1945 Romanée-Conti Wine Set World Record Price at Christie’s Auction

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750 ml bottle of 1945 Romainee-Conti One of 600 bottles of Romanée-Conti Wine from 1945 that were produced during the end of World War II, set a new world record price for a 750ml bottle of red burgundy at Christie’s auction sale in Geneva on May 17. The legendary vintage of the bottle was estimated between $56,000 to $78,000, and was sold to a private U.S. collector for a whopping $123,919. Sotheby’s states that this bottle will remain mythical for many decades due to its vintage, which marked the end of a terrible war,  and its contents, the last of the great wine from the prephyloxera (ungrafted) vines which covered the 1.85 hectares of Romanee-Conti. The 1945 Burgundy achieved its distinctive flavour due to the hot, dry summer of that year, which produced a small crop of very high quality grapes. At the same auction, six bottles of 1999 Romanée-Conti sold for over $14,0000 per bottle. The fine wine trade has never been more active.