World's most expensive white wine sold for £75,000

A 200 year-old bottle of Château d’Yquem has been bought by a collector for £75,000, setting a new world record for the most expensive bottle of white wine ever sold.

The bottle of 1811 Chateau d'Yquem was sold to French private collector Christian Vanneque at the Ritz in London amid tight security.

Mr Vanneque will only get to taste his expensive purchase in 2017, when he plans to drink it to celebrate what will be his 50-year career as a sommelier.

He will open it at the famous Paris restaurant La Tour d'Argent and share it with his wife, the vendor and the restaurant owner.

The diminutive wine connoisseur said he was in awe of his expensive purchase: "It is like getting acquainted with a lady who is 200 years old and I am quite shy. It is next to me and I just touched it earlier and it is quite humbling," he said.

"I knew I had Napoleon's height and now I have something from his reign and it is a bit humbling," he joked.

The majority of white wines are not meant to age. Most of them expire in the bottle after just a few years. The bottle of Chateau dYquem is an exception because it's a sweet wine. The high levels of sugar, combined with the grape's natural acidity have served as a preservative. There are only a few wines in the world with these qualities. Experts say the flavour is developed each year it ages.

The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at auction was set last year with the £192,000 sale of a 1947 French Cheval-Blanc, a red wine sold by Christie's in Geneva.

Mr Vanneque plans to display the 1811 Chateau d'Yquem in his restaurant in Bali, Indonesia, when it launches in September 2011.