Most Expensive Wines in the World
The most expensive bottles of wine in the world can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. But for many, the thought of paying $50 for a bottle of wine is akin to lighting banknotes on fire. Wine is, after all, just fruit juice. How could the fermented liquid of the humble grape possibly justify such a price tag? Why would anyone pay thousands upon thousands of dollars at auction for an old, ultra-expensive bottle of red?
One might just as easily argue that $50 for various shades of paint brushed onto canvas is also a ludicrous expense. The big difference here is that few people — even those who could never afford a Vermeer let alone a Kinkade — would argue that artwork is overvalued. It is, after all, the utmost example of creative expression.
But to the avid wine connoisseur, there is little difference between an original Dali or Degas and a Lafite or Margaux. The latter two names are not artists in the accepted definition of the word, but their creations are meant to last for decades and perhaps inspire future generations. They just happen to be bottles of wine. Very, very valuable bottles of wine.
In truth, art and wine share much in common. Those who make each say it’s their life’s pursuit. And those who buy each say it’s their life’s pursuit. And both customer bases are willing to shell out gobs of money to get their hands on it.
But how much, exactly? Well, art wins the price tag game here, and rare vintage wine is not far behind — think hundreds of thousands of dollars for single bottles. And just like fine art, the fine wine world is full of swindlers.
Before we unveil some of the most expensive bottles of wine in the world, let’s take a quick lesson in wine volume measurements (it will come in handy). A single bottle of wine contains 750 milliliters of liquid, or 25.4 ounces. The industry standard for a single glass of wine is 5 ounces, so a bottle contains roughly five glasses.
There are many different sizes of wine bottles, and some have really cool names. You’ll find a few in the pages to come.
These are the 15 most expensive bottles of wine in the world.
1. 1951 Penfolds Grange
Price: $51,750
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $69,000
Year sold: 2018
Bottom: 1951 Penfolds Grange
The 1951 Penfolds Grange was never sold at retail. In 1951, it could only be obtained as a gift from Penfolds' original winemaker, Max Schubert.
Penfolds makes perhaps the most expensive wine in Australia, and a bottle of this vintage grape sold for AUS $80,386, which converted to $51,750 at the time of the sale in 2018.
There are only 20 of these bottles that are known to exist. It is the most expensive wine sold at an Australian auction.
2.1787 Chateau d'Yquem
Price: $91,400
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $121,867
Year sold: 2006
Bottom Line: 1787 Chateau d'Yquem
In 2006, an Atlanta wine collector and real estate millionaire named Julian LeCraw J. shelled out $91,400 to buy a bottle of an extremely rare 1787 Chateau d'Yquem white.
It turned out to be grape juice. Or maybe vinegar. Whatever it was, it wasn't what he set out to purchase.
LeCraw also said other bottles he purchased from the seller, London-based The Antique Wine Company, were fake as well. In 2014, he sued the wine merchant for an exorbitant $25 million in damages. Antique Wine Company founder and CEO Stephen Williams accused LeCraw of attempting to "extort" his company and denied the company sold him fake wine.
Whatever the truth is impossible to say. A U.S. district court dismissed the case in 2015, although the judge noted that it would be more appropriate for the case to be heard in an English court.
It never would be. In 2016, The Antique Wine Company went bankrupt. Media attention surrounding the case obviously hurt the wine merchant, and various other troubles led to the company going into liquidation.
3. 1865 Lafite
Price: $111,625
Size: 3 liters
Price per liter: $37,208
Year sold: 2006
Bottom Line: 1865 Lafite
A double-magnum bottle of 1865 vintage Chateau Lafite set sale from the auction table to the hands of a private European collector in 2006 for the cost of $111,625. That's about $4,650 per glass.
The bottle once belonged to the collection of Russell H. Frye, and it sold through a Sotheby's auction.
Curiously, we found an article on Forbes from 2014 which explains that many of the bottles from that collection (though not necessarily those actually sold at the auction) were total fakes.
4. 1811 Chateau d’Yquem
Price: $117,000
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $156,000
Year sold: 2011
Bottom Line: 1811 Chateau d’Yquem
The 1811 Chateau d’Yquem became the world's most expensive white wine when it sold for $117,000 in 2011.
The 1811 vintage, which was once described as "liquefied crème brûlée" by a wine critic, was sold to the late French sommelier and restaurateur Christian Vanneque in 2011 (he passed away four years later, in 2015).
Vanneque put the bottle on display in a bulletproof showcase at a wine bar in Indonesia, where he said it would be shown "like a painting, so people can see it easily" and housed like "a mini-Fort Knox, impossible to open."
5. 1787 Lafitte
Price: $156,450
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $208,600
Year sold: 1985
Bottom Line: 1787 Lafitte
In what is arguably the most famous wine auction ever, publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes purchased a 750 -milliliter bottle of 1787 Lafitte (now Chateau Laffite Rothschild) at Christie’s in London in 1985. At the time, it was by far the most expensive wine ever purchased.
It was a bottle in the purported Thomas Jefferson cache that allegedly was found in an old Paris apartment building in 1985 during renovations and subsequently purchased by German music mogul Hardy Rodenstock. He claimed to have bought more than a dozen of these Jefferson bottles, all from various premium Bordeaux wineries and all etched with the winery name and the initials "ThJ." The world’s foremost expert on old wine, Michael Broadbent, had personally authenticated these wines before they were sold.
Over the next several years, more of these bottles were sold, and some were consumed. And the fraud rumors and accusations only grew with each high-end purchase. (The Jefferson bottles are famously the subject of a 2007 article in The New Yorker and the 2009 book "The Billionaire’s Vinegar.")
Marvin Shanken, the publisher of Wine Spectator, was outbid by Forbes for the initial Jefferson bottle. An anonymous businessman from the Middle East bought another one. Then in 1988, billionaire Bill Koch purchased four Jefferson bottles from two different merchants, spending a total of more than $300,000 on the wines. Koch would eventually sue Rodenstock on fraud charges, cementing the idea that the wines were fakes. Still, the question remains unanswered.
6. 2004 Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon Ampoule
Price: $168,000
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $224,000
Year sold: Numerous
Bottom Line: 2004 Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon Ampoule
The wine is rare, but you're paying for art and showmanship with this one.
Penfolds made just 12 of these ultra-special edition bottles, which are made of hand-blown glass suspended inside a Jarrah wood cabinet. The wine itself is the Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon, a rare wine with the last vintage being from 1994.
This bottle is crafted from master glass sculptors and can only be opened by carefully breaking a glass nipple. The price also came with the ability to have Penfolds chief winemaker, Peter Gago, fly out to wherever you are to open the bottle.
However, you can easily find expensive wine in regular old bottles. According to Decanter, regular bottles of the 2004 vintage retail for about $550.
These bottles retailed in 2012 at select, super-premium retailers.
7. 2009 Chateau Margaux Balthazar
Price: $195,000
Size: 12 liters
Price per liter: $16,250
Year sold: Unknown
Bottom Line: 2009 Chateau Margaux Balthazar
This bottle of wine isn't your tiny little 750-milliliter bottle. No, this is a honking 12-liter bottle of party juice which only went on sale at the Les Clos flagship store in Dubai International. That's right. It's a ridiculously oversized bottle of wine fit for Dubai's ridiculously wealthy wine connoisseurs.
Three of these bottles went on sale in 2013, but the price tag comes with a plane trip to France and a dinner with the vineyard's chief winemaker, plus a private tour through the cellars and vineyards.
The Chateau Margaux Balthazar is the most expensive bottle of wine to ever be sold at retail. While the pricey bottle's unveiling was much publicized, it's unclear how many of these were sold and when.
8. 2010 Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir
The Williams Selyem winery in Healdsburg, Calif.Price: $205,000
Size: Salmanazar (9 liters)
Price per liter: $22,778
Year sold: 2013
Bottom Line: 2010 Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir
That’s a pretty penny for a really young wine, especially since it was purchased only three years after it was made. Most gaudily expensive wines are decades, if not hundreds of years, old.
But a wine does not necessarily have to be old to be rare. In this case, the bottle size was what the industry calls a Salmanazar (named after an Assyrian king), containing nine liters of wine, or 12 standard-size bottles. That’s 60 glasses total, at some $3,416 a pop. Few wines are bottled in this size format, so indeed it is a rare find.
And the proceeds went to a good cause: helping the children of Texas. This pinot noir was purchased at a charitable auction for the 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo by a group of generous wine lovers. As for the product itself, the winery said that while 2010 was a difficult harvest, it was an exceptional vintage.
9. 1787 Margaux
Price: $212,000
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $282,667
Year sold (er, broken): 1989
Bottom Line: 1787 Margaux
If you’re not supposed to cry over spilled milk, what do you do over 202-year-old wine? In this case, file an insurance claim, then curl up into the fetal position and weep your heart out.
That’s what a wine dealer named William Sokolin did in 1989 after clumsily bumping into a serving tray while holding a bottle of 1787 French Bordeaux from the Margaux winery during an ultra-exclusive wine-tasting dinner in New York City.
The story sounds like a whopper, but it did in fact happen and has become known as the "Most Expensive Wine Never Sold." Sokolin told The New York Times that he was not drunk, just overly excited about showing off the bottle he had acquired from a British wine merchant to the guests at the Bordeaux event.
"I wasn't going to sell the wine that night," he told the Times in 1989. "It was a power play in a sense. Where am I going to see this opportunity again? I am not invited to Chateau Margaux on a daily basis. There are three or four moments in a lifetime that are important. I thought that was one of them."
Sokolin had valued the wine at $519,750 after purchasing, and insuring, it for $212,000. The vaunted price tag was somewhat justifiable because the bottle purportedly belonged to Thomas Jefferson, widely regarded as America’s first wine lover.
Many people had reservations about this provenance, but other Jefferson bottles had already been sold at auction, so there was a market for these wines whether they were real or not. And for good measure, Sokolin was able to cash out the insurance claim for $212,000.
10. 1869 Chateau Lafite
Price: $233,972
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $311,963
Year sold: 2010
Bottom Line:1869 Chateau Lafite
Several factors make this sale one of the more fascinating.
First, the sale was estimated to fetch a mere $8,000 at a Sotheby’s Asia auction in 2010 but ballooned to $233,972. Second, while other, larger bottles have gone for more, this Lafite is a standard 750-milliliter bottle. And lastly, unlike the provenance of other 19th-century wines, this bottle came directly from the cellar of the chateau, so there’s no questioning its authenticity.
Lafite has something of a cult following in Asian countries, according to a story in Wine Spectator about this auction. "This was the hottest wine town [Hong Kong] and the hottest wine of the moment creating the excitement," Robert Sleigh, head of Sotheby’s Asia wine department, told the magazine.
It was also the first Lafite cellar auction ever held in China. The winning bidder has remained anonymous, although was apparently so enamored with the purchase that the person scooped up two more bottles of the same wine after the auction, spending a total of some $690,000 on the three wines.
11. 1907 Heidsieck
Price: $275,000
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $366,667
Year sold: Numerous
Bottom Line: 1907 Heidsieck
We couldn’t possibly have a story about wine without a little bubbly, and a lot of intrigue.
The year is 1916 and Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, is awaiting a shipment of Europe’s finest wines. Meanwhile, World War I is in full tilt and German U-boats are patrolling any and all waters. The tsar has commissioned a Swedish freighter to deliver the goods, but it never arrives. Instead, the ship is sunk off the coast of Finland by a German sub.
Fast-forward 82 years and an expedition to the sunken vessel recovers some 2,000 bottles of wine. Lo and behold, many were perfectly intact and had barely lost any volume to seepage (apparently wine corks like cold salty water).
Since then, many of these bottles have gone up for auction, some selling for as much as $275,000 each.
12. 1947 Cheval Blanc
Price: $304,375
Size: Imperial (6 liters)
Price per liter: $50,729
Year sold: 2010
Bottom Line: 1947 Cheval Blanc
This beauty of the Saint-Emilion region is often considered one of the best Bordeaux wines ever made, so it’s only fitting that it would fetch the highest price ever paid for a single bottle, albeit an enormous single bottle (6 liters). That works out to some $38,046 per standard-size bottle.
An anonymous buyer paid more than $300,000 for it at a Christie’s auction in Geneva in 2010. "This wine is undoubtedly one of the greatest Bordeaux of all times, not only because of its rare quality but also due to its extensive life span, as it could still be kept and enjoyed 50 years from now with no problem at all," Michael Ganne, a Christie’s wine specialist, told Reuters before the auction.
What makes this wine so impressive so many years later is that the winery itself didn’t think much of it, to begin with. The chateau describes the 1947 vintage as a "happy accident of nature," according to a 2008 story in Slate.
Winemaking was not as sophisticated then as it is now, meaning barrels were often lost to spoilage and subjected to the effects of bad weather, and some were too sweet or acidic. But somehow, through the magic of who-knows-what, this wine ended up aging better than almost anything before or since.
13. 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild
Price: $310,700
Size: 4.5 liters
Price per liter: $69,044
Year sold: 2007
Bottom Line: 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild
The 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild is an exceptionally popular red wine among collectors with a fascinating history.
The owner of the chateau in Bordeaux, France, Baron Phillipe Rothschild, had been experimenting with artful labels for his wine since 1924. For the 1945 label, he commissioned an artist to create the "V for Victory" label, which set it apart from the rest.
During World War II, German forces occupied the estate, and Rothschild, a Jew, fled to England. He returned in 1945, when the war was finished. The harvest was smaller that year, but the grapes were exceptionally ripe and the 1945 Mouton became a hit, both for its taste and for the "V" sign, which signified a celebratory end to the world's greatest war.
Every year after that, Rothschild commissioned a contemporary artist to create labels for each vintage. Some of those artists were world-famous, like Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. The tradition continues today.
The 1945 Mouton, which sold for $310,700, was a jeroboam, a large, 4.5-liter bottle. It sold in 2007 at a Sotheby's auction.
14. 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
Price: $500,000
Size: Imperial (6 liters)
Price per liter: $83,333
Year sold: 2000
Bottom Line: 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
Screaming Eagle is referred to as a "cult wine" for its low production and diehard fanbase — people are willing to spend upward of $7,000 for a single bottle. Or, in this case, $62,500.
In 2000, the Napa Valley Wine Auction had a banner year, raising $9.5 million. That was due in large part to the purchases of Chase Bailey, a top executive at Cisco Systems at the time. He and his wife, Susan, spent more than $1.7 million in total on several lots. The most impressive — or insane — purchase was an Imperial (6 liters) size bottle of Screaming Eagle Cab for a cool half million.
Before we move on, it should be noted that this 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2010 Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir (No. 8 on this list) technically shouldn’t even be on the list. That’s because while they were sold, the sales were to benefit charitable causes. Had they been auctioned or retailed for profit, they might have commanded more money. Such as our next wine.
15. 1945 Romanee-Conti
Price: $558,000
Size: 750 milliliters
Price per liter: $744,000
Year sold: 2018
Bottom Line: 1945 Romanee-Conti
In 2018, a bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti sold for $558,000, more than 17 times its original estimate of just $32,000, at a Sotheby's auction. According to CNBC, the bottle was likely sold to a Chinese buyer, as vintage French Burgundy wines are very popular among the country's richest.
Only 600 of these bottles were made, making it one of the rarest and sought-after wines in the world. After the record-shattering sale for $558,000, another buyer picked up a bottle for $496,000.
Why? The tiny Romanée-Conti vineyard produces some of the highest-quality Burgundy in the world. The 1945 vintage, as Bloomberg notes, is "legendary, a virtually unobtainable 'unicorn wine.'" Harsh weather resulted in a small production batch, and after the harvest, the vines were ripped out and replanted.
For the price, it better taste like it came out of a unicorn.