The most expensive wine in the world has smashed its previous record which dates back to 2018. A 1945 Romanée-Conti, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s eponymous grand cru, was sold for $812,500 at an auction which took place during La Paulée in New York. Let’s see what unfolded.
La Paulée in New York was taking place on 28 March 2026, an event that brings together the greatest Burgundian estates and collectors from around the world. An auction of around 7,675 bottles took place at the same time, generating the enormous sum of $25 million USD.
Among the wines was a highly anticipated bottle – a 1945 Romanée-Conti which originally came from Robert Drouhin’s cellar (he was at the head of Joseph Drouhin from 1957 to 2003). This extraordinary bottle is an absolute rarity! Only about 600 bottles were produced in 1945 from the estate’s pre-phylloxera old vines, which were pulled up in the same year. The bottle up for auction had already set records in 2018 when it sold for $558,000 to become the most expensive wine in the world. This year, the same bottle set a record that had never been reached before – $812,500 (+45.6%).
The buyer wishes to remain anonymous, but we can say for sure that they are a true enthusiast, a highly passionate person who regularly tastes exceptional wines, like all iDealwine customers. When will this legendary bottle be uncorked? No body knows. In any case, a result like this is impressive and brings hope to a wine world in crisis. It proves that enthusiasts, like the 650,000 with iDealwine accounts, are still on the lookout for rare wines. These connoisseurs are also becoming more and more diverse as evidenced by our results from last year. New customers from emerging countries have appeared on iDealwine from the likes of India, Vietnam and Brazil. Some 67 nationalities bought wine in our auctions last year! All that remains is for iDealwine to expand to the other 100 or so countries. Fine wines, from France in particular, continue to feature in the dreams of wine enthusiasts around the world!
Also on the iDealwine blog:
