Here are a few ideas for your next dinner party. Well, perhaps not, but I think you’ll like the story anyway. There seems to be a compulsion amongst champagne makers, and to be fair, amongst the makers of luxury goods of any type, to produce the most expensive product on the market and it seems the sky’s the limit. Fortunately most champagne makers are conscious of maintaining their hard-won reputation and realise that there’s no merit in the simple fact of being the most expensive unless there is some correspondingly stellar quality behind the astronomic price tag. Unfortunately, there’s always an exception...... Before we get to that, let’s have a quick look back of a few recent milestones: Dom Pérignon sets the pace Back in 2005 at the Cannes Film Festival, Dom Pérignon launched a very limited series of special Jeroboams ( these are 3 litre bottles, and therefore contain the equivalent of 4 normal bottles) Each one cost a mere 12,000 euros, which at the time probably took the prize for the most expensive champagne in the world. More recently,only last year in fact, Perrier Jouët, made play of the fact that they were launching a special edition of their prestige cuvée, Belle Epoque vintage 2000, at a price of just over 4,000 euros per bottle. "Wait a minute" I hear you say. 4,000 euros is less than the 12,000 of the Dom Pérignon jeroboams. True, but don’t forget that the DP jeroboams held 4 bottles, so at 16,000 euros for 4 bottles, the Perrier Jouët took the prize. But there’s more to come....... Tailor-made champagne Only a select band of celebrities could afford this price tag and each purchaser was invited to go to the Perrier Jouët cellars in Epernay where they had the chance to tailor-make the champagne according to their own taste. They got to decide on the finishing touch, the liqueur de dosage, which was adjusted according to their own liking so each purchaser’s champagne was unique to them.
Next the lucky buyer placed the champagne in a special presentaton box which was then placed in the cellars to rest a further 8 months until the champagne was finally ready to deliver and enjoy. I don’t know about you, but that seems a relatively small added value to justify a cost of over 4,000 euros a bottle, but perhaps I’m just fussy. Mind you the culmination of the story is yet to come... This very special cuvée was not on sale by the bottle, but only by the case, so 12 bottles was the minimum order, coming in at a cool 50,000 euros. Let’s not forget either the bottle of 1928 Krug which was sold, just a few months ago at an auction in Hong Kong, for 15,900 euros. Breaking the 100,000 barrier Moving on up, we come to this year’s Monaco Grand Prix and it’s Dom Pérignon centre stage once again. The world’s most glamorous Grand Prix, where some of the most chic and well-heeled celebrities congregate for the weekend, is a PR chance not to be missed. Dom Pérignon set up a Dom Pérignon Rosé club in one of the most luxurious hotels where guests could not only enjoy sipping the sublime Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1998 but had the chance to buy something very special: a pink guitar case designed by Karl Lagerfeld containing, not a guitar, but 3 bottles of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1996 2 bottles of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1986 1 bottle of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1966 And the price??? A snip at 100,000 euros – including delivery of course. Beyond 100,000 $ £ or € What I would usually regard as the current record must go to the bottles of 1907 Heidsieck champagne salvaged a few years ago from a shipwreck off the coast of Finland. Some 200 bottles of champagne were found, in perfect condition, at the bottom of the sea and have now gone on sale at The Ritz Carlton hotel in Moscow where the price is $275,000 a bottle. I don’t know if it’s available by the glass. And now, from the sublime to.... what shall I say? Something less uplifting. I could hardly believe my eyes when I came across Le Billionaire Champagne the other day and it wasn’t just the price of $2.75 million per bottle that made my eyes water; it was just the way it looked. See for yourself
3 Dom Pérignon champagne flutes,
The description tells me that each one is attired in rich designer wear, studded with diamonds and topped with a Shapka, a Russian fur hat. Maybe I’m being a boring old xxxx, but to me it looked more like a hot water bottle cover. Apparently, there will be 5 only of these 9 litre salmanazars (equivalent to 12 botles) made available for sale, but if only one sells I guess Mr. Verres will be laughing all the way to the bank anyway. Mind you, I do admire Mr. Verres’s "bottle" in the cockney sense of the word. The sheer confidence to dream up such a price tag is evidence of admirable self-confidence, and I have to say that in not even pretending to say anything about the champagne inside the bottle, we at least know from the outset that this is all about the price tag and not much else besides. I think I’ll go for the Dom Pérignon Rosé. What about you? ---
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