Paris - A rare Burgundy has emerged as the world's most expensive wine at more than $15 000 a bottle, according to the WineSearcher website.
It is a 1985 Richebourg Grand Cru created by Henri Jayer, a winemaker widely considered a visionary in the business who died in 2006 aged 84. The wine fetched $15,195 (about R193 000).
WineSearcher, founded in London in 1999, released the annual list this month of the 50 most expensive wines in the world based on price lists from nearly 55 000 wine merchants.
The analysis concerned more than seven million wines of all vintages, taking an average per bottle.
Burgundies occupy the top three spots on the list, and 40 of the 50.
Another Henri Jayer wine, his Cros-Parantoux, Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru, occupies third place at $8 832 a bottle.
Romanee-Conti, Burgundy's most famous fine wine, is second at $13 314 and the vineyard has two other bottles on the list.
Bordeaux, for all its prestige, has only two items on the list, both Pomerols: the Petrus and a Le Pin.
Two German winemakers, Egon Mueller and Joh. Jos. Pruem, each have two bottles on the list, including Mueller's Scharzhofberger Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese demi-sec selling for $6 630 at fourth place.
The only other non-French wine is Californian vintner Stanley Kroenke's Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon, coming in at 14th place with a $2 884 price tag.
AFP