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How Much Latour 1961 Could You Buy For the Price of DRC Romanée-Conti 1945?

  • Anthony Maxwell, Liv-ex Director

  • 15 Nov 2018 | News & Views

Last month, two bottles of DRC Romanée-Conti 1945 broke the record for the most expensive wines ever sold at auction. The two bottles were sold by Sotheby’s in New York for $496,000 and $558,000 respectively.

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The previous record auction price for a standard bottle of wine (75cl) was held by Lafite Rothschild 1869. It sold for $233,000 in 2010, according to the Telegraph.

Piers Morgan was quick to tweet that the DRC sale was “ridiculous.” He added that “you can get 20 cases of Latour ’61 for that.”

Piers Morgan is wrong. As the chart above shows, you could purchase around 105 bottles (nine 12×75 cases) of Latour 1961 for the average price of one DRC lot. This makes Piers Morgan’s claim of “20 cases” somewhat optimistic.

Alternatively, you could purchase around 133 bottles of Petrus 2010—a Robert Parker 100-point wine and the most traded wine on the market.

Ten bottles of the 2005 and another 10 1990 DRC vintages could also be purchased for the same price.

Of course, direct comparisons are difficult to make at this level. Enthusiasts will point to the ‘perfect provenance‘ of these bottles, and their great historical significance.

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For those with $500,000 burning their pockets, other purchase options include:

Readers should take note that the views of this author represent those of a company with an interest in the wine trade. Liv-ex operates the global marketplace for fine wine. It offers trading, data and settlement services to professional buyers and sellers of fine wine. Private collectors can view Liv-ex prices and value their portfolios using Cellar Watch and find regular market analysis on the blog. The opinions of Liv-ex are their own and do not represent those of Robert Parker Wine Advocate or Wine Journal. Liv-ex contributes articles to Wine Journal that we feel are of market relevance to readers, but we do not specifically endorse this company.

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