A single bottle of Penfolds Grange with its founding winemaker Max Schubert’s signage has set a new world record price for any Australian wines sold at auction, fetching a whopping AU$142,131.
The inaugural vintage of Australia’s most expensive wine was sold this month at Langton’s auction, and smashed a previous record of AU$103,000 which was also sold at Langton’s.
Grange, made predominately of Shiraz with a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon, is considered an iconic Australian wine.
Its first vintage was born out of Schubert’s experiment and was initially disliked by Penfolds management team, thus it was never commercially released.
It was given only to Schubert’s friends and family. It’s believed there are fewer than 20 bottles in existence today.
The record-breaking bottle was re-corked in 1988 because the original cork had perished, and is listed as having minor label damage with a wax stamped seal now over the original white foil capsule.
“This is extraordinary,’ commented Langton’s head of auctions Tamara Grischy. ‘Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought a bottle of Australian wine would sell for this much.
