What makes a great bottle of wine? To start with you need great grapes. And for those, you need great soil, perfect weather conditions and impeccable timing when it comes to harvesting them. And those are just three factors.
Then you need to think about the fermentation and ageing processes. Do you use natural yeast or manufactured? Are you ageing in an oak barrel or a concrete storage vessel? And what about bottling — do you go for cork or screw cap?
It’s as much art as science. And there’s no way to predict how a wine is going to turn out. This is why, when a truly great vintage comes about, aficionados pay mega bucks to wet their whistle.
But just how ‘mega’ are we talking? Here are five of the most expensive bottles of wine ever sold…
5. Chateau Margaux 1787 ($225,000)
This bottle of wine was the prized possession of a wine collector named Bill Sokolin. Back in 1989, he reckoned it was worth $519,000 because it came from the cellar of the third US president, Thomas Jefferson. Bill was so proud of this rare, historical bottle that he brought it to the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan to show off to his wine buff chums.
Unfortunately, as he was doing so, disaster struck; he bumped it against a serving tray, smashed the bottle and spilt most of its precious contents down his trousers. About 80% of the Margaux was lost (although his insurance company later paid out $225,000). Sokolin was able to salvage some, presumably by taking his pants off and squeezing the liquid out into a glass.
“It tasted like it still had wine taste, but not very good,” he told the LA Times. Sounds like sour grapes doesn’t it?
4. Chateau Lafite’s 1869 ($230,000)
In October 2010, a wine collector with deep pockets bought three bottles of Château Lafite-Rothschild 1869 for HK$1.8 million (around £195,000) each. What was so special about this particular vino? Well, these bottles had been stored at the chateau since the 19th century. So there were absolutely no question as to the wine’s provenance, which is a rare thing.
The fact that the collector bought three bottles suggests they may have popped the cork on at least one. Let’s just hope they didn’t use it to make a spritzer.
3. Shipwrecked 1907 Heidsieck ($275,000)
In 1916, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia commissioned a Swedish freighter to deliver wine to his royal court. His boozy plan hit a snag when the vessel was sunk by a German submarine (there was a war raging after all). Fast forward 80 years and the cargo — including 2,000 bottles of 1907 Heidsieck Champagne — was salvaged off the coast of Finland.
Now, one thing we know about wine collectors is that they love historical stories. And this one helped to bump up the price of the 1907 Heidsieck; individual bottles have been sold at various auctions around the world for as much as £275,000 each.
2. Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 ($500,000)
What’s better than a bottle of wine? A six-litre bottle of wine, that’s what.
Certainly big enough to get the party started, this vino was sold at a Napa Valley wine auction in 2000. Rumour has it the buyer got a discount on the listed price of $500,000 as it was all in the name of charity. What made the wine so desirable? It came from the 1992 debut vintage of Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon of which only 175 cases were produced.
1. Romanee-Conti 1945 ($558,000)
Romanee-Conti is arguably the king of collectable wines and the 1945 Burgundy is thought to be its most prized vintage. Only 600 bottles were produced that year and months later the producer pulled up their older, prized vines and planted younger ones.
Sotheby’s — where the most expensive bottle sold in 2018 — described the 1945 vintage as “concentrated and exotic, with seemingly everlasting power — a wine at peace with itself.”
Which begs an important question: does that mean it’s more or less likely to give you a hangover?
If you’re presented with the opportunity to invest in the fine wine market — which is much less volatile than gold or property — Almagrove can help you free up funds fast. Contact us to find out more.