The next time you feel like a high roller because you dropped a couple Benjis on a bottle of red, chew on this: a shot from an entry-level Pinot Noir from the finest winery in the world could pay for that whole bottle of yours.

Domaine de la Romanée Conti houses France’s top-notch wineries, and the big cheese in that group is, you guessed it, Romanée Conti. To find these bottles, you’ll most likely have to do battle with some serious fanatics at Christie’s. No matter where you find a bottle, be prepared to fork over at least $5k for the privilege of tasting the ambrosia inside. But hey, at least you know you’re playing in the big leagues: a Chinese businessman recently paid $500,000 for a lot of 27 bottles of Romanée Conti.

Is it worth it? Consider that the land has been generating world-class wines since the middle ages. Consider that, in order to avoid compacting the soil by the use of tractors, they use horses to cultivate the land. Consider that the whole of the vineyard is on 4.4 acres and within that whole space, it takes three vines to produce one bottle of wine. Consider that Clive Coates (one of the fewer-than-300 Masters of Wine in the world) describes the wine thus: “This is the purest, most aristocratic and most intense example of Pinot Noir you could possibly imagine. Not only nectar: a yardstick with which to judge all other Burgundies.”

Then consider placing a bid. Life is short.

This post is tagged Burgundy, France, red wine, Romanée Conti, wine