Highest Wine Price Ever Paid at Auction -- WOW!!

[Roy Hersh]

Eye opening to say the least!

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2018/ ... -_dve46j-Y

[Eric Menchen]

And while I'd love to taste a DRC RC, the 1934 Colares I opened this weekend might very well have been better than those 1945 DRCs.

[Luc Gauthier]

Hate to say it but ...
I'll still invest in a full price jar of peanut butter !!!

[Moses Botbol]

Do you think either bottle will ever be opened?

I'd love to see the winner open them on stage or just pop the cork like it's a casual before dinner quaffer.

[Luc Gauthier]

I wonder how long it will be until some Chinese millionaire offers a million bucks/bottle

[Lindsay E.]

I wonder if any lots from this upcoming Auction can beat the record?
$26 million from a single anonymous collector including 250 lots of DRC

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -wine-sale

[Roy Hersh]

Yeah, well in the spring of 2013 when I had talked a friend into buying a bottle of 1931 Quinta do Noval Nacional for $10,000.00, (which at the time, was the most expensive bottle of Vintage Port ever purchased), I taught him how to use a Port tongs to open it.

Imagine how I felt, when I immediately sniffed the wine in bottle just after the top half of the bottle's neck had been removed and my heart sank. Turning to my friend, "I am so sorry to tell you, but it is corked." He knew my twisted sense of humor and realized I was kidding.

But, I wasn't.

Expecting him to break out in tears or punch me, he casually shrugged his shoulders after taking a whiff himself. Without missing a beat, nor looking at any of our guests in my dining room, he exclaimed, "I'll be right back" and turned and walked out my front door.

A minute or two later, he came back into the house, closed the door and showed a second bottle of 1931 Nacional. He and one of the other's at the table, had flown to Nassau, Bahamas to purchase this "back up bottle" the day after the shipment of the first one arrived.

Fortunately, the bottle he had purchased without even mentioning it to me, (was also $10k) and he walked into my kitchen and perfectly opened this one ... also with a Port tongs. It smelled amazing and I went into the garage to break the glass on the neck still sheathing the cork. And although the 3rd bottle of Nacional '31, (I had ever seen or tasted) gratefully, it had the telltale "Nacional" branded below the Quinta do Noval.

The rest of the Ports, going back to a grand bottle of 1851 Warre's which was a splendid Port; but that back up bottle of the Nacional, topped everything that was on the table, including a "regular" bottle of 1931 Q d Noval, and several other awe inspiring VP's. Eighteen Vintage Ports in all, spanning nearly a century and a half (1851-1994) with eight happy campers at the table.

The photo resides as the cover photo on our FOR THE LOVE OF PORT facebook page. Click on that actual photo to see the rest of the adventure.