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MAGAZINE - DECEMBER 2012
twelve champagne bottles, designed
by the exquisite artist Émile Gallé,
were allocated an optimum spot in
the Maison’s cellar to age for several
years. The sets were sold for $50,000
each. Like Moet and Chandon, Perrier
Jouet is pronounced “zhew-ette” not
“zhew-eh”.
1928 Krug
To give you an idea of significance,
the exquisite 1928 vintage Krug was
described by the Head of Sotheby’s
Wine Department, Serena Sutcliffe,
as
“one of the greatest
champagnes
ever made”.
In
2009,
a
standard
size 75cl
bottle was taken
from the “Krug Col-
lection” [the Krug family’s
ultimate library of wines] and
auctioned off in Hong Kong for
$21,200. Previously, in 2004, an-
other bottle, signed personally by the
brothers Henri and Remi Krug, was
sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London
for $2,100. Joseph Krug, the grandfa-
ther of the brothers, once stated that
engineering the 1928 vintage from the
outstanding variety of grapes avail-
able to him at the time was one of his
greatest achievements. It was served
for King George VI and his guests at
the first royal banquet at Buckingham
Palace after the Second World War
had ended in Europe, and featured at
the great Millennium tasting of cham-
pagne in Sweden, 1999.
Louis Roederer, 1990 Cristal Brut
Cristal, for many wine lovers, is the
most opulent prestige cuvée. The
most widely accepted theory over the
wine’s origin rests with the paranoia of
Alexander II of Russia. During the late
19th Century the political climate in
the Tsar’s home country was becom-
ing increasingly unstable. Fearing an
assassination attempt using the dark
glass of a wine bottle to conceal a
weapon, he commissioned a Flemish
glassmaker to create a clear, flat
bottomed bottle. Due to the
intense gas pressure,
all champagne
bottles
needed
to
have
a bell
shaped
bottom
to avoid
the glass
breaking. To
overcome this
issue the Flemish
glassmaker had to use
a type of lead crystal to
make the bottle, which resulted in
the wine becoming known as “Cris-
tal”. As a result, this champagne has
a truly royal and exclusive heritage,
which is reflected in the superior
presentation of the bottle. A bottle
of Methuselah [8 times larger than
stand-
ard size] 1990
Cristal Brut Millenum
cu-
vée was sold at Chrisites,
New York in 2005 for $18,800.
Hiedsieck 1907
Diamant Bleu cuvée
Now this vintage cuvée has some
serious history to brag about. During
the middle of the First World War, the
wooden freighter Jönköping was char-
tered on a course from