It wasn't me !

The client bought 12 bottles of Romanee Conti 1978, two bottles of the

1961, 1966, 1996 and 2003 and single bottles of the 1981, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2001 and 2002.

According to the May 2008 Decanter wine price watch, a case of 1978 Romanee Conti goes for about 32992 pounds at auction. This is the most expensive vintage in the lot. The 1985 goes for a bit more at 33100 Pounds, but there was none of this in the lot. Most of the single bottles of other vintages sell for much less. Thus I would think about

70000 Pounds or about US$150000 would have been a generous bid for this set of wines. The person who purchased the wine is a Chinese billionaire, who has bought a case of Petrus 1982 etc in the past. For someone with so much money, it is likely worth their time to greatly overspend if something becomes available that they want. It might have taken a year or two to obtain about 2 cases of top years of Romanee- Conti at auction since these wines come up seldom. I wonder if the buyer likes Burgundy, or if he only buys for face. Hopefully he enjoys fine Burgundy. Purchases from the far east, of which this is one of the more extreme examples, are one reason that Romanee-Conti, Petrus,etc have become so expensive.

It is a good thing that he was buying in bulk

st.helier wrote: