On Saturday, two bottles of DRC Romanee Conti 1945 broke the record for the most expensive wines ever sold at auction. The two bottles were sold by Sotheby’s in New York for $496,000 (£377,000) and $558,000 (£424,000) respectively.
The previous record auction price for a standard bottle of wine (75cl) was held by Lafite Rothschild 1869. It sold for $233,000 in 2010, according to the Telegraph.
Piers Morgan was quick to tweet that the DRC sale was “ridiculous”. He added that “you can get 20 cases of Latour ’61 for that”.
Piers Morgan is wrong. As the chart above shows, you could purchase around 105 bottles (nine 12×75 cases) of Latour 1961 for the average price of one DRC lot. This makes Piers Morgan’s claim of “20 cases” somewhat optimistic.
Alternatively, you could purchase around 133 bottles of Petrus 2010 – a Robert Parker 100-point wine and the most traded wine on the market last week.
Ten bottles of the 2005 and another ten 1990 DRC vintages could also be purchased for the same price.
Of course, direct comparisons are difficult to make at this level. Enthusiasts will point to the ‘perfect provenance‘ of these bottles, and their great historical significance.
For those with $500,000 burning their pockets, other purchase options include:
- 400 ounces of Gold
- Half a shred of a Banksy original
- A 1 bedroom flat next to Battersea Park
- A DB11 Aston Martin in both silver and black
- A private island in Panama
For more information on Liv-ex prices, click here.
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