The wine market is one of the most difficult in the world. The cost of a bottle can be influenced by dozens of different criteria - the vintage of the wine, its rarity, the peculiarities of the harvest year, the vineyard from which the raw materials were collected, and even the previous owners of a particular vessel. Enophiles are willing to pay hundreds of thousands for wines that they will never drink in their lives.
The world's most expensive bottle of wine
Rare wine collectors are willing to pay millions for vinegar. Yes, it is into vinegar that wine is turned, which has been stored for more than 200 years, despite observing all the conditions for its storage. Therefore, the most expensive wines in the world, as a rule, are no longer wines in the full sense of the word. However, for a bottle of Heidsieck champagne, vintage 1907, all is not lost. Sold at auction at an incredible $ 275,000 apiece, this wine belongs to a shipment of champagne sent as a gift to the Russian imperial family. Even then, this brand and the year of the harvest were recognized as one of the best, but the fact that they did not reach the addressee, and instead lay for almost a hundred years at the “bottom of the sea” (from 1916 to 1998), which made this wine unique. In total, 2,000 bottles were lifted from a ship that sank in the North Atlantic, and all of them went to collectors' collections overnight.
Enophil is a collector and wine connoisseur. Enoteca is both a storage facility and a collection of wines. Both terms are derived from the Greek word oinos (enos) - wine.
A little less was paid for a bottle of Chateau Lafite, vintage 1869 - 233 thousand dollars. Since French red wines rarely live for more than 50 years, owners still have a chance to enjoy its aroma and taste, although the famous wine critic Michael Broadent claims that he is sure that this drink has already "felt the touch of decay."
But about another bottle of Chateau Lafite, vintage 1787, no one has any doubts. Speech that its content is wine - no. However, already in 1985 the famous Malcolm Forbes bought it for 160 thousand dollars (in the modern world this amount is equivalent to 315 thousand dollars), and now this rarity, presumably, can break all records of wine auctions. What's the secret? The fact is that this bottle, at that time a very successful wine harvest, belonged to the noble enophile Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, one of the most revered founding fathers of America. The initials, which he put down with his own hand, are still preserved on the vessel - Th. J.
Most expensive broken bottle of wine
The history of one of the most expensive bottles of wine in the world, which no longer exists, is also interesting. In 1989, New York wine merchant William Sokolin entered into an alliance with the owner of another bottle of wine from Jefferson's collection - Chateau Margaux, vintage 1787. He began selling the rarity at a price of $ 500,000, but the deal was not completed by the time Sokolin brought wine with him to dinner at a restaurant. At the exit from the premises, the waiter collided with the wine merchant, as a result the bottle fell and broke. Since the wine was insured, both the wine merchant and the owner, who wished to remain anonymous, received a generous compensation of a quarter of a million dollars each, but it cannot be said that the bottle was sold for that price.
The most expensive wine in the world
In addition to vintage and rare wines, there are wines in the world that are consistently distinguished by high quality. The price of a bottle of such a drink can fluctuate, depending on the crop year, but still reach the top bar. Not surprisingly, most of these wines are produced in France. So red Burgundy Henri Jayer Richebourg Grand Cru on average costs about 16 thousand dollars per bottle, while wines of the best harvests are already sold at a price of 25 thousand dollars. Slightly cheaper is another red Burgundy Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Romanee-Conti Grand Cru - 12 thousand dollars per bottle, but the maximum price for this drink reached 62 thousand dollars. Stably expensive and Moselle Riesling Egon Muller-Scharzhof Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese. You will hardly be able to buy this German wine for less than 6 thousand dollars.
The ten most expensive wines in the world include eight Burgundy and two Moselle. Seven out of ten wines are red, the rest, respectively, are white.
Most expensive wine bottle
But, as practice shows, you can pay a lot of money not so much for the wine or for its rarity as for the vessel itself. It is the uniqueness of the packaging that explains the price of $ 168,000 for a container (after all, you cannot call these works of art a bottle) with wine from the Australian manufacturer Penfolds. This glass sculptural ampoule with wine (Cabernet Sauvignon) was made by a glassblower according to an individual order and enclosed in a bog oak stand. The manufacturer promises that when you decide to open the bottle, the oldest of their winemakers will come to you and personally conduct a tasting ceremony for you. The ampoule will be opened with a special silver corkscrew with a tungsten tip and poured into specially made silver cups.
