As a follow up to yesterday' s post on
the most expensive wine auction lot ever, I received a request to generate a list of the most expensive 750ml bottles ever sold at auction. The resulting list had numerous 19th century vintages of Yquem, Lafite-Rothschild, and Latour in it. As these older vintages seemed to comprise their own category, I filtered the list to remove any vintage before 1900.
The list below represents the
highest prices (including buyer's premium) per 750ml bottle achieved at auction by the first 20 unique wines bearing a vintage of 1900 or later. Only the highest price for each unique wine is shown even though multiple lots of a wine may have sold for higher prices than other wine lower down the list.
- 1945 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $32,900
- 1959 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $30,550
- 1945 DRC - La Tache, $28,200
- 1941 Inglenook - Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, $24, 675
- 1945 Mouton-Rothschild, $24,167
- 1929 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $23,500
- 1923 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $22,515
- 1934 DRC - Richebourg, $22,325
- 1985 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $22,325
- 1962 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $20,563
- 1911 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $18,960
- 1919 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $18,960
- 1923 Roumier, Georges - Bonnes Mares, $18,763
- 1978 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $17,038
- 1966 DRC - Romanee-Conti, $16,450
- 1934 Roumier, Georges - Musigny, $15,405
- 1961 Jaboulet Aine, Paul - Hermitage La Chapelle, $15,405
- 1945 Roumier, Georges - Musigny, $14,813
- 1945 Ponsot - Clos de la Roche, $14,220
- 1947 Ponsot - Clos St.-Denis, $14,220
A few observations:
- Unlike the 50-case 1982 Mouton Rothschild lot referenced in yesterday' s post, all of these prices were established based on small lot sizes ranging from 1 to 12 bottles.
- Burgundy dominates with 85% of the unique wines and DRC - Romanee Conti rules.
- All prices were set in 2006 except #4 in 2006 and #20 in 2005.
- 95%% of the wines are French
- Only 25% were vintages from the latter half of the 20th century.
Note that the source of the above information is Vinfolio's own Wine Price File, the standard industry reference for wine auction price results from all major wine auction houses worldwide. Details on the The Wine Price File may be found by visiting http://www.wineprices.com/.
