Friday, October 19, 2018

"This Is the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine"

From Food & Wine:

A 1945 Burgundy smashed the record at a Sotheby's auction. 
Whiskey has been grabbing plenty of headlines for its record-breaking auctions as of late. From million dollars bottles of The Macallan Scotch to a 50-year-old Yamazaki that managed to break the Japanese whiskey record by selling for about a third of that price, the collectors’ market has been paying a premium for coveted bottles. But it turns out it isn't just brown spirits having all the fun. Over the weekend, a Sotheby’s auction in New York set a new record for the most expensive wine ever sold.

A bottle of 1945 Romanee-Conti, a red Burgundy from Cote de Nuits, sold for an astounding $558,000. Though Romanee-Conti is a renowned producer to this day, this particular wine is especially coveted because reportedly only 600 bottles were produced in 1945, and the vines were removed and replanted after this vintage. “Rare and wonderful,” Serena Sutcliffe, head of Sotheby’s international wine department, wrote on the auction site. “The best bottles are so concentrated and exotic, with seemingly everlasting power—a wine at peace with itself.”

If half-a-million dollars for a bottle of wine seems surprising, you’re not alone. Sotheby’s presale estimate for the vino put the top of the range at $32,000. The wine sold for 17 times that amount. And the run wasn’t over: Later, a second bottle from the same vintage sold for $496,000. Both bottles easily broke the record for the most expensive standard-sized bottle of wine ever sold—a title previously held by a bottle from Chateau Lafite Rothschild sold for $233,000 in 2010 in Hong Kong....MORE
Previously on the big buck booze beat:
April 2017
Questions America Wants Answered: "Why is Domaine de la Romanée-Conti So Expensive?"

"Vineyard-Raiding Baboons Favor Pinot Noir"
What a bunch of wine snob poseurs.
Merlot is just fine, especially if it's dolled up as Chateau Petrus.
Berry Bros. & Rudd is running a special case price, "Buy 6 and save £ 2667.37".
A Romanée Conti (pinot noir) will cost you double or triple. BB&R is price on request.
Either way, possibly more than the average baboon has in petty cash.  
News You Can Use: "The Weird World Of Expensive Wine "
Prof. Dimson: "New research reveals that wine outperformed art, stamps and bonds throughout the 20th century"
Dimson et al: "The impact of aging on wine prices and the performance of wine as a long-term investment"
Are collectibles good long-term investments? "The Investment Performance of Emotional Assets"
Alternative Investments With Liquidity: "Fine Wines, Best Value"

Questions America Wants Answered: How Does Brexit Affect the Bordeaux Wine Market?
By-the-bye I just checked a link to a 2005 Bordeaux page at Berry Bros. & Rudd I had bookmarked and this is their 404 message:
We're terribly sorry but you seem to have reached a dead end.
For a nudge in the right direction, please use the search box below, or continue to our home page. If you lose your way again please do let us know.
"The 6 Most Statistically Full of Shit Professions"

#6. Stock Market Experts
#5. Wine Tasters
#4. Art Critics 

Hmmm...