Parker Wine and Dine Date Goes for $100K

Auction fever drives up the price of a wine tasting with the world's best-known critic to crazy heights.

How much would you pay for lunch with Robert Parker? One unnamed man from China spent $100,000 for the privilege.

An auction lot of lunch for 11 with Parker, including 24 wines from his cellar, sold for $100,000 Friday at the Heart's Delight charity event in Washington, D.C. The winning bidder had to go that high because he had a lot of competition.

Several DC-based wine collectors were actively bidding on it, and the room went silent once the item hit $75,000," said David White, auction committee co-chair. But the bidding went on until the round number was reached.

This is a big jump on the price of previous dinners with Parker, which reached $25,000 several times, but never topped it.

"This demonstrates that Robert Parker still has enormous influence in the wine world," White told Wine Searcher. "Using his influence to raise money for such a good cause is extremely generous, and worth applauding."

It costs more to dine with Parker than with President Barack Obama. In 2013, a Los Angeles car salesman paid $32,400 to have lunch with Obama and two dozen other big campaign donors. Of course, Obama probably did not bring 2001 Screaming Eagle, as Parker did to an auction lunch in 2012.

Obama is only the leader of the free world, and not the world's most appealing lunch date. That title might have to go to investor Warren Buffett. At least five different times, lunches with Buffett have sold for more than $2 million at auction, including a $3.46 million bid in 2012. And Buffett doesn't even drink wine.

Lunch with Bill and Hillary Clinton sold for $500,000 last year, though the winner was told he would have to pay double to bring his two kids along. Jeb Bush, potentially Clinton's opponent in the 2016 election, is still a bargain at $12,500 for lunch, and unlike his ex-President brother, he does drink.

Parker has not released a list of wines he will bring to the lunch, but to the 2012 event, he brought seven red Bordeaux, six Châteauneuf-du-Pape, three white Burgundies, two Sonoma Chardonnays and six famous California Cabernets, including 1997 Peter Michael "Les Pavots" Cabernet, 1991 Dalla Valle "Maya", 1997 Heitz Martha's Vineyard Cabernet, 1996 Araujo Eisele Vineyard Cabernet and 1985 Chateau Montelena.

By W. Blake Gray, Wine Searcher