900,000 euros for the 6 liters “no. 1” of Romanée-Conti from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1985

1 million Swiss francs, a little more than 900,000 euros: this is the monstrous sum, the highest ever paid for “a bottle of wine”. At this amount was resold to an anonymous collector the 6 liters no.1 of Romanée-Conti from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1985, one of the six Mathusalem no. 1 of one of the greatest vintages of the myth of Bourgogne of Giorgio Pinchiorri’s collection (Romanée-Conti, La Tache, Richerbourg, Echezaux, Grands Echezeaux and Romaneé St Vivant) that, overall, had collected at the Baghera Wines auction held in December 2020, the already huge amount of 1.6 million euros. A bottle more than unique, of absolute prestige, always kept in the “vault” of the anthological Enoteca Pinchiorri of Florence, before the auction.
“The bottle, like the others in the collection, had seen no other place than the Domaine de La Romanée-Conti, where it was produced, and our cellar, from which it never left until last year, preserved with the utmost care and attentions of the case”, Alessandro Tomberli, director of the Michelin-starred restaurant, tells WineNews. Protagonist of the almost millionaire deal, reports the Swiss wine merchant Avu Luxury Wines of Sorengo, near Lugano, a company specializing in the sale of extra-luxury wines for the richest people in the world.
An enormous value, thanks to an exceptional “pedigree” for the bottle, says Avu’s managing director, Fabio Cattaneo, to its rarity, due to the obvious fact of being the no. 1, but also to the fact that since 2009 Drc does not produce large formats like this one anymore, and to the fact of having met the right collector at the right time and with the right availability, so much so that, said Cattaneo to the daily newspaper “La Repubblica” (in the economic pages), the collector, who comes from the East, also bought a 3 liter 1985 Romanée Conti worth 450.000 euros, and not only. Certainly, a bombastic news, which testifies how flourishing and how the market of investments in great wines can still grow.
At the Baghera auction in which the now former Pinchiorri collection was purchased, the entire lot of the 6 Mathusalem “no. 1” was sold for 832,680 euros (followed by the twin lot, but in Jeroboams, sold for 377,481 euros). A value, today, surpassed by “only” 6 liters of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1985. Definitely a nice capital gain.