Rory McIlroy racks up US$65,000 wine bill at Champions dinner

After winning The Masters golf tournament last year, Rory McIlroy this week staged his Champions Dinner in the US state of Georgia, cherry-picking vintages worth an eyewatering sum from the Augusta National clubhouse wine cellar to share with his fellow champs. But which wines made the cut?

Photo credit: Active Magazine via Wiki Commons

Calling the annual Champions Dinner “one of the best traditions in the sport”, golfer Rory McIlroy was in the driver’s seat on Tuesday as he got his chance to host the prestigious event, held in the US state of Georgia and attended by all the previous winners of The Masters tournament.

And after 17 years of striving to win The Masters, he certainly didn’t do things by halves, with the dinner reported to be the most expensive in the tournament’s history.

Serving wines worth US$65,800, including Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Sauternes, McIlroy celebrated his 2025 win over Justin Rose with his peers.

Intentional selections

Accompanying fine dining dishes such as peach and ricotta flatbread with balsamic, hot honey and basil, yellowfin tuna carpaccio, and Wagyu Filet Mignon, McIlroy poured wines ranging from US$528 per bottle all the way up to $1,800 per bottle.

According to Golf Monthly, the champion described the wines as as “my favourite part of the menu”, adding: “I wanted to be really intentional with the wines. It’s something that I’m really into and passionate about and I have started to collect wine, probably over the past decade, I would say. To work with the sommeliers at the club and be able to choose these wines was a lot of fun.”

So which bottles did he extract from the Augusta National’s famous cellar to toast his success?

Veritable vintages

First up was fizz, with McIlroy handpicking Salon Cuvee ‘S’ Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Brut 2015, a Champagne produced in small quantities (about 50,000 bottles per year, and not every year) from vines aged more than 40 years in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, one of the top crus of the Côte des Blancs. The wine averages around $1,100 per bottle.

Next up came a rare Burgundy wine, with McIlroy calling the 2022 Domaine Leflaive Batard-Montrachet “the first-ever white wine that I actually liked.”. This is reported to have been the most expensive wine on the list, averaging $1,804 per 750ml bottle.

No dinner of this calibre would be complete without a first-growth Bordeaux, and so McIlroy selected the 1990 Château Lafite Rothschild, which he recalled drinking “the night that I won the Masters, so obviously brings back some great memories.” The Château Lafite Rothschild tends to sell for around $1,126 per bottle as the 1990 vintage is widely considered to be one of the French region’s best.

Finally, McIlroy chose the 1989 Château d’Yquem to accompany a dessert of sticky toffee pudding, the d’Yquem vintage being the golfer’s birth year. “I think every great meal deserves to be finished off with Château D’Yquem. It is like liquid gold,” he said. It also carries a golden price tag at around $528 per bottle.

As per tradition, not only does the reigning Masters champion have the privilege of choosing the menu for the Champions Dinner, but they also get to pick up the bill, which would have burned a £49,000 hole in McIlroy’s pocket. However, given that his prize purse from winning the 2025 tournament was $4.2 million, it may not quite have brought a tear to his eye.