Archive for 'Wine and Champagne'

Fourth Growth – Quatrième Crus

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Château Beychevelle besh/vehl Saint-Julien sa~ zhew/lya~ 

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What do you know about champagne, other than its bubbly, expensive and signals glamour and good times, and possibly, for those who do not know their limits, bad behaviour and a hangover…? Doesn’t everyone know what champagne is? The short answer is ‘no’, and the long answer is ‘noo’. I have heard otherwise perfectly well-educated people say the stupidest things about champagne. It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people suspect you ...

Penfold’s Block 42: The World’s Most Pretentious Wine?

There’s been an awful lot of coverage of the Penfolds Limited Edition 2004 Block 42 which is being billed as ‘The World’s Most Expensive Wine’. The price-tag has been set at $168 000.00 for a 750ml ‘ampoule’ of the wine – but when you get through the hype and the spin, it’s clear you aren’t paying that outrageous sum of money for the wine – you are paying it for the ...

How much would you pay for a bottle of sweet white wine? Tell you what, I certainly would not pay £75 000.00 (close to $118 000)! But I’m guessing that if you are ridiculously solvent, an Extreme Wine Connoisseur, and love the idea of drinking not only the most exclusive dessert wine in the world, but one which is a time capsule from another century, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid. Someone fitting that description handed over precisely that amount, ...

Champagne is undoubtably the drink of the elite, and the very word conjures images of wealth, luxury and glamour. This prestigious drink is not for everyday consumption by the masses – the hefty price tag ensures it maintains its exclusivity. What makes it so expensive, and what’s so special about champagne anyway?

The famous experiment

When uberchef Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck set up a stall in ...

Psychologists say that you are never so irritated by people as when you subconsciously know you have the same annoying tendencies they do. Recently I was researching the French drink Lillet for an entry, and I became side-tracked by ‘The Vesper’, a cocktail which James Bond ‘creates’ in Ian Fleming’s  1953 book ‘Casino Royale’. I could not believe how much there is on this drink – the web is littered with an endless back and forth on what ...

Why are champagne brand names so difficult to pronounce?

Most champagne brand names are mispronounced, even by people who think they know how to say them correctly. Of course all champagne is made in France, so you would think some knowledge of French would help you out here, but this is not always the case. You see, many old champagne families who set up their houses in Champagne did not originally come from France – they came ...