Say what? $812,500 for a bottle of wine
You would have saved money had you bought it in 2018
There appears to be no shortage of money when it comes to buying wine. Baby boomers, flush with cash as their investments continue to explode, are holding up the fine wine industry. Still, I don’t know any of my fellow wine boomers who have resorted to Menage e Trois in what appears to be a troubling economy for everyone but them.
Perhaps this wealth bubble explains a record auction sale of a 750ml bottle of 1945 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti that went for $812,500. The exact same bottle was sold in 2018 for $558,000. If dispensed at a restaurant the 1945 would fetch $32,500 an ounce—much more if it’s marked up.
The 1945 DRC is one of the most frequently faked wines. Rudy Kurniawan sold more fakes of this special wine than the producer made in its entire history. He was the first person in the United States sent to prison for wine fraud and served seven years before being deported. When his lab was raided, FBI inspectors found forged labels, vintage corks and quantities of California pinot noir alongside inexpensive burgundies.
The $812,500 bottle, however, had ironclad provenance. Robert Drouhin of Burgundy’s Maison Drouhin, once the exclusive distributor for DRC, had kept it in his private, temperature-controlled cellar in Beaune from the moment it was first sold for about $15, according to historians. A nice tidy profit.
Only 608 bottles were produced. Making it even more rare, 1945 was the last harvest before the phylloxera-ridden vines were uprooted. While most producers already had ripped up their vineyards and replanted new, disease-resistant root stock, DRC resisted until the last minute. The famous vineyard remained fallow for years—the next vintage wasn’t until 1952.
Most critics agree that the 1945 vintage, despite challenging weather conditions, was one of the best of the 20th century. Spring frost reduced the quantity of grapes— explaining why so little of the Romanee-Conti was produced—and growers even had to deal with a cyclone in June. But a hot summer produced very concentrated grapes.
France in 1945 was a country regaining its footing as World War II closed down. The grapes that had survived the winter freeze were just budding when V-E Day was declared on May 8. Across the country, prisoners were trickling home from German camps while DRC’s winemaker watched the temperature gauge with tremendous anxiety. By harvest time, French women were casting ballots for the first time in the resumption of a national election. Yet everything from food to coal remained rationed, and families went hungry—even as this particular bottle began its long, undisturbed journey toward Drouhin’s cellar.
As collectors in this country beg to buy Screaming Eagle on the secondary market for $5,000, I cannot imagine their desperation to land a bottle of 1945 DRC. Hark, there’s hope for lucky you! Wine Searcher can direct you to a seller who has one available for a mere $589,998. Although the authenticity of this particular bottle is guaranteed, beware anyone who offers you one from the trunk of their car: there are still thousands of Rudy’s fake bottles in cellars around the world—duped buyers are too embarrassed to admit to their naivety. Yeah, if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you…