Chile leads the way in 2024

The number one sport is taken by a Chilean wine for only the second time since the list began in 1988 (the first being Clos Apalta in 2008). Don Melchor is a stand-alone flagship of Concha y Toro in Puente Alto, a subregion of the Maipo Valley regarded as the country's finest vineyard zone.

California accounts for half of the top ten, which also features an Oregon Pinot Noir, two Italian classics, and just the one French wine.

Click on the link for the Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon, or any other wine in the list below, to check prices and availability.

For wine scores from across the publication's regular output see the Wine Spectator page in our Critics area. See also our list of Robert Parker 100-point wines.

Want to check previous editions of the Wine Spectator Top 100?

Buying Wine at Auction

Purchasing wine at auction can seem intimidating or complicated for those who have only purchased wine from traditional wine retailers before. Sotheby's has provided Wine-Searcher users with a handy guide to buying wines at auction.

Table of Contents ：

Why buy wine at auction?

How is wine arranged for sale at auction?

Who can buy wine at auction?

How is wine priced at auction?

If I am the winning bidder for a lot, what amount do I actually pay?

Where do auction wines come from?

How do I know the wine is good?

What are the biggest things to be careful of as a novice auction buyer?

Where can I buy wine at auction?

Why buy wine at auction?

Many people believe that only the rarest, oldest and most expensive wines are found at auction. While it is true that the auction market is largely driven by top producers and prestigious regions, wines from all price points, regions, vintages, size formats, and bottle quantities are auctioned off daily, all over the world.

The best reason to purchase wine at auction is that you will be able to acquire collectible wines that are not readily available in the primary market. An auction house can also provide a customer with confidence in their purchase through the added security of its curation, specialty knowledge, logistical know-how, and expertise for presenting wines for sale. And because a bidder has control over how high they are willing to bid, there is a lot of opportunity for great value.

In the search for the rarest and most significant treasures – a benchmark fine wine, a vintage of personal significance, a unique size format or unbroken case – auctions are a place where one's collection and passion for wine can be nurtured in an exciting way.

How is wine arranged for sale at auction?

The basic unit for purchase in a wine auction is a lot. A lot can be a single bottle, or several bottles, or a full case of wine. Often a lot will be made up of the same wine, producer, and vintage in varying quantities. You may also see a mixed lot, a single unit available for sale that is made up of wines with different producers, vintages, vineyards or size formats. Each lot will be identified by a lot number.

Many auctions will have a corresponding catalog (online and/or hard copy), which will list all of the lots available in the sale. These will be listed in the order in which they will be sold, with corresponding notes about quantities, condition/appearance of the bottles, packaging and – in some cases – critical information or tasting notes for each wine or lot. It is basically your guide to identifying lots of interest and to follow along with the sale.

Ex: Lot 1: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tache 2005(3 BT) (owc) per lot: $8000-11000orEx: (Mixed Lot):Lot 2:Grace Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 (1 BT)Abreu, Thorevilos 2000 (1 BT)Maya, Dalla Valle 2000 (1 BT)(3 BT) (sc) per lot: $400-600

Who can buy wine at auction?

Anyone who is legally allowed to purchase wine in the location of the auction may be a bidder/buyer. Every auction outlet is different, but most will require you to register before the auction with some form of government-issued identification. This can usually be done in person on the day of the sale, or online ahead of time if participating remotely. You will be assigned a paddle with a number that will identify your individual bids in the sale.

There are several ways to participate as a bidder, both in person and remotely. These ways include:

Live Bidding: Attending the auction in person and bidding in real time.

Online Bidding: Bidding online in real time through a designated online bidding platform. This service, if available, will usually have a corresponding live stream of the auctioneer and other bidders.

Telephone Bidding: You can request that a representative from the auction outlet (if applicable) will place bids in real time on your behalf, while you speak to them on a secure telephone line.

Absentee Bidding: If you are not available to bid during the time of the auction, you can submit maximum bid amounts on lots of interest prior to the sale. These bids will be executed on your behalf by the auctioneer. Most auction regulations require auction houses to execute absentee bids so that the winning bidder pays the lowest price, having taken into account the reserves and other bids. All top-quality auction houses operate in this way, so you should feel safe in leaving maximum bids.

How is wine priced at auction?

Unlike in a retail store, there is no fixed or guaranteed price for a wine sold at auction. It is sold for the highest bid during the auction, known as the hammer price.

Each lot will typically have a low estimate and high estimate listed in the catalogue. This guideline price range is determined by experts who have inspected the wines. This estimate is just that – in some instances, a lot may be sold for less than the low estimate or more than the high estimate, depending on the bidding interest.

The lowest amount for which a lot may be sold is called the reserve. This is the minimum price that the seller will accept for that lot, and is not publicly disclosed. If the bidding does not meet that reserve or minimum bid price, the lot will be marked as pass or unsold.

If I am the winning bidder for a lot, what amount do I actually pay?

The total amount you would pay as a winning bidder in a sale depends on the Conditions of Sale for each auction outlet. Typically, you will pay the hammer price, as well as a buyer's premium (usually 15-25 percent of the hammer price) and any applicable sales taxes.

Where do auction wines come from?

The majority of wines that are sold at wine auctions come from the collections of private individuals, although it can also come from a winery, a restaurant, merchant or other entity. The seller is known as the consignor. A sale might exclusively feature a single consignor's collection, or may include numerous different consignments. A single lot will only ever have one consignor.

The consignor's identity will often be private but, in some cases, a noteworthy collection will have its source identified, especially if it is an indication of particularly rare or valuable bottles coming from an esteemed cellar.

How do I know the wine is good?

When dealing with a professional auction house, the wines offered for sale should all have been inspected for quality, condition, and authenticity by experienced wine specialists. The wines will then be cataloged to give a comprehensive listing of what will appear in the auction.

It is important to note that there is no guarantee that each bottle of wine will actually taste the way its buyer hopes it will, but high-quality auction houses will take great care to ensure that appearance, storage, provenance, authenticity, and the reputation of the consignor is such that the wines will be of sound quality. Some very high-profile lots may be photographed and appear in the catalog to be viewed by prospective buyers, but all bottles should have a detailed description of their physical appearance and suggested condition.

What are the biggest things to be careful of as a novice auction buyer?

It is very important that the auction outlet you choose to purchase from has done its proper diligence in checking and openly communicating the quality of the wine's condition, and that proper care has been given to the wine's handling and transport at all points in the chain of custody. In short, be very wary of any outlet where critical information about the wine's source, condition, or authenticity is withheld. Don't be afraid to ask to speak to an auction specialist if you have any questions about the process or the wines in the sale.

It is also paramount to understand the Conditions of Sale and any applicable rules/laws governing both participating as a buyer/bidder and the sale of the wine, the financial implications and any regulations or fees associated with its purchase, taxes, customs duties and transport, and so on.

Where can I buy wine at auction?

The greatest concentration of auction houses are in London, New York and Hong Kong, although auction houses are located in cities around the world. For a comprehensive list, see our list of Wine Auctioneers around the world.

Is Expensive Wine a Scam?

Wine prices have always flirted with the absurd.

At my local shop, I can pick up a solid bottle of Côtes du Rhône for $10. Yet on my shelf sits an empty bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's Romanée-Conti – a wine that, had I resisted temptation, could fetch $10,000.

Sooner or later, everyone asks the same questions: Can you really taste the difference? And is the price truly justified by what's in the glass, or are we just paying for hype and heritage?

Wine isn't unique in spanning such extremes. You can spend thousands to fly across the world and watch Oasis reunite on stage, or you can stream Liam singing Wonderwall for free on Spotify. The sound might be cleaner, the setting more comfortable but, let's be honest, telling that story at the office on Monday won't carry quite the same weight.

Even the most die-hard wine nerds – and yes, I'm including myself – have to face a humbling truth: at its core, wine is nothing more than fermented grape juice. Grapes are crushed, juice is extracted and, following a protocol that's thousands of years old, wine is made. There are no patents, no trade secrets, no Silicon Valley breakthroughs. The most celebrated winemakers often claim they don’t "make" their wines at all. It's the terroir, they insist. And then they charge twice as much as their neighbors for grapes grown just meters away.

And yet, we don't seem to mind. We happily open our wallets, stroke our egos, and accept that some bottles of fermented grape juice cost a hundred times more than others. But what's really in it for us? Is there a genuine link between price and quality – or is expensive wine just a beautifully packaged illusion?

To answer that, let's turn to global data from Wine-Searcher.

What drives price?

The most expensive wines in the world aren't just pricey – their values are stratospheric. According to Wine-Searcher, Burgundy dominates the charts, which shouldn't surprise anyone who has ever ventured beyond a humble Bourgogne AOC.

At the very top sits Leroy's Musigny Grand Cru at a staggering $48,763 per bottle. Forty-eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty-three dollars! For a single bottle! That's more than the UK's average annual salary.

Close behind is Henri Jayer's Richebourg Grand Cru at $27,771, followed by Domaine d'Auvenay's Bâtard-Montrachet at $25,944. Against those prices, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's legendary Romanée-Conti Grand Cru almost looks like a bargain at $24,155. Almost. For perspective, that's still more than I earned annually as a young sommelier grinding through 12-hour shifts on the restaurant floor.

So, what drives these astronomical prices? One word: scarcity. Burgundy's Premier and Grand Cru vineyards are tiny – and they can't be expanded. First carved out by monks centuries ago, these patches of land are often no larger than a city block. Add to that inheritance laws under the Napoleonic Code, which splintered vineyard holdings into ever-smaller plots, and scarcity becomes permanent.

Consider this: Musigny covers 10.79 hectares; Bâtard-Montrachet 11.22; Richebourg 7.23; and Romanée-Conti itself? A mere 1.81ha, yielding only about 6000 bottles a year, according to Bourgogne-wines.com. Winemakers further squeeze supply by restricting yields to pursue higher quality, making every bottle even rarer.

That's the supply side. On the demand side, things are equally relentless. Fine wines have transformed into cultural currency – symbols of wealth, sophistication, and pleasure. While global wine consumption is at its lowest in six decades, fine wine continues to sell strongly. Economics 101 tells us that when supply is scarce and demand is high, prices rise until equilibrium is reached. In Burgundy, that equilibrium can soar to absurd levels – especially when demand is fueled by billionaires with bottomless pockets.

Correlation between price and quality

For as long as anyone can remember, the wine world has preached the same gospel: higher price means higher quality. And to a degree, that makes sense. A winemaker turning a healthy profit can invest in better equipment, hire skilled workers to care for vineyards and cellars, and age wines longer before release. Up to a certain point, you really do taste a connection between price and quality.

But eventually, retail prices stop reflecting cost and start reflecting market dynamics – scarcity, reputation, and demand. That's why even seasoned drinkers often struggle to distinguish a $50 wine from a $500 bottle in a blind tasting. Add the price tag, though, and suddenly the same wine brims with "nuance" and "complexity" that went unnoticed just minutes before.

I've fallen into that trap myself. Early on, I often wondered why I didn't "get" certain expensive wines, failing to appreciate their supposed greatness. So I decided to put the question to the test in a YouTube blind tasting. I chose four wines from the same producer, region, and variety, with price as the main variable – from $10 to $500 a bottle. Penfolds of Australia was one of the few wineries offering such a range:

Koonunga Hill Shiraz (~$10): 81 Konstantin Baum points.

Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz (~$50): 92 Konstantin Baum points.

St. Henri Shiraz (~$100): 94 Konstantin Baum points.

Grange Shiraz (~$500): 95 Konstantin Baum points.

The psychology of wine pricing

If we can so easily access all this data through Wine-Searcher, why do we still reach for that $1000 bottle?

Because your brain isn't a neutral tasting machine. It doesn't crunch Quality-to-Price Ratios like a calculator, spitting out the best deal. Wine is about far more than aromas, tastes, ratings, or prices. We don't just chase the cheapest path to quality – often, the price itself becomes part of the pleasure.

Study after study shows the same thing: we enjoy wine more when we think it's expensive. Pour a simple table wine into a bottle of Screaming Eagle, and suddenly it's described as having "depth, length, and complexity". Serve the exact same liquid from a $20 bottle, and it gets downgraded to "easy, simple, good with barbecue". The wine hasn't changed – only the story has.

One famous 2008 study by scientists at Caltech drove this point home. Participants tasted wines while undergoing MRI scans. Two of the samples were identical wines, but tasters were told that one bottle cost $90 and the other $10. Not only did they report liking the "$90" wine more – their brains lit up with stronger pleasure responses. The perception of value literally rewired the experience.

Price shapes expectation, and expectation shapes enjoyment. That's why storytelling is central to the wine industry. We're not just buying fermented grape juice. We're buying into the 8000-year-old history of Georgian wine, the pioneering legend of Robert Mondavi, the romance of the Tuscan countryside, or the audacious price tag of Liber Pater. Each bottle is more than a drink – it's a mirror, reflecting the kind of person we want to be.

Data-driven wine buying

Are you ready to let go of vanity? Confident enough to trust your own palate? Then let's look at how to find real value by following the data. The bad news: your Instagram posts may not rack up as many likes. The good news: you can drink like royalty without pawning a kidney.

For decades, wine has been sold through numbers. Price came first, and scores soon followed as the marketing tool of choice. But rarely does anyone explore the relationship between the two. That's where the Quality-to-Price Ratio (QPR) comes in. It's your compass in a sea of hype, cutting through inflated reputations and regional prejudice. Think of it as a single number that shows you which bottles deliver the most pleasure per dollar spent.

QPR shines when comparing grape varieties. Take Riesling versus Chardonnay under $30. On Wine-Searcher, the most popular Rieslings average 87.4 points, while Chardonnays sit at 86.2. But the QPR tells the real story: Riesling comes in at 0.34, leaving Chardonnay languishing at 0.089. In plain terms: Riesling offers more joy for less money.

It also works for wine regions. Look at Germany's Mosel, where centuries of winemaking brilliance haven't translated into astronomical prices. The region posts consistently high-QPR values, and wines like Günther Steinmetz's Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett boast a QPR of 3.5. Compare that to Burgundy, where the 100 most popular Pinot Noirs on Wine-Searcher average an eye-watering $726.43. Yes, they score an impressive 93.6 points, but their collective QPR of 0.46 makes it clear: look elsewhere for value.

That said, QPR is relative, and even in Burgundy there are smart buys. Consider Domaine Faiveley's Corton Clos des Cortons Faiveley Monopole Grand Cru – a genuine Grand Cru priced at $238.86, scoring 93 points with a QPR of 0.8427. Still expensive, but by Burgundy standards a fair deal. Or go even simpler: Louis Jadot's Bourgogne Pinot Noir delivers honest, unpretentious Burgundy at $21.59, scoring 86 points with a QPR of 0.8235.

So whether it's Mosel Riesling, a clever Burgundy pick, or anything in between, QPR helps you drink smarter – and better – without draining your wallet.

Scam or not? An honest answer

So, is expensive wine a scam?

The answer is yes and no. The data shows that quality and price do correlate – but only up to a point. A $10 bottle rarely outperforms a $100 wine, but the leap from $100 to $1000 buys you prestige and scarcity more than sensory delight. Beyond a certain threshold, you're no longer paying for what's in the glass. You're paying for the story, the history, the bragging rights, and the rare chance to drink something most people never will.

Expensive wine is a "scam", just like many other luxury goods, being subject to the same rules as art, watches, or handbags. A Picasso isn't 10 million times "better" than a child's watercolor, but the market values its uniqueness and the cultural meaning attached to it. Wine, at its highest levels, plays in that same arena. Scarcity, reputation, and narrative inflate the price far more than grapes or barrels ever could.

At the same time, the psychology of wine can't be ignored. Expectation shapes experience. If you believe you're drinking something extraordinary, your brain obliges by finding extraordinary flavors. And if you're told it costs $90 rather than $10, it may well taste twice as good. That doesn't make your perception fake – it makes it human. Wine is not consumed in a vacuum. It's wrapped in stories, symbols, and emotions, and those matter just as much as acidity, tannins, or finish.

But here's the encouraging truth: you don't have to play the high-stakes game to drink brilliantly. Looking at the relationship between quality and price we can cut through the fog of reputation and discover wines that deliver outstanding pleasure without decimating our savings accounts, from clever picks in Burgundy, to great Mosel Riesling, and beyond.

Ultimately, expensive wine is a scam, but it is not the only path to great drinking. It occupies a cultural space where scarcity and symbolism matter as much as flavor. If you're wealthy enough to collect Romanée-Conti, enjoy it – just know you're buying a story as much as a wine. If you're like most of us, use the data to your advantage. Let QPR guide you toward hidden gems and take pride in outsmarting the market rather than being seduced by it.

Because at the end of the day, wine is meant to be enjoyed, not just displayed. Whether your glass holds a $20 Riesling or a $2000 Grand Cru, the true measure of value isn't the price tag or even the points – it's the pleasure in the glass.

And yes, sometimes I enjoy being "scammed" by the allure of a famous label. But most of the time, I find greater joy in looking past the hype and discovering wines that deliver genuine quality at the right price.