Costly Wines

1895

At a sale in 1858 of the effects of the deceased Duchess de Raguse the late Baron Rothschild paid its weight in gold for 44 bottles of Madeira. This wine, it appears, was fished up in 1814 from a ship wrecked at the mouth of the Scheldt in 1778, where it had lain during that interval. Louis XVIII bought it at that time, and part of it was presented to the French consul, and thus came into the hands of the Duc de Raguse.

The weight of a bottle of wine, including bottle, is about two pounds avoirdupois, so that at this calculation each bottle would have cost about $570. Prince Worouzoff, it is said, sells his Tokay, 220 years old, for $45 a bottle. In the famous cellars of the Hotel de Ville, Bremen, there are a dozen cases of holy wine which have been preserved for 250 years.

This calculation has been made in regard to it: If the cost of maintaining the cellar, payment of rent, interest upon the original value of the wine and other proper incidental charges are considered, a bottle of this choice liquor has cost $2,000,000, each glassful $272,380, and a single drop could not he sold without loss under $200. — Brooklyn Eagle.