You plonkers! Daughter, 19, opens her father's £2,000 vintage Petrus to make sangria at house party with her friends after it was saved for 17 years

Having kept it safe for nearly two decades, Pete Jones was looking forward to the day he would finally open his prized bottle of wine on a special occasion.

But the restaurateur expat’s dream of savouring his 1999 vintage Petrus, worth £2,000, was shattered when his teenage daughter and her friends used it to make sangria.

The British father, 56, who has lived in Madrid for more than 20 years, had gone out for the evening to allow youngest daughter Lara, 19, to host a party for her friends.

When he woke last Saturday morning, his treasured bottle was nowhere to be seen.

The restaurateur expat’s dream of savouring his 1999 vintage Petrus, worth £2,000, was shattered when his teenage daughter and her friends used it to make sangria. He is pictured above with daughters Lara and Sele

When he quizzed Lara in a text, she replied: ‘I hope it wasn’t expensive… I think my friends drank it.’ He informed her it was a ‘€2,500 bottle’. Rather than hitting the roof, he blamed himself for leaving the bottle in plain view with a bunch of teenagers in the house.

‘I am just gutted that after saving it for 17 years, I didn’t even get to taste it,’ he said. 

‘And the tragic thing is, neither did they, well not properly. It was used to make a tinto de verano’, the typically Spanish summer drink of red wine mixed with soda and poured over ice. Usually the cheapest red wine is used, often from a carton.

When he quizzed Lara in a text, she replied: ‘I hope it wasn’t expensive… I think my friends drank it.’ He informed her it was a ‘€2,500 bottle’

‘I got home and the party was in full swing. I had a drink with them, did some embarrassing dancing in the kitchen, then headed up to bed to leave them to it,’ Mr Jones said. 

He also left the bottle from Bordeaux estate Chateau Petrus on display and it was opened around 5am. The famous wine maker only produces about 30,000 bottles a year, and its product is consistently ranked among the most expensive in the world.

‘It used to be hidden away in the cellar. But I got it out recently to show a friend… and I hadn’t got round to putting it back,’ the distraught dad admitted. The next day, he ran to the bottle bank near their home to check as Lara had disposed of the recyclables.

‘There it was. A dusty old Petrus lying empty on top of all the beer bottles. My daughter didn’t believe me when I told her how much it was actually worth. Then she cried a lot and asked if I could ever forgive her,’ he said.

Mr Jones bought the wine by accident while in a rush on Christmas Eve in 2004, telling a shop owner to get him ‘a bottle from the top shelf’. He added: ‘My wife, Silv, was furious but I explained it away by insisting it was a vintage from the year of our eldest daughter’s birth and we could keep it to drink with her on a special occasion.’

He has had to break the news to Sele, 21, that her birthday vintage had been opened without her. 

The famous wine maker only produces about 30,000 bottles a year, and its product is consistently ranked among the most expensive in the world