| 15. 1951 Penfolds Grange (750 ml.)

Prices: 51,750 USD / 69,000 USD per Liter
The 1951 Penfolds Grange was never sold at retail. In 1951, it could only be obtained as a gift from Penfolds' original winemaker, Max Schubert. There are only 20 of these bottles that are known to exist. It is the most expensive wine sold at an Australian auction
 

| 14. 1787 Chateau d'Yquem (750 ml.)

Prices: 91,400 USD / 121,867 USD per Liter
In 2006, an Atlanta wine collector and real estate millionaire named Julian LeCraw J. shelled out $91,400 to buy a bottle of an extremely rare 1787 Chateau d'Yquem white. It turned out to be grape juice. Or maybe vinegar. LeCraw also said other bottles he purchased London-based The Antique Wine Company, were fake as well. In 2014.  Antique Wine Company founder and CEO Stephen Williams accused LeCraw of attempting to "extort" his company and denied the company sold him fake wine.  But the U.S. district court dismissed the case in 2015, although the judge noted that it would be more appropriate for the case to be heard in an English court. In 2016, The Antique Wine Company went bankrupt. 
 

| 13. 1865 Lafite| (3 liters)

Prices: 111,625 USD / 37,208 USD per Liter
A double-magnum bottle of 1865 vintage Chateau Lafite set sale from the auction table to the hands of a private European collector in 2006 for the cost of $111,625. That's about $4,650 per glass. The bottle once belonged to the collection of Russell H. Frye, and it sold through a Sotheby's auction. Curiously, we found an article on Forbes from 2014 which explains that many of the bottles from that collection (though not necessarily those actually sold at the auction) were total fakes. 
 

| 12. 1811 Chateau d’Yquem (750 ml.)

Prices: 117,000 USD / 156,000 USD per Liter
The 1811 Chateau d’Yquem became the world's most expensive white wine when it sold for $117,000 in 2011. The 1811 vintage, which was once described as "liquefied crème brûlée" by a wine critic, was sold to the late French sommelier and restaurateur Christian Vanneque in 2011. Vanneque put the bottle on display in a bulletproof showcase at a wine bar in Indonesia, where he said it would be shown "like a painting, so people can see it easily" and housed like  "a mini-Fort Knox, impossible to open."

| 11. 1787 Lafitte (750 ml.)

Prices: 156,450 USD / 208,600 USD per Liter
In what is arguably the most famous wine auction ever, publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes purchased a 750 -milliliter bottle of 1787 Lafitte (now Chateau Laffite Rothschild) at Christie’s in London in 1985. At the time, it was by far the most expensive wine ever purchased. It was a bottle in the purported Thomas Jefferson cache that allegedly was found in an old Paris apartment building in 1985 during renovations. The German music mogul Hardy Rodenstock. He claimed to have bought more than a dozen of these, all from various premium Bordeaux wineries and all etched with the winery name and the initials "ThJ." The world’s foremost expert on old wine, Michael Broadbent, had personally authenticated these wines before they were sold.
 

| 10. 2004 Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon Ampoule (750 ml.)

Prices: 168,000 USD / 224,000 USD per Liter

The wine is rare, but you're paying for art and showmanship with this one. Penfolds made just 12 of these ultra-special edition bottles, which are made of hand-blown glass suspended inside a Jarrah wood cabinet. The wine itself is the Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon, a rare wine with the last vintage being from 1994. This bottle is crafted from master glass sculptors and can only be opened by carefully breaking a glass nipple. The price also came with the ability to have Penfolds' chief winemaker, Peter Gago, fly out to wherever you are to open the bottle. 

 

| 9. 2009 Chateau Margaux Balthazar (12 liters)

Prices: 195,000 USD / 16,250 USD per Liter
This is a honking 12-liter bottle of party juice that only went on sale at the Les Clos flagship store in Dubai International. That's right. It's a ridiculously oversized bottle of wine fit for Dubai's ridiculously wealthy wine connoisseurs. Three of these bottles went on sale in 2013, but the price tag comes with a plane trip to France and a dinner with the vineyard's chief winemaker, plus a private tour through the cellars and vineyards. The Chateau Margaux Balthazar is the most expensive bottle of wine to ever be sold at retail. While the pricey bottle's unveiling was much publicized, it's unclear how many of these were sold and when.
 

| 8. 2010 Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir (9 liters)

Prices: 205,000 USD / 22,778 USD per Liter
That’s a pretty penny for a really young wine, especially since it was purchased only three years after it was made. But a wine does not necessarily have to be old to be rare. In this case, the bottle size was what the industry calls a Salmanazar (named after an Assyrian king), containing nine liters of wine, or 12 standard-size bottles. That’s 60 glasses total, at some $3,416 a pop. Few wines are bottled in this size format, so indeed it is a rare find. And the proceeds went to a good cause: helping the children of Texas. This pinot noir was purchased at a charitable auction for the 2013 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo by a group of generous wine lovers. As for the product itself, the winery said that while 2010 was a difficult harvest, it was an exceptional vintage.

| 7. 1787 Margaux (750 ml.)

Prices: 212,000 USD / 282,667 USD per Liter
If you’re not supposed to cry over spilled milk, what do you do over 202-year-old wine? This is what happened to a wine dealer named William Sokolin in 1989 after clumsily bumping into a serving tray while holding a bottle of 1787 French Bordeaux from the Margaux winery during an ultra-exclusive wine-tasting dinner in New York City. Sokolin had valued the wine at $519,750 after purchasing, and insuring, it for $212,000. The vaunted price tag was somewhat justifiable because the bottle purportedly belonged to Thomas Jefferson, widely regarded as America’s first wine lover. And for good measure, Sokolin was able to cash out the insurance claim for $212,000.  
 

| 6. 1869 Chateau Lafite (750 ml.)

Prices: 233,972 USD / 311,963 USD per Liter
First, the sale was estimated to fetch a mere $8,000 at a Sotheby’s Asia auction in 2010 but ballooned to $233,972. Second, while other, larger bottles have gone for more, this Lafite is a standard 750-milliliter bottle. And lastly, unlike the provenance of other 19th-century wines, this bottle came directly from the cellar of the chateau, so there’s no questioning its authenticity.
 

| 5. 1907 Heidsieck (750 ml.)

Prices:  275,000 USD / 366,667 USD per Liter
The year is 1916 and Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, is awaiting a shipment of Europe’s finest wines. Meanwhile, World War I is in full tilt and German U-boats are patrolling any and all waters. The tsar has commissioned a Swedish freighter to deliver the goods, but it never arrives. Instead, the ship is sunk off the coast of Finland by a German sub. 82 years later with an expedition to the sunken vessel recovers some 2,000 bottles of wine. Lo and behold, many were perfectly intact and had barely lost any volume to seepage
 

| 4. 1947 Cheval Blanc (6 liters)

Prices: 304,375 USD / 50,729 USD per Liter
This beauty of the Saint-Emilion region is often considered one of the best Bordeaux wines ever made, so it’s only fitting that it would fetch the highest price ever paid for a single bottle. An anonymous buyer paid more than $300,000 for it at a Christie’s auction in Geneva in 2010. What makes this wine so impressive so many years later is that the winery itself didn’t think much of it, to begin with. The chateau describes the 1947 vintage as a "happy accident of nature," according to a 2008 story in Slate.

| 3. 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild (4.5 liters)

Prices: 310,700 USD / 69,044 USD per Liter
The 1945 Château Mouton Rothschild is an exceptionally popular red wine among collectors with a fascinating history. Baron Phillipe Rothschild had been experimenting with artful labels for his wine since 1924. For the 1945 label, he commissioned an artist to create the "V for Victory" label, which set it apart from the rest. During World War II, German forces occupied the estate, and Rothschild, a Jew, fled to England. He returned in 1945 when the war was finished. The harvest was smaller that year, but the grapes were exceptionally ripe and the 1945 Mouton became a hit, both for its taste and for the "V" sign, which signified a celebratory end to the world's greatest war. 
 

| 2. 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon (6 liters)

Prices: 500,000 USD / 83,333 USD per Liter
Screaming Eagle is referred to as a "cult wine" for its low production and diehard fanbase. In 2000, the Napa Valley Wine Auction had a banner year, raising $9.5 million. That was due in large part to the purchases of Chase Bailey, a top executive at Cisco Systems at the time. He and his wife, Susan, spent more than $1.7 million in total on several lots. The most impressive — or insane — purchase was an Imperial (6 liters) size bottle of Screaming Eagle Cab for a cool half million. Technically shouldn’t even be on the list. That’s because while they were sold, the sales were to benefit charitable causes. 
 

| 1. 1945 Romanee-Conti (750 ml.)

Prices: 558,000 USD / 18,469,800)/ USD per Liter
In 2018, a bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti sold for $558,000, more than 17 times its original estimate of just $32,000, at a Sotheby's auction. In 2018, a bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti sold for $558,000, more than 17 times its original estimate of just $32,000, at a Sotheby's auction. Bloomberg noted as "legendary, a virtually unobtainable 'unicorn wine.'" Harsh weather resulted in a small production batch, and after the harvest, the vines were ripped out and replanted.