What is the most expensive champagne you can buy?
Dom Pérignon
Until the 1943 vintage, Dom Pérignon was produced from regular vintage Moët & Chandon Champagne that was transferred to the special 18th century-style bottles after extended cellaring. It was, thus, effectively an ""oenothèque"" release of Moët & Chandon Vintage Champagne in a different bottle. From the 1947 vintage, Dom Pérignon has been produced separately from the start.
Patek Philippe SA
Patek Philippe is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious watch manufacturers in the world. Over the years, notable Patek Philippe patrons and timepieces owners include Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, Pope Pius IX, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Leo Tolstoy and so on. As of 2018, among the world's top ten most expensive watches ever sold at auctions, seven are Patek Philippe watches. In particular, Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication, the world's most complicated mechanical watch until 1989, currently holds the title of the most expensive watch ever sold at auction, reaching a final price of 24 million US dollars (23,237,000 CHF) in Geneva on November 11, 2014.
Champagne
There are more than one hundred Champagne houses and 19,000 smaller " (vine-growing producers) in Champagne. These companies manage some 32,000 hectares of vineyards in the region. The type of Champagne producer can be identified from the abbreviations followed by the official number on the bottle:In the 19th century, Champagne was produced and promoted to mark contemporary political events, for example, the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1893, Columbus's discovery of America, and Tennis Court Oath to mark the centennial of French Revolution. By selling champagne as a nationalist ideology, négociant manages to associate champagne with leisure activities and sporting events. In addition, négociant successfully appeal champagne to broader consumers by introducing the different qualities of sparkling wine, associating champagne brands with royalty and nobility, and selling off-brands under the name of the importer from France at a lower cost. Though selling off-brands at a lower expense proved to be unsuccessful since "there was an assumption that cheap sparkling wine was not authentic." From the start to end of Belle Époque period, champagne has gone from a regional product with a niche market audience to a national commodity that distributed globally.
French wine
Champagne, situated in eastern France, close to Belgium and Luxembourg, is the coldest of France's major wine regions and home to its major sparkling wine. Champagne wines can be both white and rosé. A small amount of still wine is produced in Champagne using (as AOC Coteaux Champenois) of which some can be red wine.
History of Champagne
However, by the end of the 18th century non-sparkling pinkish wine production still accounted for over 90% of the Champagne region's production. The French Revolution and following Napoleonic wars temporarily derailed the popularity surge for Champagne. To save some of their noble clients from the guillotine, Champagnes merchants altered business records by replacing the titles of their clients with "Citizen". As many nobles fled to other countries, the merchants did their best to make sure cases of their favorite Champagne followed. During the Napoleonic wars, Europeans ports were subject to an endless stream of blockading and counter-blockading. Sales agents like Louis Bohne of Veuve Clicquot devised creative schemes to smuggle their wines to their clients. The agents even tried to turn both victory and defeat into sales opportunities. During Napoleon's invasion of Russia, Charles-Henri Heidsieck traveled by horseback ahead of the French Imperial Army on their way to Moscow. Armed with cases of Champagne, Heidsieck was prepared to do business with whoever was the victor. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Champagne region itself was occupied by Russian forces. During the occupation, Champagne was used as requisition and tribute. As her cellar was being emptied of her wine, the Widow Cliquot is reported to have said "Today they drink. Tomorrow they will pay". Her words would be prophetic because for the next century, until the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian empire would be the second largest consumer of Champagne in the world.
Torosay Castle
In July 2008 the then oldest bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne was discovered inside a sideboard in Torosay Castle. The 1893 bottle was in mint condition. It is believed to have been locked inside the dark sideboard since at least 1897. The champagne is now on display at the Veuve Clicquot visitor centre in Reims, France, and regarded as "priceless".
Château d'Yquem
In July 2011, an 1811 bottle of Château d'Yquem sold for £75,000 ($117,000) at the Ritz in London to a private collector, Christian Vannequé, to become the most expensive bottle of white wine ever sold.
The Macallan distillery
In 2010, a bottle of The Macallan 64-year-old single malt whisky in a one-of-a-kind "Lalique: Cire Perdue" crystal decanter was sold for $460,000 at an auction at Sotheby's in New York City. All proceeds from the sale were donated to , an organization that helps provide access to clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. In 2012, The Macallan received the Guinness World Record for the most expensive whisky ever sold at auction.
Diamond color
Fancy-colored diamonds such as the deep-blue Hope Diamond are among the most valuable and sought-after diamonds in the world. In 2009 a blue diamond fetched the then highest price per carat ever paid for a diamond when it was sold at auction for 10.5 million Swiss francs (US$9.5 million at the time) which is in excess of US$1.3 million per carat. This record was broken in 2013 when an orange diamond sold for US$35 million or US$2.4 million per carat. It was again broken in 2016 when the Oppenheimer Blue, a vivid blue diamond became the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction. It is the largest fancy vivid blue diamond classified by the Gemological Institute of America ever sold at auction; it sold at Christie's in Geneva in May 2016 for US$50.6 million. The record was broken again by the pink star diamond On 3 April 2017, the Pink Star was sold at an auction in Hong Kong for US$71.2 m (553 million Hong Kong dollars including fees) to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises.(GBP 34.7m; 56.83m SFr).
Champagne Krug
Krug Champagne is a Champagne house founded by Joseph Krug in 1843. It is based principally in Reims, the main city in France's Champagne region and is one of the famous Champagne houses that formed part of the Grande Marques. Today the house is majority owned by the multinational conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton S.A. whose portfolio includes other well known wine brands such as Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Château d'Yquem and Ruinart. Despite LVMH's majority ownership, the Krug family is still actively involved in all the key decisions of the house but does not manage the day-to-day operations.
Champagne in popular culture
Champagne has long been associated with stars of rock and pop music. In the song "Killer Queen" by Queen, Freddie Mercury is quoted as saying "She keeps Moet et Chandon in her pretty cabinet."
Since the late 1990s, high-end champagne brands have been featured in rap and hip hop music and videos; bottles featured in videos are often quite blingy and distinctive, often gold. The Louis Roederer brand Cristal, with a gold label, has seen increased popularity since the mid-to-late 1990s due to its association with rap and hip hop artists, notably the New York rappers Biggie Smalls (the Notorious B.I.G.), Puff Daddy, and Jay-Z. This high-end image has been cultivated and managed by Cristal's US importer, Maisons Marques. Since 2006, Cristal has seen a loss of popularity and some boycotts, notably by Jay-Z, due to statements perceived as racist, with other champagnes such as Armand de Brignac (gold bottle) making inroads.
Armand de Brignac
In June 2011 Mark Cuban spent $90,000 on a 15-liter bottle (10 magnum bottles) of Armand de Brignac in celebration of the Dallas Mavericks' NBA Championship. A week later, the Boston Bruins "one-upped" the Mavericks' celebration by purchasing a 30-liter bottle of Armand de Brignac—dubbed the "Midas"—for $100,000. At the time of the purchase, the Midas bottle was one of six bottles released to date worldwide. It is the largest bottle of Champagne available in the world and is only made by Armand de Brignac. In late June 2011, American blackjack legend Don Johnson reportedly spent £120,000 on a bottle of Armand de Brignac Midas champagne at the One For One nightclub in London, to break the world record for the most expensive bottle of champagne ever bought. In total Johnson spent £170,000 ($271,000) on drinks in one night.
List of most expensive watches sold at auction
As of December 2018, the most expensive watch/pocket watch ever sold at auction is the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication, reaching a final price of 23.98 million US dollars (23,237,000 CHF) in Geneva on November 11th, 2014. The most expensive wristwatch ever sold at auction, however, is the Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona, reaching a final price of 17.75 million US dollars in New York on October 26th, 2017.
Château Le Pin
Château Le Pin, or simply Le Pin, is a Bordeaux wine from the appellation Pomerol. The unusually small estate is located on the Right Bank of France’s Gironde estuary in the commune of Pomerol in the hamlet of Catusseau, and its wine is frequently one of the world's most expensive red wines.
Burgundy
Burgundy is one of France's main wine producing areas. It is well known for both its red and white wines, mostly made from Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes, respectively, although other grape varieties can be found, including Gamay, Aligote, Pinot blanc, and Sauvignon blanc. The region is divided into the Côte-d'Or, where the most expensive and prized Burgundies are found, and Beaujolais, Chablis, the Côte Chalonnaise and Mâcon. The reputation and quality of the top wines, together with the fact that they are often produced in small quantities, has led to high demand and high prices, with some Burgundies ranking among the most expensive wines in the world.
Saint Helena
Saint Helena produces what is said to be the most expensive coffee in the world. It also produces and exports Tungi Spirit, made from the fruit of the prickly or cactus pears, Opuntia ficus-indica ("Tungi" is the local St Helenian name for the plant). Like Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha, Saint Helena is permitted to issue its own postage stamps, an enterprise that provides a significant income.
Grower Champagne
Grower Champagnes are those Champagnes that are produced by the same estate that owns the vineyards where the grapes are grown. "Récoltant-Manipulant" is the term in French, and Grower Champagnes can be identified by "RM" on the wine label. While large Champagne houses, such as Mumm, Moët et Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and others may use grapes sourced from as many as 80 different vineyards in the Champagne region to create a consistent house style, Grower Champagnes tend to be more "terroir"-focused, being sourced from a single vineyard or closely located vineyards around a village, and made with grapes which vary with each vintage. Today there are over 19,000 independent growers in the Champagne region, accounting for nearly 88% of all vineyard land in the region; around 5,000 of these growers produce wine from their own grapes. Of the Champagne imported into the US in 2014, only 5% was grower Champagne.
Avize
Located in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, Avize is a village wine with many Champagne houses. About 400 winegrowers harvest 3,350 tons of grapes annually. Its fermentation within the 12 km of the city cellars gave birth to the most prestigious wines of Champagne: "Blanc de blancs". A treasure with flavors of orange and grapefruit that attracted the most beautiful houses in Avize: Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Champagne Roederer. Major champagne houses were founded in Avize as De Cazanove (1811), Koch (1820), or Bricout (1966).
Champagne Salon
Salon is made from 100% Chardonnay. Its grapes are harvested from various growers in the commune Le Mesnil-sur-Oger in the Côte des Blancs subregion of Champagne and from a proprietary vineyard known as Jardin de Salon. While the village-wide terms used for classification in the Champagne region don't carry the same meaning as in Burgundy, Chablis or Alsace, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger is a Grand cru-rated vineyard area, which is the highest of three levels. Of the vineyards that produce their Champagne, Salon's own Jardin de Salon comprises only 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of planted grapes. The majority of the grapes for Champagne Salon comes from the 20 contract growers with vineyards in the Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. These vines average around 25 years of age with some being as old as 40.
Penfolds
In June 2012 Penfolds released a limited edition run of the "2004 Block 42" wine that was only sold in glass ampoules. The wine was labelled by the "Huffington Post" publication as "the most expensive wine directly sold from a winery in the world", as the winery sought US$168,000 for each of the ampoules. The glass ampoules were designed and hand-blown by Australian glass artist Nick Mount.
Baijiu
Low grades of baijiu can be inexpensive; a bottle of roughly 250 ml (8 oz) may be purchased for the same price as a can of beer. However, higher grades, which are often aged for many years, can command much higher prices. The highest grade of Wuliangye retails for (US$3,375). Some popular baijiu brands include Kweichow Moutai, Red Star Erguotou, Luzhou Laojiao, and Wuliangye.
Amedei Porcelana
A 1.8 oz bar sells in the United States for between US$12.95 and $18.99. The often-quoted price of this chocolate is $90 a pound. While Amedei Porcelana has often been called the world's most expensive chocolate, sources such as a 2006 article by "Forbes" magazine give examples of chocolates that sell for as much or more, although these examples refer more to chocolate in praline form or with the addition of pure gold to the packaging, while the assertion about Amedei Porcelana should be interpreted more as the cost of a pure chocolate bar or that of original cocoa beans, without taking into consideration any special packaging or manufacturing extra cost.
Grande Champagne
Cru is a French word for Growth Region. There are six different sub-regions (Cru) within Cognac. Each is graded by the French government according to the quality of the cognac produced there. The six Cru are from best to least, (1) Grande Champagne (2) Petite Champagne (3) Borderies (4) Fins Bois (5) Bons Bois and (6) Bois Ordinaires. Grande champagne is the first (and, according to many connoisseurs, the favored) cru.
A blend of Grande and Petite Champagne Cognacs, with at least half the eaux-de-vie coming from Grande Champagne, is known as Fine Champagne.
Louis Roederer
Champagne is a blend of wines from different locations. Thanks to its vineyards, Louis Roederer has a vast palette of the finest wines from which to create its "cuvées". Not all of these wines are used immediately. Some are set aside to age in large oak casks in the reserve wine cellar; at a later date they will either be included in the blends of Louis Roederer's Brut Premier champagne to ensure quality, or be used for the dosage in the "liqueur d'expédition". The reserve wines destined for the "liqueur d'expédition" are selected from the best wines from each vintage. Pinot noir and Chardonnay wines from eight to ten different crus are blended together and matured in oak vats for up to ten years. The reserve wine cellar contains several thousand litres of reserve wines.
Starbucks collectibles
Starbucks cups and mugs are even more popular as the most desirable of Starbucks' product. WikiBooks carries a “Guide to Collectible Mugs/Starbucks City Mugs”. The most recent highest priced auction on eBay for mugs was a Starbucks Complete Skyline set of 48 City Mugs for $10,000. The highest price paid for a single Starbucks coffee mug occurred on June 2, 2013 with the purchase of a 2007 Japan mug for $1,375.00USD. The original price of all Starbucks mugs originally runs between $8.95 and $18.95 USD. In August 2013, Starbucks released a special limited edition Swarovski crystal Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte cup for $150 per cup. A pre-order message was sent out to current registered Starbucks customers and the cup sold out in less than 2 days.
Dartz
Dartz's "Prombron" Monaco Red Diamond Edition was shown at the 2010 Top Marques in Monaco, with an expected price of €1,000,000 ($1.25 million), it would become the world's most expensive SUV. The features included white gold-ruby encrusted embedded badges as well as gold-plated, bullet-proof windows, an exhaust system made out of tungsten, diamond-ruby encrustedgauges, a Kevlar exterior coating, and leather made out of whale penises, though the latter was dropped. It also comes with three bottles of the world's most expensive vodka, "RussoBaltique".
Kari Innerå
In the morning of May 2, 2011, thieves broke into Cru vine & kjøkken and stole 100 bottles of expensive wine and champagne worth US$40,000–50,000, including a Romanée-Conti, La Tâche Grand Cru 1972 and top wines from Château d'Yquem, Liger-Belair, Jacques Selosse and Dom Pérignon. Because of the fact that some of the wines were absolutely irreplaceable, owner and chef Kari Innerå announced a bounty of US$10,000 for those who could contribute to the clarification of the robbery. The robbery was never solved.
Romanée-Conti
Romanée-Conti has been called "one of the greatest wines of the world and the most perfect as well as the most expensive of Burgundy ... with a forceful bouquet of violet mixed with a scent of cherry, a lively and profound ruby robe, a suaveness of exceptional finesse." The wine has been highly regarded for centuries. In 1780, the Archbishop of Paris declared it "velvet and satin in bottles." A 1794 catalogue entry for an auction of the vineyard during the Revolutionary era claimed that:
It is a vineyard famed for the excellent quality of its wine. Its situation in the vineyard territory of Vosne is the most advantageous for the perfect ripening of the grapes; higher in the west than in the east, it receives the first rays of the sun in all seasons, being thus imbued with the impetus of the greatet heat of the day... We cannot disguise the fact that the wine of La Romanée is the most excellent of all those of the Côte d'Or and even of all the vineyards of the French Republic: weather permitting, this wine always distingishes itself from those of the other "terroirs" of predilection; its brilliant and velvety colour, its ardour, and its scent charm all the senses. Well kept, it always improves as it approaches its eighth or tenth year... Wine critic Clive Coates praised the Romanée-Conti as: "the purest, most aristocratic and most intense example of Pinot noir you could possibly imagine. Not only nectar: a yardstick with which to judge all other Burgundies." Roald Dahl once wrote of it, "Sense for me this perfume! Breathe this bouquet! Taste it! Drink it! But never try to describe it! Impossible to give an account of such a delicacy with words! To drink Romanée-Conti is equivalent to experiencing an orgasm at once in the mouth and in the nose."
Oceanique
Known for its extensive wine collection of nearly 900 wines, rare Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and California Cabernet can be purchased there. The reserve library includes well known labels such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Angelo Gaja, and Domaine Leroy. As a result, Oceanique has consistently won the Wine Spectator Magazine’s ""Best of Award of Excellence"" every year since 1993. There is no corkage fee on Mondays for guests who wish to BYO. On other days the corkage fee is $30. Within its menu, Oceanique utilizes an old Polish proverb: "Fish, to taste right, must swim three times: in water, in butter, and in wine". Wine pairings are offered as well, and the sommelier helps to pair a wine that will bring the flavor out of the entree the customer chooses. Oceanique offers wine-paired dinners that come in three levels and at varying prices. The first is the Introductory Cru Pairing, second is the Intermediate Cru Pairing, and the third is the Grand Cru Pairing.
Champagne
Contrary to legend and popular belief, Dom Pérignon did not invent sparkling wine, though he did make important contributions to the production and quality of both still and sparkling Champagne wines. The oldest recorded sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, which was apparently invented by Benedictine Monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire, near Carcassonne in 1531. They achieved this by bottling the wine before the initial fermentation had ended. Over a century later, the English scientist and physician Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar to a finished wine to create a second fermentation, six years before Dom Pérignon set foot in the Abbey of Hautvillers. Merret presented a paper at the Royal Society, in which he detailed what is now called "", in 1662. Merret's discoveries coincided also with English glass-makers' technical developments that allowed bottles to be produced that could withstand the required internal pressures during secondary fermentation. French glass-makers at this time could not produce bottles of the required quality or strength. As early as 1663 the poet Samuel Butler referred to "brisk champagne".
Champagne
In April 2015, nearly five years after the bottles were first found, researchers led by Philippe Jeandet, a professor of food biochemistry, released the findings of their chemical analyses of the Champagne, and particularly noted the fact that, although the chemical composition of the 170-year-old Champagne was very similar to the composition of modern-day Champagne, there was much more sugar in this Champagne than in modern-day Champagne, and it was also less alcoholic than modern-day Champagne. The high sugar level was characteristic of people's tastes at the time, and Jeandet explained that it was common for people in the 19th century, such as Russians, to add sugar to their wine at dinner. It also contained higher concentrations of minerals such as iron, copper, and table salt than modern-day Champagne does.
World Stamp Show-NY 2016
Around 3,800 competitive exhibit frames displayed stamp presentations in numerous categories created by collectors from over 70 countries. Several famous and rare stamps were shown in the Court of Honor, including the world's most expensive, the unique 1856 British Guiana 1c magenta, which was sold by Sotheby's to an anonymous buyer (later identified as shoe designer and businessman Stuart Weitzman) on June 17, 2014 for a record $9.48 million.
Taittinger
Taittinger () is a French wine family who are famous producers of Champagne. The estate is headed by Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger (born 1953), a member of the consultative committee of the Banque de France. Its diversified holdings included Champagne Taittinger, Société du Louvre and Concorde Hotels, whose flagship is the famed Hotel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France as well as the Loire Valley wine producing firm of Bouvet-Ladubay, and a partnership in Domaine Carneros in California, until it was sold to Starwood Capital in 2005.
Laurent-Perrier
Laurent-Perrier rose to become the world's third best selling champagne brand as of 2005, behind Moët et Chandon and Veuve Clicquot.
PlumpJack Winery
PlumpJack Winery was the first Napa Valley winery to use the Stelvin screwcap closure on its most expensive bottling. John Conover, General Manager of the winery, announced at the Napa Valley Wine Auction that half (150 cases) of PlumpJack's 1997 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon would be available upon release with a Stelvin screwcap closure, and that those bottles would cost $10 USD more than those in the 150 cases closed with cork. At $135 per bottle, many in the wine industry were skeptical of the decision. As part of the screwcap program at PlumpJack, bottles with the screwcap closure from each vintage since 1997 have been analyzed by researchers in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California at Davis. Bottles using both closure technologies from the 1997 vintage will undergo a more extensive chemical analysis in 2010.
Veuve Clicquot
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin () is a French Champagne house based in Reims, specializing in premium products. It was founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot and is one of the largest champagne houses in the world. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and inventing the riddling table process to clarify champagne in 1816. In 1818, she invented the first known blended rosé champagne by blending still red and white champagne wines. This process is still used today by the majority of champagne producers.
Vitacura
This commune is one of the most expensive and fashionable areas of Santiago, with the most of the world's luxury boutiques are located in Vitacura, which includes Louis Vuitton, Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, Swarovski, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ermenegildo Zegna, Brooks Brothers, Hermès, MaxMara, Bang & Olufsen, Hugo Boss and many more.
Delbeck
Delbeck was a Flemish banker who invested in vineyards, and the husband of baronne Balsamie Ponsardin who was a niece of the Veuve Clicquot. Delbeck champagne found favour with the court of Louis-Philippe of France, and was in 1838 named the official Champagne of the French monarchy. Subsequently Delbeck is the exclusive Champagne allowed to bear the royal emblem & the motto "Fournisseurs de l'Ancienne Cour de France". The reputation of Delbeck grew during the years 1870 to 1912, and in 1884 it was the 3rd largest Champagne imported to the United States and Canada.
Château Canon-la-Gaffelière
From a small plot of limestone near Château Pavie-Macquin, originally purchased by Joseph-Hubert von Neipperg in 1971 when it was named Château La Mondotte, the "terroir" initially produced crops that struggled to ripen and did not meet expectations. Using the most modern techniques, the word "château" was omitted to emphasise a new start, and that the little house on the property is hardly a château, La Mondotte was launched with the 1996 vintage. With its extreme characteristics, it is alternately referred to as a ""super-cuvée"" or a ""garage wine"", and has become one of the most expensive wines of Bordeaux.
Veuve Clicquot
Veuve Clicquot is also credited with producing the first known blended rosé champagne in 1818. Ruinart was the first champagne house to sell rosé, tinting champagne with elderberry juice, in 1764. Barbe-Nicole produced rosé champagne by adding still red wine to its sparkling wine. Today, rosé champagne is made by adding pinot noir. This method is still used today to produce rosé champagne.
Cognac Croizet
On 24 September 2011 a single bottle of Cognac Croizet dating back to the single harvest of 1858 (Cuvee Leonie) was sold at auction in Shanghai, China for 1 million yuan (approx. $156,760). This cognac is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive cognac sold at auction. According to the World's Best Bartender's Guide by Joseph Scott it says on page 46 that "Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower plotted the allies victory in World War 2 over an 1858 Croizet that had been secreted out of France by the French Underground."
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, often abbreviated to DRC, is an estate in Burgundy, France that produces white and red wine. It is widely considered among the world's greatest wine producers, and DRC bottles are among the world's most expensive. It takes its name from the domaine's most famous vineyard, Romanée-Conti.
Vamp Nail Polish
According to the "New York Times" the color "dominated the imagination of the masses" in 1994. The day after Lagerfeld's runway show Madonna called Chanel's Paris office hoping to obtain some. By 1995 Chanel had diversified the concept into two similar shades as well as matching lipstick. These included a "purple and silvery" variety called "Metallic Vamp." The polish was priced at $15 a bottle and sold extremely well, with nationwide shortages for months after its introduction. It became Chanel's best selling product. By 1996 "Newsweek" was reporting that the color was "finally out of style," but even into 2000, it was the fifth best-selling nail polish in the world.
Champagne Riots
In the Champagne region, the production of Champagne is largely in the hands of producers who purchase grapes from independent growers. While some growers today produce wines under their own labels (known collectively as "grower Champagne"), in the early 20th century the immense amount of capital needed to produce Champagne was beyond the reach of most growers. Champagne houses were able to bear the large risk of losing a considerable amount of product from exploding bottles as well as the cost of maintaining storage facilities for the long, labor-intensive process of making Champagne. This dynamic created a system that favored the Champagne houses as the only source of revenue for the vineyard owners. If the Champagne houses did not buy their grapes, a grower had little recourse or opportunity for another stream of income.
Burgundy wine
Burgundy is home to some of the most expensive wines in the world, including those of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leroy, Henri Jayer, Emmanuel Rouget, Domaine Dugat-Py, Domaine Leflaive and Domaine Armand Rousseau. However, some top vintage first growth Bordeaux wines and a few iconic wines from the New World are more expensive than some "Grand" Cru class Burgundies.
AWC Fine Wine
Together with cabinet maker David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, AWC Fine Wine created the Grand Chateau Series. These handcrafted wine cabinets with architectural models of the top nine chateaux in Bordeaux each contain 18 bottles from the corresponding estate, produced during the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Château d'Yquem model is accompanied by a vertical collection of Chateau d’Yquem, spanning 141 consecutive vintages starting from 1868. This collection also includes several letters and memorabilia from the Château archives. It is valued at £1m. The other chateaux are each priced at £149,000.
In 2006 The Antique Wine Company sold a 135-year vertical collection (containing every vintage from 1860 to 2003) for $1.5 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a single lot of wine.
Drappier
Drappier is considered one of the finest boutique champagne producers in the world: this is because of the cellars where they store the wine, which are among the oldest and most extensive in Europe and also were the only cellars that weren't damaged during the two world wars or the fires that raced through the area in the 1950s.
Sparkling wine production
The so-called classic way (though not the oldest) to produce sparkling wine is popularly known as the "Champagne method" or "méthode classique" which is the official EU designation. Formerly, the designation was "méthode champenoise" but this designation is no longer permitted, as it involves a certain amount of renomée passing off. As the former designation suggests, the method is used for the production of most Champagne, and it is slightly more expensive than the Charmat method. Champagne in bottles of 375 ml, 750 ml and 1.5 liters must be produced with the traditional method, but smaller and larger bottles are usually produced with the "transfer method".
Screaming Eagle Winery and Vineyards
Jean Phillips, a former real estate agent, bought the 57 acre Oakville vineyard in 1986 which was planted to a mix of varieties, most of which Phillips sold to various Napa wineries except the , approximately 80 vines of Cabernet Sauvignon. For this one acre of Cabernet, Philips sought the opinions of Robert Mondavi Winery employees on the commercial potential of her wine before hiring Richard Peterson as a consultant, and subsequently met Peterson's daughter, Heidi Peterson Barrett, who became Screaming Eagle's first winemaker. The entire vineyard was replanted in 1995 to three varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The 1992 vintage, released in 1995, through a combination of very low production numbers and highly positive reviews (wine critic Robert Parker awarded the wine 99 points) resulted in Screaming Eagle becoming one of the most celebrated and expensive wines in the Napa Valley. Today the estate's flagship wine retails at an average price of $2,983 per bottle.
Duval-Leroy
In 1911 the ranking of champagne crus became official, establishing three tier system of “Grands Crus”, “Premiers Crus” and “Crus non classes”. Almost immediately, Raymond who had succeeded his father at the helm of the company, put on the market a new cuvee made exclusively from “premier crus”. It was the very first such cuvee at the time. On first tasting it he found it to have white flower aromas and decided to name it “fleur de champagne” which means “flower of champagne”. The cuvee was an immediate success, and still is, over a century later. In 2012 it won “Best Sparkling Wine” at the Shanghaï IWC.
Champagne in popular culture
Although often bearing little actual resemblance to the colour of the wine itself, the superlative-sounding name "champagne" is frequently used as a descriptor for the pale, yellowy-beige metallic hue popular with buyers of prestige automobiles, also of the colour of some high-value equestrian livestock, and some gemstones, especially diamonds. In the case of diamonds, any colouration used to be considered a defect which lowered prices considerably, until the idea came up to associate certain hues with Champagne.
The Macallan distillery
In 2007, a bottle of 1926 The Macallan was sold at a Christie's auction for $54,000, making it one of the most expensive bottles of whisky ever sold.
Château Margaux
A bottle of Château Margaux 1787 holds the record as the most expensive bottle of wine ever broken, insured at $225,000.
Avenue de Champagne
L'Avenue de Champagne (The Champagne Avenue) is a famous street located in Épernay, the 'Capital of champagne', in the Grand Est Région of France.
Tata Starbucks
According to the Latte Index, a ranking of the cost of a tall hot latte at Starbucks in 44 countries, India was the fifth most expensive country to purchase the beverage based on January 2016 prices. The index published by US-based consumer research firm ValuePenguin found that a tall hot latte cost US$7.99 in India, far higher than the $2.75 it costs in the cheapest country, the United States, but much lower than the $12.32 in the most expensive country, Russia.
Moët &amp; Chandon
Dom Pérignon (; ) is a brand of champagne produced by Moët & Chandon. It is named after Dom Pierre Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover the champagne method for making sparkling wines. Dom Pérignon was the first prestige cuvée, an idea proposed by Englishman Laurence Venn. The first vintage of Dom Pérignon was 1921 and was only released for sale in 1936. It is a vintage champagne, meaning that it is only made in the best years, and all grapes used to make the wine are harvested in the same year. Many champagnes, by contrast, are non-vintage, meaning that the champagne is made from grapes harvested in various years.
Emanuel Snowman
From 1925, Snowman made regular visits to Russia. He often travelled with Armand Hammer and they both established good relations with the Soviet authorities, allowing Snowman to obtain many exceptional works of art, including nine Fabergé eggs, intended for resale in London, which he acquired between 1925 and 1938. One of these was the Winter egg, which was the most expensive ever made, and which sold for a world record $9.6 million at Christie's in New York in 2002. Snowman's visits to the country continued until 1939.
Louis Bohne
Following the Prussian occupation of Reims, Louis Bohne and Barbe-Nicole Clicquot worked out a scheme to smuggle a large quantity of Veuve Clicquot's 1811 vintage "Cuvée de la Comète". While the Widow ("Veuve" in French) Clicquot distracted the stationed soldiers by opening up her cellars with all the champagne they could drink, Bohne coordinated the loading of a Dutch merchant vessel docked at Rouen with more than ten thousand bottles. Upon arrival in Königsberg, Bohne's shipment was met with eager enthusiasm by the Russian elite, with even the tsar himself making a visit. Soon the ban was lifted and a second shipment of this famous wine was quickly sent to Saint Petersburg. The first-to-market success of this venture firmly established Veuve Clicquot's stature as Russia became the second largest consumer of Champagne in the world.
Leonidas (chocolate maker)
Leonidas is one of the biggest chocolate companies in the world. Until 1966, a kilogram of chocolate could be bought for USD 3.30 (approximately EUR 2.50) as opposed to the price of EUR 25.00 per kilogram of chocolate in 2014. In 1983, Leonidas made the most filled chocolates of the Belgian chocolate producers and did not export past London. The fresh butter and cream used in Leonidas chocolate makes them expire faster and more difficult to export. When preservatives were added to the product, the freshest dairy cream was no longer usable. Still, Leonidas chocolate must be eaten within 49 days in average, which is six weeks minus transportation depending if it is cream based, contains alcohol or is foil wrapped or ganache (ganache lasts longer than 60 days). Despite its growth as a company, Leonidas is well-respected and still Belgian. The goods are made in an old plant not far from Brussels and flown at low temp to far stores in locations like Chicago and New York City. The old Crown-Baele factory at 41-43 Graindor Boulevard in Anderlecht remains the company headquarters. In 1993, the Rue au Beurre shop was opened. It is the largest Leonidas shop in the world with a staff of 20. In 2012, Leonidas has 350 shops in Belgium and nearly 1,250 stores in around 50 countries including 340 in France. Some Leonidas stores include a half-open counter to sell pralines to passersby. The company has always promoted the motto, “democracy in chocolate.” Marie Douailly, a French-born representative of Leonidas in Chicago, explains, “Our philosophy is still that you shouldn’t have to be rich to enjoy really good chocolate.”
Champagne
is the traditional method by which Champagne is produced. After primary fermentation and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. This second fermentation is induced by adding several grams of yeast "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" and rock sugar to the bottle - although each brand has its own secret recipe. According to the ' a minimum of 1.5 years is required to completely develop all the flavour. For years where the harvest is exceptional, a ' is declared and some Champagne will be made from and labelled as the products of a single vintage rather than a blend of multiple years' harvests. This means that the Champagne will be very good and has to mature for at least 3 years. During this time the Champagne bottle is sealed with a crown cap similar to that used on beer bottles.
Government Wine Cellar
The cellar is estimated to contain around 39,000 bottles of wine and spirits estimated at a value of over £2 million. This includes wines from Château Lafite, Cheval Blanc, Cos d’Estournel, Mouton Rothschild and Le Pin. It had previously held over seventeen different types of Champagne including a magnum of Champagne Krug 1964 and still holds such valuable spirits as an 1878 Grand Fins Bois Cognac and 1931 Quinta do Noval Port. English and Welsh wines are estimated to make up 44% of all those served in 2016, including Nyetimber’s demi-sec. The Foreign Office have stated that the most the cellar has ever spent on a single bottle of wine is £100.
Champagne
There are several general factors influencing the price of Champagne: the limited land of the region, the prestige that Champagne has developed worldwide, and the high cost of the production process, among possible others.
Stork Club
Owner Billingsley was well known for his extravagant gifts presented to his favorite patrons, spending an average of $100,000 a year on them. They included compacts studded with diamonds and rubies, French perfumes, Champagne and liquor, and even automobiles. Many of the gifts were specially made for the Stork Club, with the club's name and logo on them. Some of the best known examples were the gifts of "Sortilège" perfume by Le Galion, which became known as the "fragrance of the Stork Club". Billingsley convinced Arthur Godfrey, Morton Downey, and his own assistant, Steve Hannigan, to form an investment group with him to obtain the United States distributorship of the fragrance. The partners expanded into the sale of soap, cosmetics and other sundries under the Stork Club name. They called the business Cigogne—the French word for stork; the line was carried by various drug and department stores in the United States. Every female guest of the club received a small vial of perfume and a tube of Stork Club lipstick as souvenirs of her visit. It was also Billingsley's standard practice to send every regular club patron a case of Champagne at Christmas.
Louis Roederer
The first Cuvée de Prestige (Prestige Cuvée) of Champagne was created in 1876 by Louis Roederer to satisfy the demanding tastes of Tsar Alexander II and is called Cristal, referring to the aspect of the bottle. In 1876, Tsar Alexander II pointed out to his sommelier that the design of a standard champagne bottle made the beautiful colour and effervescence invisible to the eye. He therefore requested of Roederer that his personal cuvée be served in bottles made of transparent crystal glass with a flat bottom (to foil the insertion of explosives in the indentation by would-be assassins), to remedy this defect. Thus was Cristal born, and the first notion of a premium cuvée. For more than a century, the appearance of the patented Cristal bottle has remained unchanged. After the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917, the House of Louis Roederer decided to continue producing Cristal and to market it internationally. The result was a great success. Today, the limited production of Cristal is far from able to satisfy the increasing worldwide demand.
Grower Champagne
Grower Champagnes have been described as "artisanal winemaking" with "terroir" being at the forefront for each wine, rather than an emphasis on a consistent "house style" that can be made year after year. While large Champagne houses, such as Moët et Chandon may source grapes from the entire Champagne region, the vineyards owned by a Grower Champagne maker are generally clustered around a single village. Some growers will craft their wine to reflect the "terroir" of that village, especially if they own vineyards in one of Champagne's Grand crus. Grower Champagnes are often released younger than their large house counterparts due, in part, to the greater financial resources that would be needed for long term aging and storage. Many also show a lower dosage, and occasionally no dosage at all, than most negociant manipulant bottlings.
Rémy Cointreau
In July 2011, Rémy Cointreau sold Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck champagnes to French luxury goods group EPI for 422 million euros.
Champagne
In 2009, a bottle of 1825 Champagne was opened at a ceremony attended by 12 of the world's top wine tasters. This bottle was officially recognised by "Guinness World Records" as the oldest bottle of Champagne in the world. The contents were found to be drinkable, with notes of truffles and caramel in the taste. There are now only two other bottles from the 1825 vintage extant.
Montrachet
Montrachet wines are the most expensive dry white wines in the world: prices can range from €150 to €2500 per 75 cl bottle. The price depends on the reputation of the producer (in Burgundy, vineyards are divided among multiple growers, and there can be substantial variation in quality) and the vintage.
Graff Pink
The Graff Pink, a rare 24.78 carat pink diamond, once owned by American celebrity jeweller Harry Winston, has been described as "one of the greatest diamonds ever discovered". The diamond, mounted in a ring, was sold by Sotheby's auctioneers in Geneva, Switzerland on 16 November 2010. Before its sale, the stone was expected to enter the list of the top ten most expensive diamonds in the world; on selling for US $46 million (£29 million) it became the most expensive single jewel ever sold at auction at that time.
Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon (; ) is a brand of vintage Champagne produced by the Champagne house Moët & Chandon and serves as that house's prestige champagne. It is named after Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover the champagne method for making sparkling wines.
Host and hostess clubs
Also a can usually be done for special events. Champagne glasses are arranged into a pyramid, and champagne is poured onto the top glass until it trickles down the layers of glasses. Depending on the champagne used, this can cost between 1 million and 2 million yen.
Château Mouton Rothschild
The "grand vin", Château Mouton Rothschild, is one of the world's most expensive and highly rated wines, with the average price of a 750ml bottle reaching $604.
Opus One Winery
Opus One Winery is a winery in Oakville, California, United States. The wine was called napamedoc until 1982 when it was named Opus One. The winery was founded as a joint venture between Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton Rothschild and Robert Mondavi to create a single Bordeaux style blend based upon Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It is located across State Route 29 from the Robert Mondavi Winery. The creation of this winery venture in 1980 was big news in the wine industry; de Rothschild's involvement added an air of respectability to the burgeoning Napa wine region. The first vintage, 1979 was released in 1984 at the same time as the 1980 vintage. For a while it was the most expensive Californian wine costing $50 and to date still ranks among the most expensive red wines produced in the Napa Valley, with the current vintage, 2014, retailing for $325 per bottle. In 1989 a new winery was built just down the road, the first vintage from the new winery was from 1991 and was released in 1994.
Moët &amp; Chandon
Moët & Chandon (), or Moët, is a French fine winery and co-owner of the luxury goods company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE. Moët et Chandon is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champagne house. Moët et Chandon was established in 1743 by Claude Moët, and today owns of vineyards, and annually produces approximately 28,000,000 bottles of champagne.
Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Ritz may be the most expensive hotel in Paris, employing a staff of over 600, the rooms as of May 2017 started at €1,100 a night. Suites start at €3,500 and up to €20,000 a night for the most lavish ones (Suite Impériale being the most expensive). These finest suites are known as the "Prestige suites", ten in total, which according to the Ritz are "a world for aesthetes where 18th century panelling echoes allegorical ceilings, old masters and priceless antique furniture. Each suite is unique and each seems to still breathe the spirit of the illustrious guests who once stayed there." The Vendôme Suite is one of the most spacious of the hotel, containing Louis XIV furnishings, with a red and ivory theme and grand windows overlooking the square. The César Ritz Suite overlooks the square and contains Louis XV furniture and a portrait of Ritz himself. The room is decorated in shades of green and light yellow with a canopied bed in one room and silk floral pattern in the second. The doors of the sitting room of the suite are edged in gold leaf. The Elton John Suite, decorated in strawberry pink and cream, contains two bedrooms, a thick pink carpet and attic windows. John reportedly hired the entire floor for his 42nd birthday. The Windsor Suite contains tapestries and gilded mouldings and portraits of the Duke (Edward VIII) and Duchess of Windsor. They are decorated with Louis XVI furniture and colours such as almond green, salmon and pearl grey. The master bedroom is decorated in pearl grey in a shade which the Ritz calls "Wallis blue", a favourite of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor. The Coco Chanel Suite where Coco Chanel lived for some 35 years consists of two bedrooms and a living room and features Coromandel lacquers, Chinese furniture, baroque mirrors and oversized sofas with quilting created by Grande Mademoiselle. The suite is said to be "equipped with the most sophisticated technology including fax, Jacuzzi, steam-bath shower, and ultra-modern walk-in closets."
Papis Loveday
The champagne brand was established in 2012. It is listed in several international hotel chains. Since 2015 Champagne Papis gained a large demand in the Asian market. The renowned wine magazine Falstaff evaluated the quality of the champagne, in the course of a blind tasting by a professional jury, and honored it with 90 points. In a further explanation the magazine categorized Champagne Papis as “Excellent champagne, among the best of the year”. Currently the sorts Champagne Papis brut “black edition” and Champagne Papis rosé are available in the market.
Fat Bastard (wine)
Fat Bastard (stylized as "bastard") is a brand of French wine introduced in 1998 and produced and distributed by a French and British partnership that began as a collaboration between French winemaker Thierry Boudinaud and British wine importer Guy Anderson. Originally launched as a Chardonnay, the brand has been expanded to include additional varietals including Merlot, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. It is sold primarily in the United States, and has been discontinued on the U.K. market. The price point for the brand is at the modest "entry level", at about $8 per bottle (as of 2006), and about 420,000 cases (5 million 750 ml bottles) per year for the brand are exported to the U.S. market (as of 2016). The brand's Chardonnay is (or has been at one time) the largest-selling brand of French Chardonnay in the United States. The label features a cartoon hippopotamus.
Veuve Clicquot
"Rich" champagne was released in June 2015. At the end of its three years of aging, 60g of sugar are added to give it a very sweet taste. In 2017, Veuve Clicquot released its first ultra-dry champagne, the non-vintage “Extra Brut Extra Old” cuvée. This champagne has a low-sugar dosage, is double-aged and blended exclusively from the house’s reserve wines of six different vintages.When Philippe Clicquot began producing champagne, he simply sold "champagne wine". There were no labels on the bottles.
Château Lascombes
In 2001, the estate was purchased for $67 million by US-based Colony Capital with the entrepreneur Yves Vatelot. The new owners invested heavily in modernizing Lascombes, which had been considered an underperformer in relation to its classification. While Lascombes has been awarded high notes for its wines by many wine critics (such as Robert M. Parker, Jr.) and managed to significantly increase the price of its "Grand vin" since the investment, the US owners made the château available for sale in late 2007. In 2011, Lascombes was sold to the French insurance group MACSF for 200 million euro, of which approximately 50 million euro was its stock of wine.
Château Lafite Rothschild
Lafite was one of four wine-producing châteaux of Bordeaux originally awarded First Growth status in the 1855 Classification, which was based on the prices and wine quality at that time. Since then, it has been a consistent producer of one of the world's most expensive red wines.
Rossin House Hotel
The list includes a selection of "very" posh Bordeaux "claret" wines, such as a "Barton & Gestier Château Margaux 1847" for what was then, $3 a bottle - a bargain when calculated in today's dollars, being approx $80. Champagne's included Moët et Chandon's "Green Seal" (aka "Grand Imperial") for $2.50, and while "Green Seal" is no longer produced, it was considered an example of "the best of the best"; for comparison, Moët et Chandon currently produces the famous (and premium) Dom Pérignon Champagne (retail 2008 approx $220 cdn).
Champagne Salon
Champagne Salon is only released under the Salon name during exceptional years, at the rate of approximately four vintages per decade. Undeclared vintages are used for Delamotte or simply sold off. According to the Salon website, their wines are fermented in stainless steel and allowed to age in the bottle for around ten years before release. Salon vintages are typically first released after 10+ years. Like many Champagne producers, Salon will not release an entire vintage at the same time but will hold back a certain amount to spend more time aging on the lees. In 1988, a single bottle from this vintage fetched over five times its estimated amount at a Christie's auction. In each vintage no more than 60,000 bottles are produced.
History of Champagne
The modern era, however, has seen a resurgence of the popularity of Champagne, a wine associated with both luxury and celebration, with sales quadrupling since 1950. Today the region's produces over 200 million bottles of Champagne with worldwide demand prompting the French authorities to look into expanding the region's "Appellation d'origine contrôlée" (AOC) zone to facilitate more production.
Duval-Leroy
A few years earlier, a still unofficial ranking of champagne crus had been released, establishing a hierarchy between villages and their terroir. Edouard Leroy a wine merchant from Villers-Franqueux understood the commercial value of such a ranking. Higher quality champagnes, from highly rated areas could be sold for a premium price and insure him a faithful following of demanding customers. If only he could guarantee the constant quality of his champagnes year after year. For this he needed to rely on a trustworthy winemaker with the same concern for quality. That winemaker would turn out to be Jules Duval.
Aging of wine
Champagne and other sparkling wines are infrequently aged, and frequently have no vintage year (no vintage, NV), but vintage champagne may be aged. Aged champagne has traditionally been a peculiarly British affectation, and thus has been referred to as "" "the English taste", though this term also refers to a level of champagne sweetness. In principle champagne has aging potential, due to the acidity, and aged champagne has increased in popularity in the United States since the 1996 vintage. A few French winemakers have advocated aging champagne, most notably René Collard (1921–2009). In 2009, a 184-year-old bottle of Perrier-Jouët was opened and tasted, still drinkable, with notes of "truffles and caramel", according to the experts.
Champagne
A large popularity of Champagne is attributed to the success of Champagne producers in marketing the wine's image as a royal and aristocratic drink. Laurent-Perrier's advertisements in late 1890 boasted their Champagne was the favourite of Leopold II of Belgium, George I of Greece, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Margaret Cambridge, Marchioness of Cambridge, and John Lambton, 3rd Earl of Durham, among other nobles, knights, and military officers. Despite this royal prestige, Champagne houses also portrayed Champagne as a luxury enjoyable by anyone, for any occasion. This strategy worked, and, by the turn of the 20th century, the majority of Champagne drinkers were middle class.
Cognac Croizet
Cognac Croizet's famous 1858 cognac, Cuvée Leonie was recently the main base used to make the world's most expensive cocktail, The Winston which is now 
recognized by the Guinness World Records as such.This cocktail was sold for 12,500 Australian Dollars in Melbourne, Australia at Club 23 on 7 February 2013 located in Crown's integrated resort.
Cognac Croizet is now recognized as a well known brand in mainland China and Asia due to the two Guinness World Records that Croizet Hong Kong has overseen since opening an office in the city in 2008. Jason Gillott and Alexander Shponko are the two Directors which have overseen this expansion.
Föglö wreck
The Föglö wreck (also known as "The Champagne Schooner") is a shipwreck of a 19th-century two-masted schooner (21.5 m long × 6.5 m broad) lying in the waters off Föglö near the Åland Islands in Finland. It became famous in the summer of 2010 as several bottles of world's oldest drinkable champagne were raised from the wreck.
The identity and the route of the ship is unknown. It has been suggested that the schooner was on its way to Saint Petersburg, carrying a cargo destined for a local merchant or even for the Imperial Russian Court. The two-masted schooner lies in the depth of 55 meters. The hull is 21,5 meters long and 6,5 meters broad, it was discovered in 2003 by the Finnish Maritime Administration but the first diving expedition was made in July 2010 by a group of Finnish and Swedish divers. The objects found from the wreck included items like a large number of champagne bottles, five bottles of beer, two octants and ceramics manufactured by the Swedish company Rörstrand between 1780 and 1830. According to the Finnish Antiquities Act, the cargo belongs to the Government of Åland.
Champagne
Champagne is usually served in a Champagne flute, whose characteristics include a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl, thin sides and an etched bottom. The intended purpose of the shape of the flute is to reduce surface area, therefore preserving carbonation, as well as maximizing nucleation (the visible bubbles and lines of bubbles). Legend it has it that the Victorian ""'s shape was modelled on the breast of Madame de Pompadour, chief-mistress of King Louis XV of France, or perhaps Marie Antoinette, but the glass was designed in England over a century earlier especially for sparkling wine and champagne in 1663. Champagne is always served cold; its ideal drinking temperature is . Often the bottle is chilled in a bucket of ice and water, half an hour before opening, which also ensures the Champagne is less gassy and can be opened without spillage. Champagne buckets are made specifically for this purpose and often have a larger volume than standard wine-cooling buckets to accommodate the larger bottle, and more water and ice.
Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve
According to an article published by Fox News and "Maxim", 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve is said to be one of the five most expensive bourbons.
Crémant d'Alsace
The method of production is identical with that of champagne. In comparison to champagne, crémant d'Alsace is usually at a lower price levels; crémant d'Alsace cannot age in cellar as long as champagne (5 years maximum). In 2009, 31 million bottles were produced.
The Macallan distillery
In 2018, The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-year-old sold for £848,000 at auction in Edinburgh, the world's most expensive bottle of whisky.
Champagne
Champagne is a single '. As a general rule, grapes used must be the white Chardonnay, or the dark-skinned "red wine grapes" Pinot noir or Pinot Meunier, which, due to the gentle pressing of the grapes and absence of skin contact during fermentation, usually also yield a white base wine. Most Champagnes, including Rosé wines, are made from a blend of all three grapes, although ' ("white from whites") Champagnes are made from 100% Chardonnay and " ("white from blacks") Champagnes are made solely from Pinot noir, Pinot Meunier or a mix of the two.
F. Duerr &amp; Sons
The company created the world's most expensive marmalade in 2006 costing £5,000 and containing £3,450 worth of 62-year-old Dalmore whisky, £348 worth of vintage Pol Roger champagne, and £120 of edible gold
Ruinart (Champagne)
Ruinart () is the oldest established Champagne house, exclusively producing champagne since 1729. Founded by Nicolas Ruinart in the Champagne region in the city of Reims, the house is today owned by the parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.
Stripper
A "champagne room" (also called a "champagne lounge" or "champagne court") is a specialized VIP Room service offered by gentleman's clubs where a customer can purchase time (usually in half-hour increments) with an exotic dancer in a private room on the premises. Depending on the quality of the club, the room, which is away from the hustle and bustle of the main club, is well decorated and usually has its own bar. Clubs sell champagne by the glass or by the bottle for both the dancer and the customer. Strippers who have multiple trips to VIP in a given shift will often give their portion of the alcohol to other dancers or customers to reduce the amount they are drinking themselves.
Taittinger
Champagne Taittinger was sold in July 2005 by the Taittinger family, along with its subsidiary, Société du Louvre, to the U.S. private investment firm Starwood Capital Group. Those in the profession (Champagne houses, wine-producers, cooperatives, distributors and customers) proposed that the objectives of short-term profitability, or even medium term, at any price, advocated by the then current managers of the business, were not compatible with the production of Champagne wine of quality, which takes time, trust and a large delegation of authority to the masters of the cellar. In addition, the arrival of investors completely foreign to the culture of Champagne could result in a major breakdown of the equilibrium of the industry.
Champagne glass
The champagne coupe is a shallow, broad-bowled, saucer shaped stemmed glass generally capable of containing of liquid. Legend has it the shape of the coupe was modelled on the breast of Madame de Pompadour, chief-mistress of King Louis XV of France, but the glass was designed in England over a century earlier especially for sparkling wine and champagne in 1663. The coupe was fashionable in France from its introduction in the 1700s until the 1970s, and in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s.
Château Le Pin
Occasionally the most expensive wine in the world, continually receiving high wine ratings from wine critics and produced in extremely small numbers, Le Pin bottles are a constant presence on the wine auction market.
Veuve Clicquot
When she died, sales had reached 750,000 bottles a year. Veuve Clicquot was exporting champagne from France to all Europe, the United States, Asia and elsewhere. Veuve Clicquot had become both a substantial Champagne house and a respected brand. Easily recognised by its distinctive bright yellow labels, the wine holds a royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Champagne
Champagne is mostly fermented in two sizes of bottles, standard bottles (750 millilitres) and magnums (1.5 litres). In general, magnums are thought to be higher quality, as there is less oxygen in the bottle, and the volume-to-surface area ratio favours the creation of appropriately sized bubbles. However, there is no hard evidence for this view. Other bottle sizes, mostly named for Biblical figures, are generally filled with Champagne that has been fermented in standard bottles or magnums. Gosset still bottles its Grande Réserve in jeroboam from the beginning of its second fermentation.