Got a banker’s bonus to burn and want to make your Valentine’s Day date go with a pop? Here’s a rundown of some of he most expensive bottles of bubbly money can buy – and the strange tales behind their eye-watering prices.
Piper Heidsieck Monopole 1907
When, on the night of November 3rd 1916, a Swedish cargo ship called the Jonkoping was sunk by a German U-Boat in the Baltic Sea, a royal bounty of fine wines, cognacs and champagnes bound for Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was lost for more than 80 years until the wreck was finally located.
Amazingly, 2,000 bottles of 1907 Heidsieck bubbly – a cuvee named Diamant Bleu – were found intact. Experts quickly established that it had not only been well-preserved but had matured to perfection in the airless environment of the deep ocean, and in 1998, the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Moscow snapped up a number of bottles to put on general sale. Price tags of a whopping $35,000 US (₤22,050) per bottle (reported prices of up to $275,000 are denied by the hotel) make Piper Heidsieck Monopole 1907 the still-undisputed world heavyweight champion of uber-expensive fizz.
Veuve Clicquot & Juglar
Pushing the concept of ‘vintage’ to the extreme, these single-bottle examples are believed to be between 170 and 190 years old. They were part of a 149-bottle haul recovered from a shipwreck off the _land region of Finland in the (you guessed it) Baltic Sea – apparently lost while on route to Tsar Nicholas I, granddad of the aforementioned Nic II.
If you fancy splurging on the Veuve Clicquot, which is said to have “notes of linden blossoms and lime peels”, or the Juglar, which was apparently one of Napoleon’s favourite champagne houses, be warned – both bottles are currently in the possession of the Buyan Russian Haute Cuisine & Caviar Bar in Singapore, which paid $30,000 (₤18,900) and $24,000 US (₤15,120) for them respectively. Be warned, however – as neither bottle is currently on general sale, you’re only (slim) hope of getting your mitts on one is to fly out to Singapore prepared to do some pretty convincing haggling. And considering the wholesale prices, you can expect to smash the current world-record by some margin. Oh, and no one seems quite sure whether or not they are drinkable…
Perrier-Jouet 2000 Limited Edition
What better way to tell your petite-amie ‘I Love You’ on Valentine’s Day than by presenting her not with one bottle, but an entire case, of the world’s first customizable champagne? For the small sum of $50,000 US (₤31,500), the discerning connoisseur can travel to Perrier-Jouet’s world HQ in Epernay, France, and spend time with the cellar master ‘personalising’ their own posh plonk by adding ‘sugars and liqueurs’ to Perrier-Jouet 2000 Belle Epoque. But be warned – this exclusive deal is only available if you are considered to be one of the world’s 100 most respected champagne aficionados. Which, for the rest of us who don’t fancy paying more than $4,000 US (₤2,520) per bottle for what amounts to a glorified champagne cocktail, is possibly a good thing.
This is a guest post written by Claire Broadley from www.Wish.co.uk†experiences.
