Year of the Comet is a 1992 romantic comedy adventure film directed by Peter Yates and starring Tim Daly, Penelope Ann Miller, and Louis Jourdan in his final film role. The film was written by William Goldman and produced by Alan Brown and Phil Kellogg. The plot concerns the pursuit of the most valuable bottle of wine in history. The title refers to the year it was bottled, 1811, which was known for the Great Comet of 1811, and also as one of the best years in history for European wine.

Margaret Harwood, the mousy daughter of esteemed wine merchant Sir Mason Harwood, discovers a magnum of wine, vintage 1811, bearing Napoleon's seal. Sir Mason instantly offers it to his best customer, T.T. Kelleher, who sends his friend, Oliver Plexico, to retrieve it. Three other interested parties converge on the valuable rarity: a Greek billionaire, to whom Margaret's unscrupulous brother has independently sold the bottle; an amoral French scientist, who believes the label conceals the secret to a rejuvenation formula that he will kill to obtain; and a murderous thug, who wants to sell it himself.

The bottle changes hands several times as the parties race across Europe from the Scottish Highlands to Èze. In the end, the criminals are defeated, and Margaret and Oliver fall in love. Sir Mason offers the bottle in private auction to both the legitimate "owners", but they are outbid by Oliver, who is revealed as a multimillionaire adventurer scientist. Against advice, Oliver opens the $5 million bottle and freely shares the excellent wine.

William Goldman said he was inspired to write the film by his love of red wine, and a desire to do a romantic adventure comedy thriller in the vein of Charade (1963). He wanted to set it in the most romantic places he knew (London, the Scottish highlands, the French Riviera) which meant it became a chase focusing around a bottle of wine. Goldman created a wine, the most valuable in history, making it a large bottle for dramatic purposes. "It was written out of blind passion," said Goldman, who said the title was a reference to the greatest year in French wine production, the year of the comet, when a comet passed over France.

He wrote the script in 1978, the second of a three-picture deal he had with Joseph E. Levine following A Bridge Too Far. Goldman says he had Glenda Jackson in mind for the female lead, with Cary Grant his inspiration for the male lead (although Levine wanted to use Robert Redford).

The script was not filmed in the late 1970s. When Levine died rights passed to his wife Rosalie. In the late 1980s Goldman wrote two successful films for Castle Rock Productions, The Princess Bride and Misery. At his suggestion, Castle Rock bought the script from Rosalie Levine. It was then known as A Very Good Year.

Goldman said Castle Rock executives were "amazingly script-oriented. You sit with them — that is, Rob Reiner, Andy Scheinman, Marty Shafer — all three of them friends for 15 years. And they go over the (script), line by line, comma by comma. It's amazing to me that they'd be willing to do that. They all have a writer's mind, it's remarkable. Their theory is that they get the script right first, then shoot it."

Goldman suggested Peter Yates direct. The two men were friends, Yates living across the street in New York, and having collaborated on The Hot Rock.