Today we are going to talk about the most exclusive wines in the world in terms of price, wines that are unobtainable for the immense majority, whether they love wines or not.
Before continuing, it is necessary to make a distinction between wines that are expensive because it is «their» price and others that didn’t start out that costly, but with time have increased exponentially in value.
In the first group (the wines that are expensive from the outset) the reference guide is the website WineSearcher, dedicated to the world of wine which stands out for the comparisons that it offers on price.
The averages are calculated using a search engine that takes into account the price of more than seven million wines from almost 55,000 businesses all over the world.
These figures will have increased between the time of writing and the time you read this. In fact, they don’t stop increasing.
The case is that every year they publish the «List of the 50 most expensive wines in the world», in American dollars, a ranking based on all available vintages and the average price of a standard 75cl bottle.
They give the average price for each wine and the maximum price that a certain vintage could reach…the top 5 is the following, and we’ll warn you in advance that we aren’t going to stray much outside Burgundy.
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- Henri Jayer, Richebourg Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits, Burgundy, France. With an average price of 15,195 dollars, with its most expensive vintage fetching 23,941 dollars.
- Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Romanée-Conti, Grand Cru, Côte de Nuits, Burgundy, France. Average price of 13,134 dollars, but its version in the top vintage reaches 105,658 dollars. That’s to say, that compared to the previous wine it loses on the average price, but wins by a long way on the rare and top vintages.
- Henri Jayer, Cros Parantoux, Vosne Romanée Premier Cru, Côte de Nuits, Burgundy, France. The same producer is back again, but this time in another village with an average price of 8,832 dollars and a maximum of 23,064 dollars.
- The first white wine is also the first wine from outside Burgundy. We head to Germany with Egon Muller-Scharzhof. Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese, Mosel. Average price of 6,630 dollars and 15,323 dollars for its top vintage (empirical proof of the fact that white wines can also age.)
The journey didn’t last long because to close the top 5 we return to Burgundy, now to the Côte de Beaune, with Domaine Leflaive, Montrachet Grand Cru, at an average of 5,726 dollars and 9,003 dollars for its best version.
But however scandalized you may be, these prices are nothing compared to those of the most expensive wines in history.
These are unique bottles from centuries-old vintages or very prestigious collections. Now we are going to travel further afield, also in currency terms. Let’s get started:
Top 1: Screaming Eagle, Cabernet Sauvignon, 1992. Napa Valley. California. 500.000 dollars, although
this is misleading as it was in a charity auction, in «normal» conditions it never could have reached this price (its price on release rarely reaches 3,000 euros.)
Top 2: Château Cheval Blanc, 1947, Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux. 192.000 pounds, although it was a six-litre bottle (an Imperial), the only one in the world, sold in auction at Christie’s in 2010. It’s not considered the world’s best Cabernet Franc for nothing.
Top 3: Champagne Heidsieck, Millesime, 1907. 275,000 dollars, one of the wines with the most interesting stories as three bottles were rescued and auctioned in 1998 from a Swedish cargo vessel. The Champagne was bound for Tsar Nicholas II in Russia during the 1st World War but it never arrived after being torpedoed by a German submarine.
Top 4. Château Lafite, 1869, Pauillac, Bordeaux. 230,000 euros. This is the single most expensive standard bottle of wine in history and was subject to a bidding war in Hong Kong in 2010. It’s not a special format, nor does it come from a shipwreck, nor was it sold for charity. Nothing of the sort. Well, apart from the fact it is a red wine from the 19th Century. Of course.
Top. 5. Château Margaux, 1787, Margaux, Bordeaux. 225,000 dollars. From the collection of Thomas Jefferson, who was perhaps the biggest wine lover in the history of humanity. Really it was valued at 500,000 dollars and was the property of a wine merchant, but when they went to open it, the sommelier assigned with the task dropped it, and the bottle broke. 225,000 euros was what the insurance company paid for the loss.
As you will see there is no lack of anecdotes and stories in this post.
As if that were not enough, and as additional information, we can tell you that it is not that difficult to admire a historic bottle.
If you visit the gastronomic temple that is Atrio (a two-Michelin star restaurant in Cáceres) you can see the most expensive bottle in the world on sale to the public (it doesn’t appear in the previous lists as no-one has paid this much for it), Château d´Yquem, 1806, Sauternes, Bordeaux valued at 300,000 euros.
The story behind it? It would be better for them to tell you.
We don’t want to give away any spoilers.
