60-Year-Old Australian Wine Bottle Fetches $ 41,000 

A 66-year-old bottle of Australian wine has been sold for more than $41,000 in Melbourne.

The bottle of 1951 Penfolds Grange Hermitage was auctioned off by MW Wines on Wednesday night with an unnamed collector taking the piece of history home for $41,110. The vintage, Penfold's first, was produced by Max Schubert, the prestigious company's chief winemaker at the time, and was never made publicly available. It is believed that around 1,800 bottles of the wine were produced, 20 of which still exist today. It is the first sale of the 1951 wine since another bottle was sold for $39,870 in 2004. Nick Stamford, managing director of MW Wines, said it was a "staggering" price for "a piece of history". He said that the wine had been tasted by Schubert in 1993 and Penfolds' current chief winemaker in 2012 who confirmed it was still in excellent condition.

Penfolds is Australia's best-known winemaker with vintages regularly being sold for thousands of dollars despite some experts disputing that is the country's best wine.