A 1945 Romanee-Conti bottle was sold for $588,000 (₹4.1 Crore) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York,

 

The bottle sold for over 17 times its actual estimated worth, dethroning the $233,000 – an 1869 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, to officially become the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. It is just one of the 600, made by Romanee-Conti, and is widely considered by many, to be one of the planet’s finest Burgundy.

 

Just moments after the record-breaking bottle was sold, another 1945 Romanee-Conti went under the hammer, for $496,000. The vineyard the wine belongs to only spans four acres in the Cote de Nuits region, with no more than 6,000 bottles produced each year. Hence, justifying the value of the wine.

 

ABC News reported, that the bottles belonged to Robert Drouhin, who hails from a prominent wine producing family.

 

Mr Drouhin’s father made an agreement in 1928 with the owners of Romanee-Conti to be their sole distributor for France and Belgium. Consequently, amassing a unique collection of wines.

 

In a Sotheby’s video, Mr Drouhin explained that during the German invasion of France in the 1930s his father created a false wall inside the cellar to make sure the wine was never discovered.

 

“It is both with regret and pleasure that I share these bottles,” Mr Drouhin wrote in a note to the auction house.

 

“Regret even though there remain some for my children and friends, but mainly pleasure as those who will purchase the bottles — apart from the appreciation of quality and luxury they convey — they will receive a testimony of my family and Burgundy at its very best.”