If you had an extra half-million dollars sitting around (plus some pocket change), you could have had an opportunity to purchase 25 cases of wine a few days ago.
Bloomberg reported that a 300-bottle collection, featuring vintages from 1981 through 2005 that reportedly had been stored under pristine conditions, brought $539,291 during a two-day auction in Hong Kong.
The auction was conducted by Christie’s International, and the lot went to a “Chinese private buyer,” according to the report.
You may want to check my math because I just did these calculations long-hand (practice for helping the grandkids with their homework, now that school is back in session), but I’m showing the per case price as $21,571 and change, and the per bottle price as $1,797 and change.
Many individual bottles sell for more than that, but put these 300 bottles together, and you have the most expensive lot of wine sold at auction in 2011.
What’s so special about these particular bottles of wine? Well, they are first-growth Bordeaux, and they were crafted by an estate whose name may be familiar: Chateau Lafite-Rothschild.
A good wine auction market can be indicative of a good or recovering economy. In that regard, let’s keep our collective fingers crossed!
What do you think? Is any bottle worth $1,800? Share your viewpoint in the comments box below.
