The world’s most expensive drinks

From a US$1 million vodka to a US$2m Cognac, here’s a look at some of the world’s most expensive drinks.

Recession, what recession? As Melbourne’s Joel Heffernan recently showed when he set a new world record for the most expensive cocktail, pricey drinks have become increasingly commonplace in the drinks industry.

Whether it is for age, rarity or packaging reasons, the drinks featured over the following pages are the most expensive on the planet.

What’s more, there appears to be a ready supply of people willing to pay for them.

How many, if any, would appear on your lottery wish-list?

10. Vieille Bon Secours Ale – £700

Vielle Bon Secours ale (Image © Robert Gale – www.beerlens.com)

You are unlikely to find this beer at your local off-licence and at £700 a bottle that might be a good thing. That price tag does buy you a 12-litre bottle of the beer, which is brewed by Belgian firm Caulier.

The beer has an 8% abv and is said to have a complex taste with toffee flavours and tones of liquorice and aniseed.

9. The Winston Cocktail – £8,200

Joel Heffernan, bartender at Crown Casino’s Club 23 in Melbourne, ousted Salvatore Calabrese as the creator of the world’s most expensive cocktail.

The Winston includes 60ml of Cognac Croizet 1858 Cuvee Leonie – a bottle of which recently sold at auction for AU$151,000 – Grand Marnier Quintessence, Chartreuse Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolonge, and a dash of Angostura Bitters. The garnish of spun sugar and green chartreuse shaped into a vine, with chocolate and nutmeg soil takes 16 hours to prepare and the drink must be ordered it at least two days in advance.

To cement the world record Heffernan’s drink was purchased by New Zealand businessman James Manning for AU$12,500 (£8,200).

8. Legacy by Angostura – US$25,000

This rum was released in 2012 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Trinidad’s independence and 20 decanters of the rum were put up for sale.

Each 500ml crystal and silver decanter was specially created by Asprey of London, the jewellers to Prince Charles.

Legacy by Angostura is made up of rums aged for at least 17 years and each decanter comes with a US$25,000 price tag.

7. Château d’Yquem – £75,000

The two most expensive bottles of white wine ever sold have come from this Bordeaux producer.

The 1811 vintage is hailed as one of Bordeaux’s greatest by those lucky enough to have tasted it, and wine critic Robert Parker gave it 100 points in 1999 when he described it as “liquefied crème brûlée”.

In July 2011 French collector Christian Vanneque paid £75,000 for a bottle of 1811 Château d’Yquem, beating the previous record for a bottle of white wine – £31,000 paid for a  Yquem in 2006.

6. Penfolds Ampoule – £100,000

With a price tag of £100,000 the Penfold’s Ampoule is currently the most expensive red wine on the market. The hand-blown glass ampoule contains the Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 and only 12 ampoules have been produced.

Furniture craftsman Andrew Bartlett designed and made the bespoke Jarrah cabinet, where the ampoule is suspended, and Australian designer-maker Hendrik Forster prepared all the precious metal detailing.

One of the other key features of the ampoule is that when the owner decides to open the wine a senior member of the Penfolds winemaking team will attend the opening.

The record price paid for red wine at auction currently stands at US$230,000 (£148,000) for Château Lafite’s 1869 vintage.

5. Armand de Brignac Midas – £125,000

At 30 litres the Armand de Brignac Midas is the largest and also the most expensive bottle of Champagne currently available.

It was part of the UK’s most expensive bar bill, when young financier Alex Hope spent over £200,000 in a Liverpool nightclub, which included £125,000 on a Armand de Brignac Midas.

The bottle weighs in at 45kg, measures one metre in height, with a 30cm width and contains the equivalent of 40 regular-sized 75cl bottles.

4. Dalmore 62 – £125,000

The Dalmore 62 at £125,000 is both rare and expensive.

As with the Penfold’s Ampoule only 12 bottles of the 62-year-old whisky were released and it could be considered a wise investment for purchasers.

A bottle sold in 2002 for £22,000 and then in 2011 a bottle sold at Changai Airport in Singapore for £125,000.

The most that has ever been paid for a bottle of Scotch was US$460,000 for a 64-year-old Macallan, which was sold at auction in 2012.

3. Diva Vodka – US$1,000,000

Diva Vodka from Scotland-based Blackwood Distillers is triple-filtered.

Firstly the vodka is ice filtered and then it is passed through Nordic birch charcoal. The third stage sees the vodka filtered through sand that contains precious and semi-precious gems. That helps increase the cost of the drink, but the real expense comes with the packaging.

Diva Vodka features Swarovski crystals running through the middle of the bottle, which can be used as a garnish for the drink, and help push the price tag up to the US$1m.

2. Henry IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne – US$2,000,000

Another piece of extraordinary packaging helps to make this top-quality Cognac one of the most expensive drinks available today.

The Cognac is aged for over 100 years and has been labelled “the DNA of Cognac”. But it is the bottle, which is dipped in 24-carat yellow gold and sterling platinum that gives it the US$2m price tag. That plus 6,500 diamonds.

The bottle is produced by Ley .925, who also created the world’s most expensive Tequila.

1. Tequila Ley 925 – US$3,5000,000

In 2006 Tequila Ley .925 sold a white gold and platinum bottle of its ultra-premium anejo Tequila for US$225,000, making it the most expensive bottle of Tequila ever sold.

Not content with that, in 2010 Tequila Ley produced a bottle of Tequila worth US$3.5million.

Like the Cognac it was the 6,400 diamonds on a pure platinum bottle that gave it the price tag.