A vintage Dom Pérignon has broken the record for the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at a British bar – for £35,000.
The methuselah of 1996 Rosé Gold, dubbed the ‘King of Champagnes’, was sold at a top London hotel.
A till receipt shows the buyer left a staggering £10,625 tip – in addition to the £4,375 service charge.
The gratuity raised the total to a whopping £50,000, or the equivalent of £1,562.50 per GLASS.
Incredibly, the buyer – thought to be a Russian billionaire – SPILLED ”at least three glasses” within minutes of the purchase at the Westbury Hotel on Tuesday.
While other Champagnes have sold more at auction, the Rosé Gold is believed to be most expensive single bottle ever bought from a bar.
It was sold on Tuesday night at a VIP after-show party following the gala screening of new British comedy, ‘Boogie Woogie’.
Guests and stars of the film included X-Files actress Gillian Anderson, Jamie Winstone, and Meredith Ostrum.
Bar manager Elias Yiallouris (doub corr) yesterday refused to reveal the buyer’s identity.
But he said: ”Dom Pérignon is famed for being the ‘first’ or ‘stars’ Champagne’, but Rosé Gold is the finest of all its brands – the champagne of kings.
”The 1996 vintage is regarded as one of the finest in the 20th-Century and with only 35 bottles produced per year, its incredibly rare and sought-after.
”Each bottle is like a piece of fine art – stunningly beautiful, extremely valuable and highly collectable.”
The Rose Gold methuselah – the equivalent to eight standard-sized bottles – is produced by French winery Moët et Chandon and is prized for its ”excellence and elegance”.
It is the first brand of Champagne in the world to get 98 out of a possible 100 points from celebrated wine critic Robert Parker.
The bottle itself has a metal casing dipped in rose gold, and is worth almost #20,000 alone.
It is so easily scratched that sommeliers are instructed to wear white silk gloves when opening or pouring.
According to its makers, the blend is ”characterized by the vivacious interplay between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes” and is ”copper pink with shades of amber and gold” in colour.
The buyer’s identity has not yet been revealed, but is understood to be a Russian billionaire and regular guest at Mayfair’s five-star Westbury Hotel, a favourite haunt of the rich and famous.
A receipt found in the hotel’s Polo Bar – one of only three places in the UK to stock the bottle – shows it was bought by a guest at 10.30pm.
The paper receipt includes a 12.5 per cent service charge of £4,373, together with a princely tip of £10,625.
Mr Yiallouris said the bill was paid by credit card, and that the entire bottle was drunk by ”six friends” – in less than 45 minutes.
”They had a good time, that’s for sure,” he added.
More than 100 VIPs were spotted at the hotel following Tuesday night’s screening of Boogie Woogie, an art-based comedy by Danny Moynihan set in London.
Stars of the movie include Gillian Anderson, Alan Cumming, Heather Graham, Christopher Lee, Joanna Lumley, Jamie Winstone and Meredith Ostrum.
Celebrity guests also included the comedian Michael Barrymore, singer Bob Geldof and Mick Jagger’s teenage granddaughter Assisi.
A spokesman for Moët et Chandon said: ”The champagne is made only from grapes from selected vineyards from the best Grand Crus and is stored for 12 years before being bottled.
”The 1996 vintage boasts all of Dom Pérignon Rosé’s inimitable traits, being characterized by the vivacious interplay between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes.
”The champagne’s colour is copper pink with shades of amber and gold, with a fragrance of mature fruits and an after-taste marked by a slightly vanilla note. It is divine.
”The presentation is just as luxurious and seductive as the champagne, with the Rosé coming housed within a metal casing dipped in Rosé gold.”
Dom Pérignon is named after a 17th-Century Benedictine monk of the same name who made ‘important contributions’ to the production and quality of Champagne.
The brand makes only vintage Champagnes using grapes harvested in the same year.
Its 1996 vintage is noted among wine lovers for its maturity and richness of character- something put down to the very hot summer months preceding the harvest.
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