Not infrequently people ask me – have you had this famous wine or that famous wine? (Quick answer: yes, I’ve had Screaming Eagle; yes, I’ve had Latour; no, I haven’t had Petrus; no, I haven’t had DRC.) But that makes me wonder, what makes a legendary wine, a wine people want to ask with a touch of awe whether you’ve ever tried it? It’s certainly not total sales or popularity – people never ask me if I’ve had Yellow Tail, Concha y Toro, Manage a Trois, or Two-Buck Chuck. Rather, there’s some unclear combination of price, exclusivity, but also renown and legend, that makes certain wines ones that people always talk about in hushed tones.
We’re not talking about our favorite wines – no one has ever asked me if I’ve had a Muscardini, a Sanford, a Fanny Beck, etc. Rather, these are the famous wines. The names one cannot ignore in the wine industry, even if they are all but unaffordable. And, while all hideously expensive, these are not simply the list of the most expensive wines in the world – there’s a great list of these already on wine-searcher.com of those. This is my list of the 20 legendary wines in the world, along with a few details on them (including the average price from wine-searcher.com). So, with apologies to all the German Trockenbeerenauslese we’ve ignored, all the Burgundian wines we’ve ignored, etc., here is our list:
The 20 Legendary Wines in the World
Château Ausone
Varietals and type of wine: Cabernet Franc and Merlot, red wine
Location: Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $700
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Only had very old bottles, jury is still out
Useless Trivia: It’s pronounced “ozone,” like the ozone layer.
Château Cheval Blanc
Varietals and type of wine: Cabernet Franc and Merlot, red wine
Location: Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $650
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Perhaps. It’s a great wine, but like many others, it is so incredibly expensive.
Useless Trivia: The famed bottle in the movie Sideways of the Miles character (Paul Giamatti) is a 1961 Cheval Blanc.
Château d’Yquem
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Semillon, sweet white wine
Location: Sauternes, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $450
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Yes, until you’ve had other amazing Sauternes at one tenth the price.
Useless Trivia: When the 1855 Bordeaux Classification was created, this was the single most expensive bottle of wine – much more expensive than the red first growths such as Latour and Lafite.
Château Haut-Brion
Varietals and type of wine: Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $550
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: No
Useless Trivia: Probably the oldest wine review of a still-existing winery is of a Haut-Brion. In 1663, Samuel Pepys wrote about the wine, stating that it “hath a good and most particular taste I never met with.”
Château Lafite-Rothschild
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $900
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Maybe
Useless Trivia: The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold in the world was a forgery of a 1787 Lafite with Thomas Jefferson’s initials. It was bought at auction in 1985 by the billionaire Kip Forbes for 105,000 pound sterling (in today’s dollars, that’s roughly $350,000), and was subsequently discovered to be a fraud.
Château Latour
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $800
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Absolutely
Useless Trivia: We love Latour, and use it as a price marker. It’s not uncommon for Jordan to say something like – “Heather, we shouldn’t fly business class on this trip – that’ll cost a bottle of Latour.”
Château Le Pin
Varietals and type of wine: Merlot
Location: Pomerol, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $2,400
Have I had it: No
Useless Trivia: The famed Le Pin comes from a single plot that is only five acres, and only 1,500 cases are produced a year.
Château Margaux
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Margaux, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $650
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Not sure
Useless Trivia: In the movie, Thank You for Smoking, Aaron Eckert orders a 1982 Margaux for Katie Holmes at a restaurant, and when asked if its good, he said “it will make you believe in god.”
Château Mouton-Rothschild
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Pauillac, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $600
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Yes
Useless Trivia: In the James Bond movie, Diamonds are Forever, Sean Connery discovers the sommelier bringing him wine is actually an assassin trying to kill him, because the sommelier didn’t know that Mouton is a claret.
Château Petrus
Varietals and type of wine: Merlot, red wine
Location: Pomerol, Bordeaux, France
Average Price: $2,700
Have I had it: No
Useless Trivia: This was John F. Kennedy’s favorite wine.
Dom Perignon
Varietals and type of wine: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, sparkling white wine
Location: Champagne, France
Average Price: $200
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Unfortunately, sparkling wines are lost on me so I can’t speak knowledgeably on it.
Useless Trivia: Contrary to popular belief, Dom Perignon did not invent Champagne and did not say of Champagne – “I’m tasting starts.” That said, he was instrumental in developing various techniques to make Champagne.
Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (DRC)
Varietals and type of wine: Pinot Noir, red wine
Location: Cote de Nuits, Burgundy, France
Average Price: $13,600
Have I had it: No
Useless Trivia: A French criminal tried to hold DRC ransom for $1.3M by threatening to poison its vines. There is a book written about this criminal plot – Shadows in the Vineyard by Maximillian Potter.
Henri Jayer Richebourg
Varietals and type of wine: Pinot Noir, red wine
Location: Cote de Nuits, Burgundy, France
Average Price: $15,000
Have I had it: No
Useless Trivia: In the movie, Sideways, when Miles, Jack and Maya are at Stephanie’s house and Maya ask’s ‘Hey, Steph? You sure we can open anything? Anything we want?’ and Stephanie replies ‘Anything but the Jayer Richebourg!’ – this is the wine she’s referring to.
Harlan Estate
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Oakville, Napa Valley, California
Average Price: $800
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: From the one bottle I’ve had, probably not
Useless Trivia: The famed Michelin 3 star restaurant in Napa Valley, Meadowood, is owned by the owner of Harlan Estate.
La Tâche
Varietals and type of wine: Pinot Noir, red wine
Location: Cote de Nuits, Burgundy, France
Average Price: $2,900
Have I had it: No
Useless Trivia: We have several friends who are Burgundy lovers, who have all reported that La Tache is their favorite wine in the world.
Louis Roederer Cristal
Varietals and type of wine: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, sparkling white wine
Location: Champagne, France
Average Price: $200
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Unfortunately, sparkling wines are lost on me so I can’t speak knowledgeably on it.
Useless Trivia: From the mid 1990s and early 2000s, this wine was mentioned in a number of hip hop songs.
Opus One
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Oakville, Napa Valley, California
Average Price: $300
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: A fun wine, but no.
Useless Trivia: Formed by legendary French winemaker Baron Phillippe de Rothschild and legendary American winemaker Robert Mondavi – a silhouette of their faces and their signatures appear on every bottle – with Rothschild’s face higher but Mondavi’s signature higher.
Penfolds Grange
Varietals and type of wine: Syrah, red wine
Location: South Australia
Average Price: $500
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: It’s probably the best Syrah I’ve ever had, but how much do you love Syrah?
Useless Trivia: It is the only wine on this list without a fixed terroir. Rather, Penfolds pulls the grapes for this from various vineyards.
Screaming Eagle
Varietals and type of wine: Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, red wine
Location: Oakville, Napa Valley, California
Average Price: $2,900
Have I had it: Yes
If I’ve had it, is it worth it: Absolutely, so long as you don’t look at the price tag
Useless Trivia: This is far and away the most expensive wine made in the United States. Indeed, when the French Laundry’s wine cellar was broken into, the only bottles the thieves stole were Screaming Eagle and DRC.
Vega Sicilia
Varietals and type of wine: Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo, red wine
Location: Castilla y Leon, Spain
Average Price: $400
Have I had it: No
Useless Trivia: There is a story, as recounted by wine write Oz Clarke, that when the King of Spain called Vega Sicilia to get some of its wine, he was told he would have to wait his turn as there was a waiting list for the wine.
Is there a bottle you feel I left off the list?
Photo Credits:
- Featured Image: Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
- Château Ausone
- Château Cheval Blanc
- Château d’Yquem
- Château Haut-Brion
- Château Lafite-Rothschild
- Château Latour
- Château Le Pin
- Château Margaux
- Château Mouton-Rothschild
- Château Petrus
- Dom Perignon
- Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (DRC)
- Henri Jayer Richebourg
- Harlan Estates
- La Tâche
- Louis Roederer Cristal
- Opus One
- Penfolds Grange
- Screaming Eagle
- Vega Sicilia
