Champagne bottle sells for nearly $2.5 million

An NFT was included in the sales price

The world’s most expensive bottle of Champagne

A bottle of Champagne Avenue Foch, 2017, has been sold for nearly $2.5 million, making it the priciest Champagne in history.

The world’s most expensive bottle of Champagne

What made the Champagne too pricey is the single NFT that comes with it. The said NFT includes the digital art and intellectual property rights to an image of “Bored Ape Mutant” and to other collectible cartoon figures that serve as a design to the physical bottle.

If you haven’t heard of Champagne Avenue Foch before, that’s because it’s a new brand. The Premier Cru grapes of the Champagne were grown at Allouchery, a family-owned estate in Chamery in north-eastern France.

The seller

The Champagne was commissioned and sold by British entrepreneur Shammi Shinh, who collaborated with the artist, Mig, for the physical bottle of the sparkling wine and its accompanying NFT. Shinh said that the alcoholic drink may be the first of a limited-edition series from him and Mig.

According to CNN Business, Shinh hoped that the sale of the Champagne, along with all the buzz around it, may juice the market for NFTs at a time that it and other similar financial markets, like cryptocurrencies, are on a downslide.

“I’m hoping for more awareness — I want people to understand NFTs now,” said Shinh.

The buyers

The Champagne was purchased by brothers Giovanni and Piero Buono, Italian crypto investors who are active in the fashion and technology industries. Despite their background in cryptocurrency, the Buonos surprisingly bought the Champagne in dollars, according to Shinh.

The siblings’ purchase of the collectible wine, which was made privately, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. And in case you’re wondering, Giovanni told the publication that they have no plans to open the bottle.

Most expensive wine bottles in history

Prior to the introduction of NFTs, the priciest wine bottles in the world were those that were made several decades ago. For instance, in 2020, a bottle of the popular Heidsieck 1907 shipwrecked Champagne was sold for $275,000 in Moscow, Russia. On its way to the czar in 1916, the shipment containing the said Champagne was reportedly sunk by a German U-boat and only recovered by Finnish divers decades later.

As for the most expensive wine of any kind, a bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was bought by a collector in 2018 at a Sotheby’s sale in New York for $558,000. According to CNN Business, only 600 bottles were made of the 1945 Burgundy vintage, which earned the moniker “the unicorn vintage” because of its extreme rarity.

Find out more expensive wines in the video below.

The World
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, CNN Business