The world's most expensive wines- from Wine Searcher

WINE TALK
21

Nick,
I was offering two questions:
1/what is the most expensive wine made in quantities over X number of bottles…If we posit a minimum of 40,000 bottles, most of the wines from DRC, Roumier,Leroy,
Rousseau, etc are not under consideration
2/what is the most expensive wine made in the past eight years…or five years…or ten years…whatever…But let’s not include anything made by somebody 20 years ago…No 46 Romanee Conti for example…

22

Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc at number 16?! me thinks the end is near.

23

Mel,

Both of those are good filters. I like my “track record” idea too, which I have to give you credit for since I misread your original post.

As for 46 Romanee Conti, the only bottles of that would have been made by Rudy K. :crazy_face:

24

This is not true. Liber Pater has been expensive since it was purchased by Loic Pasquet. It is not a $15 terroir. While I find the price crazy, Loic and the wine are an interesting story.

2018 and 2019 have a production of probably under 1,000 bottles. I think 2018 was the first really expensive vintage. It was over 20,000 Euros per bottle. Prior to that, previous vintages were still pricey, selling, yes selling for 3,000 Euros or more per bottle. I know one negociant that sold 200 bottles!

Liber Pater is a unique wine that is nothing like any other wine in Bordeaux. It’s a story worth reading about. I’ve tasted every wine he’s ever made as well.

25

I could see myself in a world before his most recent releases of being interested in buying a bottle, as a once in a lifetime bucketlist thing. But at the 2018 pricing, it’s just way too far beyond reason for me to be honest. I’d sooner get a couple cases of Lafleur, or a case of Petrus, for that price.


Thanks for the notes on CT Jeff.

26

It’s not on my buy list either. But don’t just read my notes. Read my profile on the vineyard and wine. It’s quite interesting

27

Aye - I was well aware of the history of liber pater (having read your profile previously to be honest!), but it’s nice to see some tasting notes for it.

28

My 46 RC was made by Hardy Rodenstock.

I meant the wine itself should not be over ten years old.

No 2009 or older.

29

Is this very informative without vintages attached? I mean are we comparing an older Henri Jayer wines with younger wines from Leroy and DRC. What if we threw in some 19th century wines?

30

Ok. Finally, I have some 43, depending on what vintage they are talking about.

31

Jeff, I hope that you are paying attention to this list. You often discuss how various market prices for wines are a good indication of the quality of the wine. I hope that you can see that this list in dominated by Burgs. [pillow-fight.gif]

32

To be clear, doesn’t the wine searcher price represent the price at which the wine doesn’t sell? If people were willing to buy it, then it would not be available on wine-searcher.

33

someone is speaking the truth

34

[snort.gif]

35

Re: WSP is the price at which it doesn’t sell. I don’t understand this idea. Wines clearly do sell at these prices. This is like any offer sheet - the lowest will usually be picked off until the price settles at an equilibrium. If what is meant is the WSP price represents all off the yet-to-be-lifted offers then fine, but this doesn’t mean the wines don’t sell at the offered price. If there were 100 offers at $100, 50 are sold and now 50 remain at $100, $100 is the mark-to-market value (meaning wine did sell at $100), regardless of whether or not there still remain offers at $100. In the absence of observed retail transactions, I agree with others that auctions are a better proxy as they are where the bid and the offer meet.

36

Wine inventory is different than Wall Street inventory. There is no offer sheet. And there is no equilibrium represented by wine-searcher. It’s the price that’s left after sellers offer the wines to their regular buyers. The marginal cost of holding a bottle at an outrageous price is zero. For high dollar wines, wine searcher represents the price at which over-optimistic secondary sellers are trying to sell their wines. Wine-searcher represents the losers who are left holding the bag.
A

37

You are saying you know this for a fact? So if I look up 10 vintages of DRC RSV you are saying that I will not find a single transaction at that offer? In my anecdotal experience, post auction I find something around 10% of lots I track selling above WSP mins. Is this out of sync with what you are suggesting?

On your marginal cost point: it’s not zero. You are paying storage in rent etc. never mind if you buy on credit. This has nothing to do with Wall St vs Main St. If you are trying to sell a thinly traded asset the bid/offer will also be wide. There is nothing special about that.

38

I don’t think DRC RSV is on the list of top 10 wines so I’m not sure understand your point. You should rethink that question. On marginal cost, storage and rent are absolute costs if you own a wine store. Marginal cost for holding each additional bottle is zero.
A

39

This is not really correct.
It may be that a wine offered on WS is too expensive and will never sell -
but except the younger vintages of certain wines many bottles are simply not always in demand (summer, winter, holidays) - and
for rarer wines it simply needs the right buyer - who doesn´t always look for it.

For instance I found a bottle on WS over a year ago, I noted it as interesting and not expensive, but didn´t buy it due to lack of actual need -
Now I´m preparing a tasting - and this bottle fits perfectly - so I bought it immediately NOW.

Other wines are not really in demand because they are in a closed stage at the moment - but will sell easily when reaching maturity.
A good TN of a certain wine here or elsewhere can also lead to higher demand and sell out quickly now (after some time of stagnation).

I also bet all better 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 … will be in higher demand next year - not to speak of 1961 Bx - so for a dealer it´s always good to have things like that in stock -

40

They should rename this to:

Everything-that-is-wrong-in-the-wine-market list.