I’m surprised it didn’t fetch more money. It’s the T206 Honus Wagner except rarer and in a collecor’s market that is, if anything, more rarified.
A BGS 10 T206 Wagner to boot, based on the provenance… ![[swoon.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f425e8dac3e7344bee264da02e55428971be23a9.gif "swoon"){kind=small}
It’s grape juice.
I love wine. LOVE.
But it’s grape juice.
How likely is it the buyer will be identified?
I think Ryan is right. In retrospect I am surprised it didn’t go even higher. I doubt there are more than 10 real bottles in decent condition left in the world.
Another interesting aspect is that I think this is the first time ever that the most expensive bottle of wine at auction is from burgundy. I believe that at least post-WWII, the record was always held by a bottle of Bordeaux, but would love to be corrected if I’m wrong. I know that between 1985 and 2009 or 2010, the record was held by the Malcom Forbes bottle of “Jefferson Lafite” (which we should perhaps disqualify?), and then from 2009 to now, it was held by large format bottles of 1945 Mouton and 1947 Cheval Blanc. So for all the talk of burgundy surpassing Bordeaux, it took until 2018 for a bottle of burgundy to take the top spot.
Actually, if the owner did decide to come out, he could generate multiples of what he paid with free PR. It is estimated that Forbes generated $2-3 million when he bought the “Jefferson” Lafite.
If he decided to raise money for charity by doing dinner, he would double the benefits.
2hl/ha - 622 bottles
The last vintage of the old vines on their own pre-phylloxera roots - no grafts. Then they were pulled out. So yes a short crop but not particularly due to hail and/or frost.
But IMO the wine is not coveted for its rareness, rather its other-worldly tasting notes - many commenters who know/knew, plus many who do not know(!) placing the 1945 as the greatest Romanée-Conti ever made - though most bottles in the last 30+ years have been fakes! It’s not really about the ‘victory vintage’ - there’s no victory artwork like for Mouton - if 1944 had been a better wine, that would have been the one making the headlines this weekend, not the 45…
These are exaggerations few people will understand I guess. Lay back and think for a while if its crazy that some people are able and – more important – ready to spend 500.000 dollars for a bottle of wine and ask yourself if parts of our todays reality are absurd.
I am sure that a pristine bottle of this wine will be a wonderful tasting experience but I never believed in descriptions like out of this world and not replaceable by anything else etc. because …
- Its not true
- Some hidden marketing may play a role
- The ego of the taster (I had something special you only can dream of … poor boy/girl)
I could be wrong, but I would expect that DRC might want that bottle back. I’d be shocked if it wasn’t purchased by the Domaine or Aubert himself…
Kirk,
all can happen – but why should the Domaine or Aubert buy this bottle? Maybe I am not smart enough but can’t see the reason.
I think I just read about this vintage in “Pearl of the Cote”. It was the last crop of the provinage rooted vines that were planted in the 1500’s. After this year the vines were all grubbed up and the vineyards replanted with American rootstock. It is history, as a wine it probably belongs in a museum somewhere.
If that was their intention it’d never go through the auction process, despite the benefits of something like this being so public. There’s always a risk they wouldn’t get it and you’d like Drouhin and DRC have a good enough relationship whereby that’d be negotiated between them privately. DRC probably still have a bit in their library.
Continuing on my “I’m surprised this didn’t sell for more,” here is some comparison (of course excluding items in the stratosphere like cars, violins, pianos, art, antique furniture):
Most expensive stamp: $9.5 million
Most expensive coin: $10 million
Most expensive watch: $17.8 million
Most expensive baseball card: $2.9 million (and there are cards in existence that certainly would sell for way in excess of $2.9mm)
Most expensive guitar (non-celeb-owned): $600,000+
Most expensive whisky: $1+ million
I get that wine isn’t durable in the same way as any of the above, and may not have historical importance in the same way, but I also think that in many circles owning the one pristine btl of '45 DRC RC is going to get you way more cache than owning many/any of the above (although owning a pristine '59 Les Paul Standard would be pretty badass in any context). I would not be shocked if this btl sold for #1mm+ in the future.
Super interesting point about the potential number of fakes. With only 622 bottles released (who knows if that counts the bottles that remained at the Domaine), it’s certainly got that potential.
Most expensive violin: $ 16+ million …
Most expensive painting: $ 250+ million …
3 of them 
The speculation on those is that they will hit north of $10 million too.
I thought phylloxera was complete in Bordeaux by the 1890’s, did it take until the 1940’s to clear through Burgundy?
I realized there are people with insane amounts of money spending it on possibly frivolous items years ago. Went to the Maastricht Fine Arts Fair in the 1990’s. Basically museum pieces but all for sale. Hundreds of vendors each with dozens of pieces for sale, many at 7+ figures. Someone is buying the stuff and keeping them in business. At that point, I stopped worrying about what other people spend their money on.
Bill, as I mentioned, Robert Drouhin told me that it was a short crop due to both hail and to frost. He also said that the 38 was the better vintage, but that the 45 would probably go for a higher price because of the rarity. So if you disagree with those points, as you seem to, your disagreement is with Mr. Drouhin.
I am not sure what the artwork has to do with it. There are plenty of examples of vintages that are widely thought of as historically relevant without the benefit of artwork.
You could combat phylloxera by injecting some pretty evil chemicals into the ground, DRC battled against the pest up until 1945, by then the vines were pretty sick hence the miserly amount of wine produced.