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  • Country ranking ?

    1
  • Producer ranking ?

    1
  • Decanting time

    1h
  • When to drink

    now-2025
  • Food Pairing

    forget the food

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DRC Breaks World Auction Record - Bottle of 1945 Burgundy sells for 558.000 USD to become world’s most expensive wine

On the Saturday, October 13 – the most expensive bottle of Burgundy was sold at the Sotheby’s auction in New York.

The legendary bottle of 1945 Romanee-Conti was sold for 558.000 USD. A legendary bottle with a unique provenance – and one more was sold at 496.000 USD making it the second most expensive wine ever sold. 

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The Story

 “As if, in this square of earth, the gods had bequeathed us a memory of the fascinating vestige of a timeless perfection.” — Richard Olney. The wine of Prince de Conti, she is velvet, seduction and mystery. It is the most Proustian of all great wines.

 

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is without question the most famous estate in Burgundy and arguably the greatest, producing some of the best wines in the world. It is probably one of the mos...

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Wine Information

1945 Romanée-Conti (Côte de Nuits) /This was the last of Romanée-Conti´s vintage of ungrafted wines. The original roots of the Romanée-Conti vineyard go as far back as 1585, and since carbon disulfide was unavailable during the war years the vines declined. It was under Henri Leroy´s impulsion that the vines of Romanée-Conti were torn up in 1945 and then replanted in 1947.

According to its archives, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti produced just...

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Average Bottle Price

2020 2018 2014 2012 2011 2010 2005 2000 1995
99 700€ -8.5% 109 000€ +15.4% 94 484€ +90.3% 49 655€ +72.6% 28 766€ +33.2% 21 600€ +156.2% 8 432€ +122.6% 3 788€ +61.6% 2 344€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Tasting note

color

Deep, Brick red and Dark

ending

Endless, Spicy and Extensive

flavors

Truffles, Blackcurrant, Earthy, Spice, Blueberry and Mint

nose

Intense, Fresh, Seductive and Refined

recommend

Yes

taste

Average in Acidity, Warming, Medium tannin, Concentrated, Well-structured, Complex, Full-bodied, Full, Round, Harmonious, Medium-Dry and Silky tannins

Verdict

Excellent and Exotic

Written Notes

The third wine was the wine of wines, the king of kings and the lord of lords, the 1945 DRC Romanee Conti. It is nice when two of your best friends have virtually all the bottles of this wine left in existence! Only 608 bottles were made; I have had it now five times (one still to be written up but you will read that one next week), and yes, they were all real. Man, what a wine. I have said so much about this wine before, that I don’t feel bad about my lack of a detailed note here. ‘YOWSERS’ was one of my detailed observations lol. ‘Super intense’ was another. Notwithstanding this wine’s usual perfection and status as the greatest wine I have ever had, as bottle and circumstance variation would have it, I actually found the ’45 on this night to be a small step behind the ’34. We are talking videotape replay, Indianapolis 500 photo finish material here 

  • 98p
There were excited expectations around us as we opened this bottle, seemingly in good condition, at our friend´s birthday. He had acquired it at an auction in America long ago, and had kept it in his cellar for over two decades in order to celebrate with it his 50th birthday, an occasion we were fortunate to have been invited to attend. Our notes were then: The wine was very deep, dark and richly coloured with a unique exotic nose of oriental spice, black truffles, and plenty of substance underneath – very vigorous! On the palate a full, unbelievably concentrated, sturdy wine. Chewy, intense and not a trace of age – this wine will last forever! Magnificent but in a good old-fashioned way! The best Burgundy we have ever tasted.
  • 100p
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Information

Origin

Vosne-Romanée, Burgundy

Vineyard size

1.2ha

Age of vines

120

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Very good

When bottled

1947-1950

Investment potential

Outstanding

Fake factory

Serious

Glass time

45 minutes

Drinking temperature

18

Other wines from this producer

Bâtard-Montrachet

Corton-Charlemagne

Corton Grand Cru

Echézeaux

Grands Echézeaux

La Romanée-Conti Grand Cru

La Tâche

Les Gaudichots

Marc

Montrachet

Richebourg

Romanee Saint Vivant

Vosne Romanée

Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cuvée Duvault Blochet

Inside Information

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.

Aubert de Villaine (owner of the Domaine): "My memory of the last and perhaps only bottle of Romane-Conti 1945 tasted 10 years ago is that of one of the greatest wines ever. It perfectly expresses all that makes Romanée-Conti unique among the vines of the domaine: strength yet also grace and tranquility, self-assurance and a mysterious harmony which both intrigues and inspires dreams..."

Mythical...this bottle will remain mythical for many decades...for its vintage, which marked the end of a terrible war...for its contents, the last of the great wine from the prephyloxera (ungrafted) vines which covered the 1,85 ha of Romanee-Conti and were subsequently pulled-up in their entirety and followed by the next vintage in 1952...for its quantity, with approximately 600 bottles produced, each remains a coveted rarity...and for its perfect provenance and condition


 

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