Wine is made in all 50 states (yes, even Hawaii, even Alaska). The leading producer by far, though, is California — which turns out more than 680 million gallons a year, almost 17 times what second-place Washington can manage.
The Golden State’s most famous wine region is Napa Valley, and while other regions, especially adjacent Sonoma County, might vie for the title, Napa remains the best-known and most celebrated American wine region internationally.
California emerged on the world wine stage in the latter half of the 20th century, spurred on by the so-called “Judgment of Paris,” held in the French capital in 1976, in which a panel of distinguished, mostly French wine experts gave first-place honors to a chardonnay and a cabernet sauvignon from Napa over some of their most famous French counterparts. (Last year, from California, France, and elsewhere, these were the world’s 50 best wines.)
In the decades that followed, wealthy newcomers to Napa began capitalizing on California’s exalted reputation, making small quantities of wines meant to emulate — or surpass — the best of Bordeaux and Burgundy.
Such wines bore extravagant price tags, which many aspiring connoisseurs mistakenly saw as a guarantee of quality. It was said that a bottle that would sit on the shelves at $50 would fly off them at $150. (Here are 13 ways to tell if a wine is actually really good.)
Today, $150 won’t buy you a glass of most of this new crop of trophy wines — cult bottlings produced by wineries like Screaming Eagle, Harlan Estate, Colgin Cellars, Araujo Estate, and Bryant Family Vineyard. Prices for a single bottle, even of current vintages, can soar up over $1,000.
To compile a list of Napa Valley’s 10 most expensive wines, as of mid-October 2023, 24/7 Tempo reviewed a study conducted by Wine-Searcher, an international wine-price comparison site. The study listed wines according to their global average retail shelf price, limiting their choices to those that had a minimum number of purchase offers “to stop tiny-production one-off wines dominating.”
Eight of the wines are cabernet sauvignons or Bordeaux-style cabernet blends. One is a chardonnay. And the big surprise is that the most expensive wine of all is a sauvignon blanc, made in small quantities by Screaming Eagle for its mailing-list customers.
Wine-Searcher notes that while other wine regions around the world may sell wines priced similarly to Napa’s most expensive, only Champagne and Burgundy have so many at these levels.
10. Promontory (Bordeaux blend)
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 5/5 (119 ratings)
- Critics’ score: 96/100 (66 reviews)
- Average price per bottle: $940
9. Kongsgaard The Judge Chardonnay
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 4.5/5 (93 ratings)
- Critics’ score: 96/100 (71 reviews)
- Average price per bottle: $962
8. Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 5/5 (161 ratings)
- Critics’ score: 95/100 (81 reviews)
- Average price per bottle: $988
7. Realm Cellars The Absurd (Bordeaux blend)
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 5/5 (46 ratings)
- Critics’ score: 96/100 (25 reviews)
- Average price per bottle: $1,332
6. Harlan Estate (Bordeaux blend)
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 4.5/5 (420 ratings)
- Critics’ score: 97/100 (225 reviews)
- Average price per bottle: $1,483
5. Ghost Horse Vineyard Fantome Cabernet Sauvignon
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 5/5 (4 ratings)
- Critics’ score: N/A
- Average price per bottle: $2,096
4. Ghost Horse Vineyard Apparition Cabernet Sauvignon
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 4.5/5 (3 ratings)
- Critics’ score: N/A
- Average price per bottle: $2,979
3. Ghost Horse Vineyard Spectre Cabernet Sauvignon
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 5/5 (4 ratings)
- Critics’ score: N/A
- Average price per bottle: $4,211
2. Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 4.5/5 (370 ratings)
- Critics’ score: 97/100 (133 reviews)
- Average price per bottle: $4,318
1. Screaming Eagle Sauvignon Blanc
- Wine-Searcher user rating: 4.5/5 (84 ratings)
- Critics’ score: 93/100 (9 reviews)
- Average price per bottle: $4,618