At a Sotheby’s auction in New York Saturday night, a historic bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti sold for $558,000, breaking the record for the world’s most expensive bottle of wine.
The price, which included taxes and commisions, was 17 times greater than Sotheby’s $32,000 upper estimate for the bottle, Newsweek reports.
The bottle is one of just 600 made in 1945, which represents the final vintage using ungrafted pre-phylloxera vines in the Romanée-Conti vineyard. The entire vineyard was uprooted in 1946, and production was halted until the 1952 vintage.
The previous record for the most expensive standard (750ml) bottle of wine was held by an 1869 Château Lafite Rothschild, which soldfor $233,000 at a 2010 Hong Kong auction.
The 1945 Romanée-Conti was part of a 100 lot sale from the personal cellar of Robert Drouhin, the former director of an esteemed Burgundian winery, Maison Joseph Drouhin. Combined, the 100 bottles fetched more than $7 million, with another bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti selling for $496,000.
In the notes for the sale, Drouhin wrote “It is both with regret and pleasure that I share these bottles. Regret even though there remain some for my children and friends but mainly pleasure as those who will purchase these bottles, apart from the appreciation of quality and the true luxury they convey, they will receive a testimony of my family and Burgundy at its best.”
