A 1787 Chateau d’Yquem sold for $117,000, a new record.
2011-07-26

Christian Vanneque fulfilled a long-held dream today by finally getting his hands on a bottle of 1811 Chateau d’Yquem. It just so happens that his $117,000 purchase has also put him in the history books.

His prized bottle is the most expensive white wine ever purchased, breaking the previous record of $100,000 in 2006 for a bottle of 1787 Chateau d’Yquem. Mr. Vanneque’s bottle is also a sweet Sauternes from the same Bordeaux chateau, though his purchase was produced in 1811, a year also known as the “comet year.” Oenophiles throughout history attribute the appearance of a comet for the reason why wines were extraordinary that year.

Mr. Vanneque is a former sommelier at the Paris restaurant La Tour d’Argent and one of the experts at the Judgment of Paris wine tasting in 1976 that pitted the top French and California wines against each other.

“For sure, it’s the most expensive bottle I’ve ever bought,” Mr. Vanneque said in an interview.

He now lives in Bali, Indonesia, where he runs SIP Wine Bar. He said that he plans on using the bottle of D’Yquem as a promotional tool for his new venture, SIP Sunset Grill, which is due to open later this summer.

“It will be featured and displayed in a bulletproof showcase, like a painting, so people can see it easily,” Mr. Vanneque said. “This showcase will be temperature- and humidity-controlled. It’ll be a mini-Fort Knox, impossible to open.”

Antique Wine’s Mr. Williams said the bottle came into his possession in 2007 after he bought the entire cellar of a major European private collector. His firm took pains to verify the wines’ authenticity, focusing on the glass of the bottle, the color of the wine, the label, the cork and capsule surrounding the cork. The wine was also inspected by the Chateau, where it was taken for recorking in 2007.

“We looked at the components, and they all compared exactly to [the originals],” he said. “It’s in immaculate condition, which is quite remarkable given that it’s already 200 years old.”

Mr. Vanneque said he doesn’t plan on selling the bottle at his new restaurant, but has marked in his calendar to drink it in 2017 at La Tour d’Argent in Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of his career.

The wine is still very drinkable, he added, unlike a red wine of that age. The same 1811 vintage has received accolades in modern times: The U.S. wine critic Robert Parker tasted the wine in 1996 and gave it a 100-point rating, saying it tasted like “liquefied crème brûlée.”

“I will never resell it, even if a wealthy Chinese gentleman or a rich man from the Middle East offers to buy it,” said Mr. Vanneque. “I’m not a fancy collector. I’m not rich. I work very hard. This is important that it’s not connected to investing. I’m a sommelier. Wine is for drinking.”