Posted on 12/31/2011 12:25:02 AM PST by nickcarraway
For 62-year-old Christian Vanneque, a love of wine has taken him to one particularly unexpected place: the Guinness Book of World Records.
Vanneque became the owner of the most expensive bottle of white wine ever sold when he paid US$117,000 for a bottle of 1811 Château d'Yquem earlier this year.
The gaudy buy caps an impressive wine-industry career.
At the tender age of 20, Vanneque was head sommelier at Paris’ famed three-Michelin star La Tour d’Argent, making him France’s youngest chef sommelier, and in charge, at the time, of the largest restaurant wine cellar in the world.
In 1976, Vanneque was one of the judges at the historic May 24, 1976, Paris Wine Tasting, organized by Steven Spurrier. The Judgment of Paris, as it became known, was a blind tasting in which nine French judges shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France’s best, altering the image of wine forever.
For Vanneque, who admits his purchase is a “petite folie,” the house of Yquem holds sentimental value. He’d discovered them as a young sommelier and also owns bottles of Yquems from 1959, 1951 and 1967.
The wine connoisseur, who also boasts the biggest wine collection in Indonesia, won't be hiding his latest purchase. He plans on showing off the bottle of 1811 Château d'Yquem at his new Bali restaurant SIP Sunset Grill (Sunset Road no.88x, Seminyak, Bali, tel +62 361 8475830) where he hopes “not just to produce the most energetic and fun wine list, but also the least expensive.”
I am satisfied with my Don Garcia red wine from Spain.
It comes in one ltr. cardboard box for 128 pesos...$3.00 :)
I actually think this is kind of neat. It’s about owning a piece of history, a history of a type very important to this guy. As long as it is his own money, I’m cool with it.
Now, that said, if I had an extra 100 grand lying around, I’d buy a big bottle of Wild Turkey and put the other 99.995K to work for me in the market*
*The Wild Turkey to be purchased immediately, the market investment maybe held off until the current administration if out of office.
BTW, if wikipedia can be believed (never a sure thing), the wine is probably a Sauterne. And, apparently a bottle of 1811 opened in 1996 was considered excellent by the tasters. So the guy in the story may well have a drinkable wine on his hands (if he ever chooses to do so).
Can't go wrong with the old "cardboard keg"
The wife keeps a chardonnay version in the fridge with a stack of 3 oz. dixie cups near by for when the need arises :~)
Happy New Year AlexW and all!
“The wife keeps a chardonnay version in the fridge with a stack of 3 oz. dixie cups “
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Well, I do require a regulation wine glass :P
“The wife keeps a chardonnay version in the fridge with a stack of 3 oz. dixie cups “
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Well, I do require a regulation wine glass :P
Btt
When it comes to wine there is only one important question:
“You wanna da red or da white?”
And the answer, according to the late Justin Wilson, is, “You drink the one you like.”
“I like the wine coming out of Chile.”
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Yes, some of my one ltr. box wines come from South America.
I know one is from Argentina, and maybe one is from Chile.
Yes, I just found an old 3 ltr box...Santa Carolina, PREMIO from central valley of Chile.
I have to carry mine a long distance, so the box wines are
perfect. I sometimes buy 20 ltrs at a time.
Carlo Rossi is available everywhere here, but all in glass,
and much more expensive.
I will be restocking next week, when I go to the city.
“1811 Château d’Yquem”
...pffft. That’s nothin’. Obama gives this crap to his dog.
I always enjoyed his show. Nothing fancy, no little spoonful of vile sauce drizzled over flower petals for Justin.
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