World Wine Auction Prices
Published May 7th, 2006
A six-magnum case of 1985 Romanee-Conti wine sold for more than $170,375 at Christie’s in New York City in March.
An 1891 bottle of Brunello di Montalcino Biondi Santi Riserva fetched nearly $15,000 at a Rome wine auction by Florence’s Pandolfini auction house in 2000.
A bottle of 1951 Penfolds Grange Hermitage sold for about $21,500 at a December 1999 auction in Adelaide, Australia, conducted by specialist auction house Oddbins. The 1951 Grange, created by wine industry legend Max Schubert, is highly sought after because it was never released but given away to Schubert’s friends and colleagues.
Nine bottles of California wine brought $58,600 at auction. That amounts to about $6,500 a bottle for the 1941 Inglenook cabernet sauvignon, sold during a Zachys-Christie’s auction in Los Angeles in 1999.
A bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite sold for more than $156,000 at Christie’s London in 1985. The bottle, apparently intended for Thomas Jefferson, was worth extra because it was engraved with his initials, “Th J,” and is believed to be the most expensive single bottle ever sold. (A 1784 Chateau d’Yquem, also earmarked for Jefferson, sold for more than $55,000 the following year.)
