THE MOST EXPENSIVE BOTTLE OF WHITE WINE IN THE WORLD SOLD AT THE “REASONABLE” PRICE OF 55,000 POUNDS: A CHÂTEAU D’YQUEM 1787

A private collector recently forked out 55,000 pounds (about 90,000 dollars or 80,000 euros) to be able to add a bottle of Château D’Yquem 1787 to his wine collection. Stephen Williams, director of the Antique Wine Company of London (a company specialized in finding rare wines), had managed to locate the wine for the anonymous American buyer, through another anonymous collector in France. And given the importance of this transaction, Williams will personally transport the bottle to his client overseas with the company’s private jet. Just to get an idea how old this wine is, the grapes to make it were harvested when James Watt was developing the steam engine, George III was King of England, and Marie Antoinette still had her head on her shoulders! The only two known owners of this bottle of wine are Raymond Beaudouin - one of the most important French wine merchants and founder of the ‘Revue du Vin de France’ - and Didier Segon. After having been controlled and re-corked in 1980 and in 1991 by the historic owner of Château di Sauternes, count Alexandre Lur Saluces, the bottle returned to Château D’Yquem, when the LVMH group acquired it in 1997.
This acquisition beats out the preceding record breaking acquisition for a white wine (another Château D’Yquem, year 1784, acquired by a Jordanian collector for 36,000 pounds) by almost 20,000 pounds. But the most expensive bottle in absolute remains a red wine: Château Lafite 1787, sold at a London auction in 1986 for 105,000 pounds. The wine had been previously owned by Thomas Jefferson (the initials Th.J. are inscribed on the bottle), U.S. president and refined wine connoisseur, who was also Ambassador to France, thus enabling him to visit Bordeaux and Bourgogne, obviously with the intention, among other things, of buying wine.