World’s Most Expensive Wine: Penfolds Puts $168,000 ‘Ampoules’ Of Wine Up For Sale

Australian winery Penfolds released a new wine today which is believed to be the world’s most expensive wine sold directly from a winery. Penfolds will be selling 12 bottles of the $168,000 wine called “2004 Block 42.”

Wired reports that the world’s most expensive wine was produced from the oldest continuously producing Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the world.

Penfolds writes:

“2004 Block 42 is a rare, single-vineyard wine, only released in stellar vintages and produced from the oldest continuously-producing Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the world. The 10-acre Block 42 was planted only 30 years after the great 1855 Bordeaux Classification. The recent 2004 vintage resulted in beautifully aromatic, perfectly balanced and ripe Cabernet Sauvignon from Block 42, Kalimna Vineyard.”

The wine will also come in a really cool bottle (a glass ampoule) that only Penfolds wine experts know how to open. Seriously, if you want to drink your $168,000 bottle of wine you have to call Penfolds. According to Just-Drinks, the Australian wine company will dispatch a senior wine maker when you want the bottle, which has no cork or screw cap, opened.

Penfolds writes:

“When a decision is made to open the ampoule a senior member of the Penfolds Winemaking team will personally attend a special opening ceremony for the owner (essentially your very own master-class). The winemaker will travel to the destination of choice, where the ampoule will be ceremoniously removed from its glass plumb-bob casing and opened using a specially designed, tungsten-tipped, sterling silver scribe-snap.The winemaker will then prepare the wine using a beautifully crafted sterling silver tastevin.”

Only twelve ampoules of 2004 Block 42 will be going up for sale.