An Australian auction house is claiming the world's highest price for a bottle of wine after attracting a winning bid of A$44,400 (£21,552) for a rare first vintage of the country's most prestigious wine, Pen fold's Grange.
"As far as we know, it's the highest recorded price for a single bottle of wine in the world," said RMG auction manager Ms Lisa Kanbar .
The price, paid by Australian businessman Mr John Manetti, amounts to about A$7,000 a glass of the classic red shiraz. Only about 1,000 bottles of the 1951 vintage were produced and its maker, the late Mr Max Schubert, shared most with friends and acquaintances.
"It's an exceptional wine in an exceptional year," said The Irish Times wine critic, Ms Mary Dowey. "It certainly is a great collectors' item." Although the price is remarkable, Ms Dowey said even relatively recent vintages of Penfold's Grange have sold for upwards of £100 a bottle. "The wine has a great rarity value. People in the Far East and America are collecting it, not necessarily to drink, but as a collectors' item for their cellars," she said. "It would be considered by some to have the same aesthetic value as a rare work of art." Penfold's Grange has become a legend in Australian wine circles and is said to represent the birth of a new era of Australian winemaking.
Mr Schubert produced it in secret for a number of years after being told to stop experimenting with the new shiraz style.
Finally his bosses relented and Penfold's Grange is now regarded as Australia's flagship red. It was named Wine of the Year in 1995 by the prestigious US magazine Wine Spectator. Another 1951 Grange sold last December for A$33,660.
