The sustained and spectacular growth in Burgundy over the last year is set to continue into 2022, according to iDealwine, who noted that the trend was “going nowhere anytime soon”.
In the latest rankings published by the global online fine wine auctioneer, Burgundy occupied 49 out of the top 50 most expensive bottles auctioned – up from 39 last year – and 41 of the 50 top lots, up from 36 in 2020. This last ranking also includes multi bottle lots.
For the second year in a row, the most expensive bottle came from Domaine Leroy on the Cote d’Or, which is owned by Lalou Bize-Leroy. In 2021, the 2006 Musigny went under the hammer for €28,244, up from €17,499 for a 2001 vintage in 2020. Meanwhile the most expensive multi-bottle lot was a mixed case of Domaine de La Romanée-Conti (which Bize-Leroy owns a quarter of) of 12 x 2017 Grand Crus, (including a Romanée-Conti Grand Cru, La Tâche Grand Cru, Richebourg Grand Cru and Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru) which fetched €42,857.
DRC also took the second, third and fourth spots in the most expensive bottle ranking.
It was also notable that as a result Bordeaux lost all its places in the top 50 most expensive bottles for 2021 for the first time. However iDealwine said this was more that it had been “eclipsed by Burgundy’s rising prices”, rather than losing its popularity. But with the price of Burgundy’s grand crus set to soar even higher on the back of this year’s result, Bordeaux’s now loosened grip on the most expensive wines at auction over the last few years is likely to continue.
However the region did claim ten places in the lot ranking which includes multi-bottle lots, with Petrus, Cheval Blanc, Mouton-Rothschild, and mixed cases all featuring, including a 16-bottle Carré d’As case (Petrus, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion), which reached €27,016.
Outside of Bordeaux and Burgundy, the only other wine region in the ranking was the Languedoc, with a 1992 bottle
of Grange des Pères (the first vintage produced by the late Laurent Vaillé) reaching €8,350.
