Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon is made from grapes grown in the world's oldest continuously producing Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard
PenfoldsBlock 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004,with a price of £100,000, is currently the most expensive red wine on the market, surpassing vintage Château Lafite's 1869. It is aging in an elongated vial, inside a hand-blown glass container called a vestibule.
It is a stylized form of an amphora, the ceramic vessel—wide at the top and tapering at one point—that was used for centuries to store and ship wine in the ancient world. In the ampoule there are 750 milliliters of wine, the volume of a standard bottle.
Of Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, only 12 vials have been produced. Of Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, only 12 vials have been produced.
Andrew Bartlett designed its wooden packaging, and the Australian Hendrik Forster prepared precious metal details where the drinks are suspended.
Why is it so expensive?
The 12 vials of Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 were filled with the wine. One was reserved for the Penfolds museum in Australia, while 11 were available for purchase.
The price was set to reflect the 168 years that Penfolds has been producing wine.
Although there are examples of higher prices being paid for wine, they are generally purchased in lots of more than one bottle.
In the late 1980s, the American billionaire art and wine collector William Koch paid $300,000 (US) for four bottles of wine (Châteaux Lafite, d'Yquem, Mouton Rothschild and Margaux) which are said to have belonged toThomas Jefferson in the late 1980s.
The price of Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 was set to reflect the 168 years that Penfolds has been producing wine.
The ampoule of Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 is expensive, but there is added value to the price: when the buyer decides to drink the wine, a Penfolds winemaker will travel anywhere in the world to open the vial using a specially designed tungsten-tipped sterling silver.”
Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago is up for the challenge: “If you want me to open a vial at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, that's where I'll go.”
Additionally, Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon is made from grapes grown in the world's oldest continuously producing Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard, Block 42, which is located at the northern end of the Valley.
Barossa in South Australia.Block 42 It is the only one still served by the vines that were originally planted, in this case, in the 1880s.
The trunks of these 130-year-old vines are thick and gnarled, and produce very small yields of intensely flavored grapes.
An exceptional harvest
The 2004 vintage was exceptionally good and the grapes produced much more than the dozen bottles in the vials.
The remainder are available on secondary markets in regular bottles (with corks or screw caps), and currently retail for about $750 each. Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon has been acclaimed by wine critics, who consistently score it above 90 points. Harvey Steiman, editor of Wine Spectator, wrote that “the beauty of 2004 is evident in Block 42, which I expect to be among the best wines of the vintage, and in my book, the best pure cabernet Australia has ever made.”
Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon has been acclaimed by wine critics, who consistently score it above 90 points.
Grapes from Block 42 have been used for Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon and sometimes as components of Penfolds luxury blends, including the company's iconic Grange, a shiraz with a very small percentage of cabernet sauvignon.
The ampoule containing Penfolds Block 42 cabernet sauvignon is hermetically sealed, meaning that the wine inside will age more like wine in an airtight screw-cap bottle than wine in a bottle sealed with a cork, which allows small volumes of air to reach the wine.
Gago talks about closures and conservation
Gago notes that the vial is 100 percent glass, what he calls "a continuum," so "there is no need to worry about the closure degrading over time. In fact, a 750 milliliter time capsule has been created."
Ray Leake, a glass blower with more than 40 years of experience manufacturing custom scientific glassware, blows the ampoule, which is clear, laboratory-grade, chemical- and heat-resistant borosilicate glass. Their challenge was to blow 12 glass vials to exactly the same specifications.
Peter Gago expects Penfolds Block 42 cabernet sauvignon to last at least 60 years when sealed with a cork, and ““We would wait much longer than 60 years.”on the vial: "Penfolds is well known for its attention to closures and preservation, and has recorking clinics around the world for wines, which are over 15 years old, in order to prolong bottle life.
Of the 11 numbered vials available for sale, some were purchased by private collectors, one is in aaustralian casinoand another is for sale in the tSingapore Changi Airport Duty Free, although it cannot be carried on a plane. Another vial (number five) is on display at Hedonism, the new luxury wine boutique in London.
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