We have ordinary wines and then we have those that make Guinness World Records. Falling into the latter category is the very fine Niepoort in Lalique 1863 decanter that comes filled with the exceptionally rare 155-year-old vintage Port created in 1863 by the first Niepoort generation, Franciscus Marius van der Niepoort and contained within a meticulously crafted Lalique crystal demijohn decanter.
Not ordinary by far, the Niepoort in Lalique 1863 bagged the Guinness record for being the most expensive port wine to be sold on auction, after it recently fetched a whopping HK$ 992,000 (approx. US$127,000) at the Acker Merrall & Condit sale in Hong Kong. The wine and its uber-creative container form part of Lalique’s exclusive collab with Niepoort, which resulted in five demijohn decanters, each being signed Lalique, numbered and filled with the exceptionally rare 155-year-old vintage port, from an original Niepoort demijohn decanter in the Niepoort cellar in Porto, Portugal.
The decanter in question is engraved with the name of its founder, Francisco Marius van der Niepoort and is referred to as being ‘Not too sweet but highly concentrated’. Its design reflects the iconic cire perdue or ‘lost wax’ technique that has been learned and passed down through the generations of skilled craftsmen and still used today at the Lalique factory in Alsace. Earlier in the year, the 1945 Romanee-Conti also set a record for being the most expensive wine by selling for $785,000 at Sotheby’s, New York.
