Try AUD$168,000
Wine snobs don't hesitate even when the price is high. How do you put a price, after all, on a superior vino?
But still — $168,000?
Australian winemaker Penfolds released a wine last year that cost about $1,000 — an impressive sum. But that's nothing compared with its 2004 Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is priced at, yes, AUD$168,000, equivalent £100,000.
Such a sum would buy 1000 or more bottles of
Armand de Brignac Champagne, or 1000 entire cases of
Kenny's Kracking X-Rated Sauvignons with change!
It would also pay for four experienced teachers for a year, or five newly-qualified nurses, or Cristiano Ronaldo's wages for two and a half days.
But then the Real Madrid striker does not have Peter Gago flying in personally to adjust his shinpads: so rare is the ampoule – only 12 have been made – that the Penfolds chief winemaker will fly anywhere in the world to assist when you decide to open it.
The wine, which comes in a fancy special vessel ("bottle" is too tame a word), is described as having "an ethereal dimension and a saturated blackness on the palate." It's also "extraordinarily perfumed with layer upon layer of flavor."
Only a dozen individually numbered vessels of the wine have been made, with one reserved for Penfolds’ own museum.
Of the 11 available to buy, 10 have already been sold.
So that means you'd better hurry if you want the sole remaining bottle of $168,000 wine. And considering its scarcity, $168,000 is probably a low-ball estimate at this point!
