Treasures often manifest in modest forms, yet at times, they are grand. This time, it is a 98-liter wine bottle, equivalent to 132 standard bottles and the biggest wine bottle in the world.
One might wonder, why go through the trouble of creating something so challenging and impractical. The bottle, despite its impressive weight of 68kg, wasn't crafted with the intention of breaking records. It was actually done for a noble cause. In the early 1980s, Portuguese fishing communities were devastated by a rare life-threatening disease, Familial Amyloidotic Polyneuropathy (FAP). At that time, an American doctor was traveling through the area and had an idea to create something special that he could bring back to the USA and auction to generate publicity and raise money for those suffering from the disease. Luckily, he knew the Head of Fonseca, a leading Vintage Port producer since the 1840s, growing vines in the villages near the disease’s epicenter.
Not surprisingly, the greatest challenge was crafting a bottle itself, as such a large bottle had never been made before. After many failed attempts, the glassblowers decided to use a mold made from a hollowed-out trunk of a 500-year-old tree. And guess what? The price of making such a bottle was estimated to cost around $16,000!
Fonseca port stood out with its distinctive fruity and opulent character, unmatched by other producers. The specific Fonseca Bin 27 Port line was launched in 1972 in Great Britain during a transformative period in the Port wine market. Fonseca port from Douro valley is this full-bodied yet smooth and gets its "Bin" name from the cellar compartments, with the associated number indicating a specific storage location.
They produced three 98-liter bottles called Fonseca Bin 27, nicknamed ‘Maximus’ for their size. However, shipping these three giant 1.3m height bottles did not go according to the plan. One bottle broke, while the other two successfully reached New York. Unfortunately, the State vetoed the sale as wine auctions were illegal at that time and were only legalized in 1994. In light of these news, one bottle was returned to Portugal, now displayed as an empty exhibit at the Fonseca museum.
To complicate matters further, the doctor who came up with the original idea sadly passed away. His wife faced financial difficulties, and her lawyer agreed to take this huge bottle of wine in exchange for waiving his fees. It turned out to be a great deal, as the wine was auctioned in 1998 for $24,150 (or $186 per standard bottle).
Would this wine still be drinkable today? It has been more than 40 years since it was bottled (vintage 1982). It's very fruity and full of cherry and blackberry, and even though it spent four years in large wood vats, it is essentially ready to be consumed when bottled. It turns out it probably would have been better just to drink those 1,200 glasses from a bottle. In 2023, the largest wine bottle was auctioned again, but this time only for $2,125 (or $16 per standard bottle) - 90% cheaper than in 1998.
