A bottle of 1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wine broke the world record. At an auction held by the New York-based firm Acker, an anonymous buyer paid $812,500 for it. This vintage marked the final harvest from the estate's old vineyard; the vines were uprooted and replanted in 1946 by the winery's owners, whose wines have ranked among the most expensive in the world for decades.
Legendary Winemaker Sells Legendary Wine
The production volume for that vintage was very limited: only 600 bottles were filled. The price was certainly bolstered by the fact that the bottle was consigned by another legendary Burgundian winemaker, Robert Drouhin. This eliminated any fear of fraud, such as the practice of refilling old bottles with inferior wine, which has become increasingly common in recent years.
The Price of a Manhattan Studio Apartment
For $812,500, one could buy a condo in central New York, specifically a small unit without a separate bedroom, known here as a studio apartment. In Brooklyn or Queens, one might even find an apartment with a separate bedroom. In Croatia, for a very similar sum of 700,000 euros, one could buy a 95-square-meter property with two bathrooms in Rovinj, or a 90-square-meter unit with one bedroom and one bathroom in the Šižgorić Palace in Šibenik. For roughly the same amount of money, one could also order a special edition Ferrari or Lamborghini.