Three bottles of Châteaux Lafite-Rothschild 1869 were just sold at a Hong Kong auction by Sotheby’s with a hammer price of $232,692 a bottle. That set a record for the priciest bottle of wine ever sold at auction (there are no records of private sales).
The seller was Domaines Baron de Rothschild, so the bottles had a perfect provenance, no doubt influencing their value.
At a total of almost $700,00, or $232,692 a bottle, the Lafite 1869 costs about $29,000 a glass, or more than $2,000 a sip. But it might turn out to be a trophy possession rather than bottles that actually get drunk.
Wealthy Chinese buyers have been driving wine auction prices, and at the Hong Kong auction seven bottles went over HK$1 million, or $128,205 each.
Southampton billionaire William Koch paid $500,000 a few years ago for four bottles of 1784 and 1787 Bordeaux, although their authenticity has been questioned.
It inspires me to start opening some of the best stuff in my cellar. Or selling it.