Christie’s ‘record’ for Burgundy bottle

Christie's is claiming a world record auction price for a single bottle of red Burgundy.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti: ‘record auction price’

At the auction on 17 May at Christie’s Geneva a private American buyer bid US$123,889 (€87,815) for a single 75cl bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1945.

Other top wines at the auction drew bidders from Asia, Russia and Europe as well as from the United States, Christie’s spokesman Cristiano De Lorenzo told Decanter.com – driving up total auction sales to $3.4m, an 80% increase year on year auction, he said.

Other notable sales included a 12-bottle case of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982, sold to a French company for US$67,813 and six bottles of Romanée-Conti 1999, purchased by a Swiss company for US$84,766.

Very early vintages of Chateau Cos d’Estournel, 1895 and 1897, fetched between US$3,913 and US$6,783 per bottle.

Christie’s failed however to sell its showcase lot of the auction — 315 bottles representing every vintage from ’45 to ’07 produced by each of the first five growths of Bordeaux

Written by Panos Kakaviatos