WINE & SPIRITS

TOPPING EXTRAVAGANCE WITH EXTRAVAGANCE, CHAMPAGNE HOUSES ARE REALLY OUTDOING THEMSELVES

Not long ago I received a cryptic letter from London. "Dear Baroness," my correspondent began, "I recently had dinner with Richard Juhlin [author of bubbly tome 4000 Champagnes] and he mentioned you were a fellow Champagne enthusiast." Though regular readers of this column will certainly be familiar with my weakness for Champagne, I was surprised to find the news had crossed the Atlantic. The letter went on to describe the "ultimate Champagne collection" featuring the rarest vintages, available for sale if I were possibly interested, for what I was assured was the very good price of $1 million.

The contents of the collection, laid out in that letter, were certainly impressive: verticals of Krug back to 1964, Louis Roederer Cristal back to '59 and Dom Perignon back to the '49 vintage. I imagined for a moment what a thrill it would be to drink through a million dollars worth of the world's finest bubbly—then I came back down to earth. I wrote back letting the dealer know that, alas, he'd reached the wrong kind of Baroness—one without any castles and only a writer's salary to live on.

That fantasy moment got me thinking about the vogue among Champagne houses these days for blowout extravagance—each brand trying to outdo the next with money-is-no-object big ticket items. Perrier Jouet (this year's sponsor of the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge), for instance, recently released what is said to be the world's priciest bottle—at $6,500 each (upon release)—of bubbly. Only 100 customers (ten allocated to the United States) will get the chance to buy the extremely limited edition, personalized "By and Four" 12-box sets. The $79,000 total price tag includes a pampered stay at Perrier Jouet's Maison Belle Epoque in Épernay, France and the chance to work with the cellar-master in personalizing your own Champagne blend.

Of course, this upcoming holiday season Dom Perignon is gunning to outdo Perrier Jouet—by far—by offering six bottles of vintage Champagne encased in a handmade guitar case designed by Karl Lagerfeld. Coated in pink-hued perch skin and lined in lambskin, it will set you back a cool $150,000. Within this treasure chest you'll find a collection of Dom Perignon: bottles from the 1966, '86 and '96 vintages. Also inside, you'll find not two designer flutes, but three, clearly a bit of naughty (Champagne-fueled) ménage-a-trois innuendo.

Lagging far behind the Perrier Jouet and Dom Perignon limited edition releases is the not-quite-so limited new top-of-the-line Krug. The Champagne house with the biggest cult connoisseur following recently trumped its $850-a-bottle Clos du Mesnil (once the priciest Champagne on release) with the $3,000-a- bottle Clos d'Ambonnay. This new blanc de noir, aged 12 years, is pure ambrosia, featuring flavors of red berry, brioche, almonds and spice. This blowout release—priced for its rarity and elegance—is not about bragging rights or marketing hype.

Of course I'm not knocking collectible bottles (I have my share on display), particularly when they're in mere mortal range (limited edition bubbly need not set you back six figures). Taittinger, for one, recently put out its 2000 Brut Millesime in a bottle designed by the late Robert Rauschenberg. Encased in a white sheath splashed with iconic Rauschenberg images, this objet d'art can be had for the relative bargain of $369. The release is one of a number of high-profile moves intended to put Taittinger, which recently returned to the family after a few years of Starwood ownership, back on the big-hitters map.

Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger, the reinstated family head of the brand, might want to take a page out of Moët & Chandon's playbook. Moët devotes a good deal of time and money pushing the full-throttle Champagne lifestyle. Every five years they host what must certainly be the world's most over-the-top car race—open only to owners of Ferrari 250 GTOs. (Only 36 of these very rare and very pricey—as much as $20 million each—cars were produced between 1962 and 1964.) For the most recent rally, tycoon collectors spent a week being wined and dined by Moët at the cult wineries of Napa. I was fortunate enough to have a journalist's-eye view of the festivities—the ultimate representation of the ultimate Champagne lifestyle.