Top eight Champagnes sold at auction

 With price records constantly being broken, it’s clear that Champagne still holds a certain allure when it comes to the auction house.

Champagne is currently enjoying quite a lot of attention on the auction house world stage with Zachys’ upcoming sale in New York set to feature an astounding collection of Krug – dominated by perhaps some of the rarest of all fine Champagnes: Clos du Mesnil and Clos d’Ambonnay. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Sotheby’s is bringing what the house’s head of wine, Robert Sleigh, has called “one of the best collections of Champagne to ever come to Asia” this April. The sale will feature over 1,000 bottles of Champagne including 341 bottles and 46 magnums of Krug spanning 18 vintages between 1979 and 1996. There will also be 397 bottles and 16 magnums of Dom Pérignon, its rosé and Oenothèque  (now “P2”) from 1966 to 2000. And while the average bottle price for Champagne at auction fell by 29% to US$286 in 2014, the French fizz still accounts for some of the biggest sales to have gone under the hammer in recent years.

Click through to discover some of the most expensive Champagnes ever sold at auction.

Have we missed any? Leave a comment below.

Henri and Remi Krug – £1,955 (US$2,800, €2,470)

Henri Krug

In May 2004 a bottle of Krug 1929 signed by Henri and Remi Krug was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for $2,100.

Henri Krug, former head of his family’s famous Champagne house, died in 2013 at the age of 76. He ran the company from 1977 to 2002 and both before and after the takeover by LVMH in 1999, he was largely responsible for creating the status and prestige Krug enjoys today among Champagne’s elite. Together with his brother Remi, Henri introduced Krug Rosé, Clos du Mesnil and Clos d’Ambonnay to the house’s range during their tenure.

This record would be later be eclipsed by a bottle of the same vintage in 2009…

Methuselah Louis Roederer, Cristal Brut 1990 Millenium Cuveé – $18,800 (€16,580, £12,150)

A Methuselah of 1990 Cristal Brut Millenum cuvée was sold at Christie’s New York in December 2006 for $18,800.

The special deluxe 2000 Millenium Cuveé, of the 1990 Cristal, was produced to commemorate the turn of the millenium with the unique blend made only once and released only in methuselah format. Just 2000 methuselem were made and released by Louis Roederer in 1999 in preparation for the millennium, with these bottles becoming harder to find.

1928 Krug Collection – £14,800 (US$21,200, €18,700)

In 2009 a bottle of 1928 Krug took the record, for a time, as the most expensive bottle of Champagne ever sold at auction. Part of the Krug Collection range, the 75cl bottle was sold at Acker Merrall & Condit’s first Hong Kong auction. Described as having “outstanding color and condition”, according to the catalogue, it was sold for £14,800 (US$21,200; €15,900).

The 1928 vintage Krug was described by the Head of Sotheby’s Wine Department, Serena Sutcliffe, as “one of the greatest champagnes ever made”.

Shipwrecked bottle of circa 1820 Juglar cuvée – €24,000 ($43,500, £17,597)

In November 2010 a collection of 168 bottles of Champagne were found shipwrecked near Finland’s Åaland archipelago in the Baltic Sea.

While the exact vintage of this Champagne from the now-defunct Champagne house Juglar is unknown. experts agree it originates from the early part of the 19th century. It was sold at auction for €24,000.

Shipwrecked bottle of 1841 Veuve Clicquot –  €30,000 ( $34,000, £26,700)

The world’s most expensive bottle of Champagne sold at auction is also the world’s oldest. Discovered on the same shipwreck as the previous bottle of Juglar was a bottle of 1841 Veuve Clicquot. At nearly 200 year’s old, it was sold at auction for €30,000 euros (£26,700). Acker Merrall & Condit’s CEO, John Kapon, said at the time that it “felt privileged” to work with the government of Åland and Veuve Clicquot to conduct the sale.

“Today proved to be one of the most historic and exhilarating events in the world of wine”, he said. “The tremendous amount of interest shown in the auction is a testament to the continued growth of the auction market for fine and rare wine.”

The local Åaland government said it would donate all of the profits to charitable causes including help for the Baltic Sea environment, marine archaeology and maritime history.

However the shipwrecked Champagne is not the most expensive ever sold, simply the most expensive ever auctioned. In 1998, 2,000 bottles of 1907 Heidsieck Champagne were salvaged from a ship which had been torpedoed by German sub during World War I. The ship was originally destined for the Imperial Court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, who had commissioned a Swedish freighter to deliver wine and the 1907 Heidsieck Champagne, before it was struck by a German submarine in 1916. Its cargo remained at the bottom of the sea for some 80 years before it was salvaged off the cost of Finland in 1998. Since then the bottles have been sold at various auctions around the world selling for a top value of $275,000 each.

Two bottles of 1959 Dom Pérignon Rosé – US$84,700 (€74,692, £54,779)

In April 2008 a bottle of 1959 Dom Pérignon Rosé was sold for $42,700 by auction house Acker Merrall & Condit in New York. Sold as a two bottle lot, each bottle was expected to fetch between $5,000 to $7,000.

However the rare Champagnes, produced in a vintage that had never been made commercially available to the public before, smashed expectations after they were acquired by an anonymous collector for $84,700, the equivalent of $42,350 a bottle.