Rare `ethereal` wine to cost $168k per bottle

Sydney - A winemaker has released just a dozen 750ml “ampoules” of the rare 2004 Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon wine, which is priced at 168000 dollars per bottle.

Each of the “ampoules” released by the winemaker Penfolds is encased in a hand-blown glass sculpture designed by Nick Mount and created by glassblower Ray Leake.

Suspended in a Jarrah cabinet, the plumb-bob of the rare wine is decorated with precious metals.

"Behind every Penfolds wine is the joy, energy, research and science that shapes it,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted chief winemaker Peter Gago as saying.

“The ampoule project is typical of the pioneering philosophy behind Penfolds winemaking evolution.

“The collaboration with South Australia’s finest artists has been a fitting tribute for one of South Australia’s finest wines,” he said.

According to Penfolds, Penfolds 2004 Block 42 is a single-vineyard wine that is only released in the best vintages.

“It is produced from the oldest continuously-producing Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the world,” the company stated.

The 10-acre Block 423 vineyard was planted in the mid-1880s and is located on the edge of the famous Kalimna property in the Barossa Valley, about 60 kilometres north of Adelaide.

Last year US wine critic James Suckling had given the wine a perfect score of 100 points.

“There is something really magical about the 2004 Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet,” Gago said.

“It has an ethereal dimension and a saturated blackness on the palate, it’s extraordinarily perfumed with layer upon layer of flavour,” he added.