The world’s most expensive bottle of wine has sold at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such rare bottles are often treated as collectibles and investments, and some may never be opened. Large wine cellars, however, are more than stores of valuable bottles: they are living collections that change as wines are acquired, served, auctioned or sold. Here is a look at 10 notable **wine collections** and historic cellars around the world.
1 The Mileștii Mici collection
The **Mileștii Mici wine cellar** in Moldova is recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest wine cellar by number of bottles. Its collection was recorded at more than 1.5 million bottles in 2005. The underground galleries extend for more than 200 kilometres in total, with around 55 kilometres used for wine production and storage. The cellar continues to receive new vintages, so its inventory changes over time.
2 The Cricova wine collection
Moldova’s **Cricova winery** is known for its extensive underground galleries and National Wine Collection, which holds approximately 1.3 million bottles. The collection was established in 1954 and includes bottles from many countries, as well as historic wines. Its oldest bottle is dated 1902. Stories that some wines once belonged to Nazi official Hermann Göring have circulated, but the provenance and details are not consistently established in authoritative sources, so the claim should be treated cautiously.
3 The Bern’s Steak House collection
Bern’s Steak House in Tampa, Florida, is famous for its large wine cellar. A report published in 2018 described an inventory of around 110,000 bottles, including thousands of table wines and dessert wines. That is far below the 500,000 bottles claimed in some older accounts, so the larger figure should not be repeated as a verified current count. The restaurant’s cellar is especially known for its breadth of vintages and unusual selections.
4 The Graycliff Hotel collection
The **Graycliff Hotel wine cellar** in Nassau, the Bahamas, holds more than 250,000 bottles from over 5,000 producers in 20 countries, according to the hotel. Its collection ranges from widely enjoyed wines to rare and very old bottles, including a 1727 Rüdesheimer Apostelwein. The cellar is a major attraction for wine enthusiasts visiting the hotel and restaurant.
5 The Marqués de Riscal historic cellar
The historic bottle cellar of **Marqués de Riscal** is located in the winery’s original building, whose construction began in 1860 in Elciego, Spain. It holds more than 130,000 bottles, including vintages dating back to the winery’s first bottled year, 1862. Rather than being simply a large stock for everyday service, the collection preserves the winery’s history across generations.
6 The Restaurant Latour collection
Restaurant Latour at Crystal Springs Resort in New Jersey has been associated with a major wine cellar. A 2016 wine-collecting feature reported a collection of about 100,000 bottles and described a laboratory using nuclear magnetic resonance technology to help examine wines without opening them. This is a historical reported figure, not a confirmed current inventory.
7 The Tofik Koweri collection
Older accounts of major private wine cellars have described a collection belonging to American property developer Tofik Koweri. The collection was said to contain just under 65,000 bottles, with the owner gradually selling some of them. Because this estimate comes from older reporting and I could not confirm a recent inventory, it should be understood as a historical figure rather than a current count.
8 The La Tour d’Argent cellar
The Paris restaurant **La Tour d’Argent** has one of the best-known restaurant wine cellars in France. Its current website describes a cellar of nearly 300,000 bottles and around 15,000 wine references. The cellar was brought together in 1914 from collections associated with the Café Anglais and La Tour d’Argent. Its extensive wine list is a major part of the restaurant’s identity.
9 The Leslie Rudd collection at PRESS
American entrepreneur and wine enthusiast Leslie Rudd helped create an extensive cellar for PRESS Restaurant in Napa Valley, California. A 2012 report said the cellar could hold up to 10,000 bottles and focused exclusively on wines from Napa Valley. It included older vintages and selections from some of the region’s pioneering producers. This figure describes the cellar’s reported capacity at the time, not necessarily its current stock.
10 The Charlie Trotter collection
The late American chef Charlie Trotter built a celebrated wine cellar at his Chicago restaurant. When the restaurant closed in 2012, more than 4,000 bottles from the collection were put up for auction through Christie’s. The sale included wines from major regions around the world, including Burgundy, Bordeaux and California. Since the collection was auctioned, it is best regarded as a notable former restaurant cellar, not an active collection.
A large wine collection can be measured by its number of bottles, its range of producers and vintages, or the rarity and history of individual bottles. The figures above come from different dates and sources, so they are not a strict, up-to-date ranking of the world’s largest cellars.
