Jan 15: Media has been abuzz recently with the release of the ‘most expensive wine’ in the world- Tokaji Essencia produced by the Royal Tokaji which was released earlier last year, fetching €35000 for a 1.5 liter magnum, making it the most expensive wine. Subhash Arora believes that Liber Pater, a Bordeaux producer who released in September last year 240 bottles of Liber Pater 2015 made from the grapes used in pre-phylloxera period without vine grafting, making it the most unique wine in the world, is still the most expensive wine
Only 20 bottles of Essencia 2008 were filled in decanter- shaped bottles by Royal Tokaji owned by the British iconic author, journalist and wine expert Huge Johnson. Only 18 are offered for sale. A Hungarian artist was inspired by the sight of Essencia slowly dripping from the individually picked Aszú grape berries. Each bottle is hand-blown and finished, making each bottle unique.
Tokaji Essencia is a special high quality of the world famous Tokaji (Tokai or Tokaj) must me bottled in half-liter bottles of approved designs An exception was made to get the special bottle of 3 times the normal size on a one-off basis.
Priced at €35,000 for this limited-edition magnum of 2008 Essencia is available through international distributors. It’s made from the free-run juice of handpicked whole berries botrytised on the vine, and takes up to 8 years to ferment 
very slowly. It is the world’s most concentrated essence of its ripest grapes. Royal Tokaji has been able to offer a few bottles of Essencia only six times in its 26 year history-1993, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2008.
The lacquered box in which each decanter is presented contains a lighting system to highlight the bright gold colour of the wine. As is the case with many high-priced bottles of wine, buyers often do not wish to be named. However, the first was reportedly sold to a wine collector in China. 20 bottles were produced out of which 18 were released in 2019. An estimated 8-12 have already been sold.
"This Essencia 2008 was bottled after eight years of maturation. It's a slightly unusual for Essencia because it has a higher alcohol volume of around 4%," according to the general manager of Royal Tokaji Winery, says the report in ndtv.com. Usually the alcohol level is around 3%.
According to ANI, reported in Sify News, the vintage comes with an expiry date of 2300 and the makers have sold about eleven of them to date.
Read more at: https://www.sify.com
Not the most expensive wine
The huge marketing hype around 9 months after the release, tends to give the impression that it has been released just now but a closer look reveals it was already released in March/April 2019. Besides, as reported in delWine, the prerogative for the most expensive wine in the world had been already taken last spring by Liber Pater, the unconventional Bordeaux Winery when the owner Loic Pasquet had announced a price tag of €31,000 for the special 
Bordeaux wine made from local grapes existent prior to 1857 Classification and also pre-phylloxera period, without grafting.
Loic Pasquet tells delWine, ‘we sold Liber Pater flagship wine 2015 for €30,000 euros for the standard 750 mL bottle. This Tokaji is diffferent as it is a magnum-EU laws won’t allow many laws to be broken and it is not the same comparison. For them you also pay for the glass bottle made by an artist. With me you buy one part of French History with the original taste of Bordeaux.’
Interestingly, Pasquet is hosting a Tasting of Liber Pater wine with the Press tomorrow (January 16) for which delWine has been invited but unfortunately it is not practical to attend. He has also announced the booking of 2018 label which will be released at the same price of €30,000 a bottle; the wine will be released in 2021. He is slightly mysterious about sharing the number of 2015 already sold as he would like to keep the details a secret but if I read his lips correctly, he has sold more than 150 -240 bottles out of 240 planned to be sold. From the information available Liber Pater 2015 and now 2018 continue to be the most expensive bottles based on volume in the bottle anyway.
An interesting observation ought to be made about the info published by the Indian news agencies. Perhaps unaware of the Topaz colour of the Tokaji or the grapes in Tokaji ( 6 white varietals- Furmint , Hárslevelű Yellow Muscat Zéta (Oremus) Kövérszőlő and Kabar, the pics displayed are that of red wines only, whether being opened or in the box. That should be pretty confusing for the novices, besides indicated a lack of wine knowledge on the part of the editors who might be better off not using any file pictures.
Subhash Arora
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