When you buy a bottle of wine from your local retailer, you probably look for something you enjoy as well as something you are able to afford. Affordability is one of the leading factors that determines the types of wine we drink. Of course, not matter how expensive we think some bottles in the shop are, these certainly top the list!
A 1869 bottle of Chateau Lafite sold for $230,000 in a 2010 Hong Kong auction. This standard sized bottle incited a fierce bidding war and the victor did not buy one, but rather all three of the bottles that were up for auction that day! The perk of buying more than one bottle means that at least one bottle can be enjoyed while the others remain in tact as somewhat of an investment if not for bragging rights.
A bottle of 1907 Heidsieck was salvaged in 1998 from a Swedish Freighter. Found just off the coast of Finland, the bottle sold for an impressive $275,000. Although 2,000 of these bottles were found, the value of each bottle is high due to the fascinating story surrounding the shipwreck.
At $304,375, a 1947 bottle of Cheval-Blanc went to the highest bidder in 2010. Sold to a private collector at a Geneva auction, this bottle is known for its class A status. The grapes that were used to make this wine in this particular year were phenomenal and this obviously pushed the price of this bottle up significantly.
A 1992 bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon was sold for a whopping $500,000! This bottle is remarkably young compared to those mentioned above which is why so many people wonder how it could have possibly fetched such a high price. To top it all, the bottle sold for this price in 2000 which means that it was not even a decade old yet! That said, since this was a charity auction, it is rumoured that the price was knocked down somewhat after the bidding ended.