles Of Wine In The World
$500,000 (for charity) – Screaming Eagle Cabernet 1992
– Technically the highest price ever paid for a bottle of wine. However, the price paid was for charitable purposes.
$275,000 – Shipwrecked 1907 Heidsieck: the world’s most expensive Champagne.
– In 1998, two thousand bottles of Champagne were salvaged from a ship, originally destined Imperial Court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, They have been sold at auctions all over the world.
$225,000 – Chateau Margaux 1787: the most expensive wine never to be sold.
– In 1989, a bottle, also from Thomas Jefferson’s collection, was valued at $500,000 by its owner, a New York wine merchant called William Sokolin, however the high price was never tested. When Sokolin took the wine with him to dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel, a waiter knocked over the bottle instantly breaking it. Insurers paid out $225,000.
$156,450 – Chateau Lafite 1787: the most expensive standard bottle of wine.
– Publisher Malcolm Forbes paid $160,000 for a bottle of 1787 vintage in 1985, which was believed to be from the late President Thomas Jefferson’s cellar and has the initials ThJ etched in the glass.
$135,125 – Cheval Blanc 1947
– One of only two wines that have been given the Class A status in the Classification of Saint-Emilion wine. A three-litre bottle was bought at Vinfolio in San Francisco in 2006 for $135,125
$114,614 – Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1945
– Sold to an anonymous bidder at Christie’s, London in 1997.
$100,000 – Chateau d’Yquem 1787: the most expensive white wine.
– A rare 1787 vintage Chateau d’Yquem sold for $100,000 to an anonymous American collector in 2006.
$43,500 – Massandra 1775: the most expensive sherry.
– The oldest known bottle of sherry from Russia’s Massandra winery sold at auction at Sotherby’s London in 2001.
$38,420 – Penfolds Grange Hermitage 1951: the most expensive Australian wine.
– Known to have only about 20 other bottles left in existence today. In May of 2004, a wine collector in Adelaide paid AUS$50,200 for a bottle at an Australian auction house.
$28,112 – Romanee-Conti DRC 1990
– A set of eight bottles fetched $224,900 at auction at Sotheby’s London in 1996. It takes the produce of three Pinot Noir grape vines to make one bottle. The average age of the vines is 53 years.
