Lots 84 & 85 Romanee Conti 1945 – phote from Sotheby’s – cropped

And so it came to pass on Saturday, when two bottles of 1945 Romanée-Conti broke the auction record for any bottle of wine – they sold for US$558,000 and US$496,000 to Asian and American collectors, respectively – including buyer’s premiums. Robert Drouhin’s roughly 100 bottles achieved $7.3 Million – I last saw Robert a couple of weeks ago, impatiently driving his Range-Rover through Beaune, seemingly expecting all the runners in a charity 10km to stop for him in his car!

The pre-sale estimates were US$22,000-32,000 per DRC RC 1945 – I told you to expect at least $250k – so what did I know!? Those were short-lived records for Henri Jayer – but there’s nothing else in Burgundy that fetches such high prices; Leroy, Roumier, Rousseau and Coche – strictly second division vs Jayer and (old) DRC in the auction market…

Interestingly a bottle of whiskey went for 60% more – US$843,200 anyone?!