Dom. Romanée Conti 1997 - app. $1,540
This French red Burgundy smells of berries, spices and leather. Dark in color, it hints at flavors of soy sauce, flowers and licorice. The aroma is rich and penetrating without being too profound. The Romanée Conti is a rare wine that has carved a niche for itself along the years. At over fifteen hundred dollars a bottle, it no longer has anything to prove. Consistently, the Romanée Conti fetches prices around the thousand dollar mark no matter the vintage.
In the mid-'80s, billionaire Malcolm Forbes paid approximately $155,000 at auction for a bottle of wine. The bottle, which was believed to have come from Thomas Jefferson's own collection and dated back to 1787, was then put on display under strong lights and at the wrong angle. These conditions eventually made the cork fall into the bottle, and the wine lost its value and was thrown away.
