A glass of wine with pudding? That will cost you £29, madam

A wine rated among the finest in the world is to be sold by the glass for the first time in London.

The highly prized Chateau d'Yquem, known as "the king of wines", will be available for £29 for a 100ml glass at Soho restaurant Bob Bob Ricard.

A 50ml "super sip" measure of the Sauternes pudding wine will also be on the wine list at £14.50.

Co-owner Leonid Shutov claimed it was the first time that Chateau d'Yquem, a favourite with City bankers, has been accessible at an affordable price. He said: "A lot of people would rather spend £30 on a really amazing glass of wine like this than £30 on a bottle of plonk."

Bob Bob Ricard will join a tiny band of restaurants in France, Monaco and Italy selling Chateau d'Yquem by the glass. It is rated so highly that under the official French classification system it has a band of its own, Premier Cru Supérieur. Grapes are selected individually and must have exactly the right amount of "noble rot" fungus on the skin. An entire vine will only produce one glass of wine. It is matured for three years after picking.

Mr Shutov has bought 672 half bottles of the 1996 vintage from the Bordeaux vineyard, which he expects to be enough to last nine months to a year. It will go on sale on February 8. Chateau d'Yquem is sold at a handful of other top London restaurants but only by the bottle or the half bottle. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay has a half bottle of the 1996 for £310.

The wine achieved notoriety in 2002 when a £9,200 bottle of the 1900 was sold to a group of Barclays bankers. They were celebrating a deal with a £44,000 lunch at West End restaurant Petrus.

The tasting notes on HarperWells wine website describe the 1996 Chateau d'Yquem as: "Light gold with a tight but promising nose of roasted hazelnuts intermixed with crème brûlée, vanilla beans, honey, orange marmalade and peaches."

It is as far from the Calpol-like syrups at the cheaper end of the scale as Château Pétrus - arguably its red wine equivalent - is from sangria. The taste is as smooth as honey-coated silk. But would I pay £29 for a glass? Out of curiosity on a very special occasion, perhaps. But I doubt it'll be my regular choice, even if it is now "affordable".