Best end-of-the-world wine picks

Could the Mayan’s actually be right? As the clock ticks toward Dec. 21, 2012, people will be bracing for the end of the world --or at least finding a good excuse to party.

While you may not believe in the Mayan prophecy, your wish this week could be to try out an exquisite bottle of wine.

We asked the world's top winemakers and wine experts to share their choice of end-of-the-world wine. They may have expensive taste, but who needs to be thrifty at a time like this?

Rich Frank, former Disney executive and now owner of Frank Family Vineyards, says his pick would be a  bottle of Schrader CCS 2007. “Fred Schrader is not only a great friend with an amazing joie de vivre; he also knows how to make mind-boggling good wine”.

Mind boggling indeed!  With an average price of about $1,000 per bottle, this wine, which gets consistently high ratings, is something special -- and hard to get your hands on.

Peter Gago, chief winemaker at Penfolds, told us that he would go with the legendary 1900 Chateau Margaux. With a lofty price averaging around $23,500 per 750ml bottle, he surely will be living his last day to its fullest.

Gago added that he would make sure to have the 1928 Krug (which happens to also be the most expensive bottle of Champagne to ever sell at an auction -- $21,000) as a back-up, because, “hey, you just never know!”

Alessia Antinori, export manager and a winemaker for Marchesi Antinori, would spend her last moments drinking a 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild.  “This is truly the greatest wine I’ve ever tasted” she added.

Tom Matthews, executive editor of Wine Spectator, and Antinori have similar taste, although he’d go for a different vintage -- the 1953 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. “This is my birth year, from a winery whose owner, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, is one of my mentors in the wine business. I’ve had the wine on several occasions, all of which remain as landmark memories. It would bring my whole life back in a happy flash.” He joyfully noted.

Mark Oldman, wine expert and author, was confident in his choice. “It would be the 1962 vintage of the French red Burgundy La Tâche from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (average price around $12,000 per bottle).  A generous collector last year shared with me a bottle of this pleasure potion, which, despite its half century of age, was vigorous and seductive, spinning off notes of molasses, Asian spices, and forest underbrush.  Silky and remarkably persistent on the palate, it was a vinous Valhalla that astonishes the senses.”

Jeff Jenssen and Mike DeSimone, The World Wine Guys, had two very different views of how they would drink their last day away. DeSimone preferred a white wine -- a 2005 Corton Charlemagne --for his final day, perhaps paired with the perfect comfort food -- mac n’ cheese.  Jenssen settled on a 1953 Gevrey Chambertin. Both range in the hundreds rather than thousands of dollars --in case your budget is feeling squeezed.