Expensive Wine Brands

What is it about wine that can command such a premium? From one wine aficionado to another, it's the same thing that lets designer wear command such astronomical prices. Wine is a luxury product, and in a world where price is directly proportional to the luxury factor, it really shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, that the price tags attached to the most expensive wine brands might be more than the average layman makes in a year. So whether you're a wine lover that gets the process that hikes up the prices of wine bottles at auctions and allotments, or are of the group that secretly wonders what it is about wine (isn't it after all grape juice gone bad?) this list below should give you something to talk about. Take a look.

Most Expensive Wine Brands

If you're still trying to equate that handbag with a bottle of wine that will be consumed at a single meal (the handbag will at least last you a season), it may come as a surprise that two of the world's most respected champagnes Krug, and Dom Perignon, come, not from a beverage giant such as Diageo, but from the French luxury brand, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (who seriously know what they're talking about when it comes to luxury). So while you may still think your supermarket bottle of white works just fine, take a look at the expensive wine brands below and some of the prices that a single bottle were able to command:

Chateau Lafite, 1787
This bottle has the distinction of being the most expensive wine ever sold, and commanded a cool $160,000 at an auction at Christie's in 1985. The bottle had Thomas Jefferson's initials on it, and was bought for the Forbes collection - but the best part? It was sold 200 years on from the year it was made, so the wine was undrinkable!

Chateau Mouton Rothschild, 1945
Sold at $114, 614 at Christie's again, this bottle is the second most expensive wine to be sold, and comes from the world famous French estate of the same name, one of the Grand Cru wines that France is renowned for.

Chateau d'Y quem, 1784
Another gem from Thomas Jefferson's collection, this bottle, although a Premier Cru wine, and a white wine at that, raked in a whopping $56,588 for the single bottle, more than other Grand Cru wines that have since come up for auction.

Montrachet, 1978
This bottle is from the French estate of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in Burgundy, widely considered by many as one of the greatest wine producers in the world - DRC bottles are highly acclaimed. The 2001 Sotheby's auction where these bottles were sold, bottle fetched $167,500 for seven bottles, or $23,929 per bottle. Although DRC wines are highly respected, this price was remarkable, more so because it was a white wine, but the elevation in price is attributed to two bidders who were bent on out bidding each other, and is more a reflection of the competition, than the valued price of the wine.

Screaming Eagle, 1994
The marketing wonder that is Screaming Eagle reeks exclusivity through their system of allotments - you only get the wine if you're on their mailing list. No wonder that these bottles sold at $3833 each at a Christie's auction in 2000.

These were just some of the most expensive wine brands that have made history and left their mark on the minds of wine connoisseurs world wide. While it may generate wonder that people will pay such a lot of money for a single bottle, just to have it sit in a wine cellar, to the serious wine collector, a bottle of the best represents what a masterpiece is for an art collector, and really, who's to judge? Cheers to that!