Burgundy dominates the world’s most expensive wines

Burgundy’s dominance at the top end of the fine-wine market is extraordinary. Investment platform WineCap’s 2026 ranking of the 25 most expensive wines contains 24 Burgundies, with only Domaine Jean-Louis Chave’s Ermitage Cathelin from the northern Rhône breaking the region’s hold.

Even more striking, 17 wines come from Domaine Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay, both owned by Lalou Bize-Leroy, together accounting for 64.1% of the ranking’s combined value.

At the top is Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Romanée-Conti Grand Cru at £195,406 per 12-bottle case (roughly equivalent to R352,000 a bottle at today’s exchange rate), followed by Domaine d’Auvenay’s Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru at £186,419 per case (R336,000 a bottle).

For perspective, Pétrus, Bordeaux’s highest-ranked wine, sits only 46th in the wider ranking, while Krug Clos du Mesnil, Champagne’s highest entry, is 80th.

The lesson is fairly simple. At the very top of the wine market, scarcity, provenance and reputation can count for more than points. Burgundy happens to possess extraordinary quantities of all three – but the remarkable concentration of value around Lalou Bize-Leroy suggests that, at this level, the market is pricing not just wine but access to something that cannot readily be reproduced.