A bottle of 1945 Romanee-Conti Burgundy wine was sold for a record breaking $785,000 at a Sotheby's auction in New York over the weekend.
It smashed the previous world record of $328,000 for a standard bottle when a 1869 Chateau Lafite Rothschild was sold in Hong Kong in 2010.
A few minutes after the global record-breaking bottle was sold, another 1945 Romanee-Conti went under the hammer, also at Sotheby's in New York, for $698,000.
The bottles were in the personal collection of Robert Drouhin, from a prominent wine producing family.
Mr Drouhin's father made an agreement in 1928 with the owners of Romanee-Conti to be their sole distributor for France and Belgium — and consequently amassed a unique wine collection.
In a Sothbey's video, Mr Drouhin explained that during the German invasion of France in the 1930s his father created a false wall inside the cellar to make sure the wine was never discovered.
"It is both with regret and pleasure that I share these bottles," Mr Drouhin wrote in a note to the auction house.
"Regret even through there remain some for my children and friends, but mainly pleasure as those who will purchase the bottles — apart from the appreciation of quality and luxury they convey — they will receive a testimony of my family and Burgundy at its very best."
