When it comes to record-breaking bottle prices, Burgundy usually leads the way, both in France and around the world. But one Bordeaux producer is set to make even Domaine de la Romanée Conti seem like a bargain when it releases its next vintage for a stratospheric $34,110 per bottle.
Located in Graves, Liber Pater already boasts the most expensive average bottle prices in Bordeaux, according to Wine Searcher data. However, the $4,120 you can normally expect to pay for one of its bottles is less than an eighth of the price Liber Pater will charge for the 2015 vintage. When it goes on sale, it will become the world’s most expensive release.
According to the Drinks Business, just 550 bottles of the vintage have been produced. Only 240 will be released this year, in September, and each export market will receive a maximum allocation of 18 bottles.
The price tag isn’t the only interesting aspect of this release. The wine is made using indigenous Bordeaux varieties, including Castets, Tarney-Coulant, and Pardotte, all grown on ungrafted vines. The vintage was also vinified in amphorae and the wine did not see any oak.
Because these varieties and techniques are not permitted by the French appellations authority (INAO), the wine will simply be labeled a “Vin de France.” For founder Loïc Pasquet, however, the 2015 vintage captures the true essence of pre-phylloxera Bordeaux.
“The 2015 will be the first vintage made from entirely autochthonous grapes from ungrafted vines; it is produced as wine was before phylloxera,” Pasquet told Wine-Searcher.