Wine collecting – from your first case to the world’s most expensive bottles

The corkscrew gives a faint squeak. On the table are a decanter, a few glasses and a stew fragrant with mushrooms and thyme. The bottle has been tucked away for years, but now the wait is over. This is where wine collecting makes sense: not in front of a price list, but when something carefully saved comes into its own alongside the food and the people around the table.

A mature red Burgundy can smell of dried roses, forest floor and red berries. An aged riesling can combine citrus with beeswax and notes of honey without being sweet. But age is no guarantee of pleasure. Wine can also become tired, thin or damaged. The collector’s most important skill, then, is not memorising famous labels, but understanding what is worth waiting for – and when that wait should end.

The term wine collector covers both someone who saves six bottles for future dinners and someone who buys at international auctions. Their budgets differ dramatically, but the basic questions are the same: What do I like? Where does the bottle come from? How has it been stored? And will it ever be opened?

For a beginner, that last question is a useful guide. Build a collection for future meals, not a monument to other people’s tastes. It need not be large, exclusive or hidden behind a heavy cellar door.

Keeping wine predates the modern collectors’ market, but durable glass bottles and cork closures played a major role in bottle ageing from the 17th century onwards. The change was gradual. Wine that had previously been transported and stored mainly in barrels could increasingly develop in individual bottles, and producer, vintage and origin gradually became more distinct identities to compare and trade on.

Bordeaux gained a particularly influential commercial hierarchy through the 1855 classification. It was based largely on established reputation and trading prices, rather than any timeless, objective scale of taste. In Burgundy, prestige instead developed around an intricate patchwork of vineyard sites and producers. Both systems still shape collectors’ outlook, although today’s market extends far beyond France.

One of the most talked-about auction records was set at Sotheby’s in New York in October 2018. A 75-centilitre bottle of Romanée-Conti 1945 from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti sold for US$558,000, including the buyer’s premium. It came from Robert Drouhin’s collection. The result is a documented historical record price, not a current guide price for every bottle of that wine.

An important caveat is needed here: “the world’s most expensive wine” is not a straightforward category. A standard bottle, a six-litre bottle, a charity auction and a retail offer cannot be compared directly. It is also important to distinguish between an asking price and a completed sale. A headline can be spectacular without saying very much about market value.

Romanée-Conti is a name at the very highest end of the price spectrum. So are certain wines from producers such as Domaine Leroy, along with rare older vintages of prestigious Bordeaux. Petrus and Château Lafite Rothschild are well-known collectors’ names; outside France, they include California’s Screaming Eagle. That does not mean every bottle from these producers ranks among the world’s most expensive, or that their wines will always suit your palate.

Price is shaped by several factors at once: limited production, demand, the producer’s reputation, the standing of the vintage, the bottle’s condition and its documented history. As a sought-after wine is drunk, the remaining stock dwindles. But scarcity alone is not enough. A forgotten wine does not automatically become valuable simply because few bottles remain.

A bottle’s documented ownership and storage history is known as provenance. Two apparently identical bottles may be valued differently if one comes straight from a well-kept cellar and the other has passed through unknown hands. Original packaging and a receipt can strengthen the documentation, but neither alone proves that the contents are authentic or well preserved.

High prices make counterfeiting a genuine risk. Buy from established sellers with clear terms, and be sceptical of improbable bargains. A photograph of a handsome label is no quality check.

Nor should you see wine as a safe investment. Commissions, storage, insurance and selling all cost money. The market can fall, buyers may be scarce, and an expensive bottle may turn out to be spoiled when opened.