Pretty in Pink - Globalight Champagne Holder

Well, it doesn't get much more swanky than this. Created for Rose Chamapgne, which tends to be swanky on its own, this little number is so extravagant that I am at a loss for words. Check out this bit from
Cool Hunting:

Launching [this week] as part of Milan's furniture festivities, the latest collaboration with leading designers and the second with blob lord Karim Rashid and Veuve Clicquot is this reinvention of a chandelier in the form of a glowing pink champagne holder that doubles as a cooling tote. The design, an asymmetrical sensual ellipse, was the result of Rashid's initial scribble after asked to meld the immaterial and the material like he'd done with his first project for Veuve, the loveseat. Realizing his doodle was "the idea in itself," the Globalight literally circles the champagne and adds ambient illumination that plays off the pink hue of Rose champagne, for which it was designed. Bringing lighting experts Zumtobel into the project, the lamp-cum-basket uses technology to light up without heating and in fact keeps bottles at the ideal temperature for up to two hours. Limited to a run of 500 (only 50 of those will be available for the U.S. market), the Globalight will be available on Eclicquot in May for $4,000.

Obviously only a select few can, and will, splurge on this accessory. Just don't think of it as a wine cooler. Think of it as art.
Image and excerpt from Cool Hunting

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Champagne-ing and Entertaining

Ah, Champagne (pronounced Shom-PAHN-ya, if you ask The Continental) - such a misunderstood drink. We started thinking about it after we got our bottle of Yellow Tail Sparkling, and realized that many people think it's only for special occasions, when it can be a great wine anytime. Our Liquor Snob brethren swear you'll see God by mixing champagne and absinthe, but we're not entirely convinced. We are convinced, however, that people shouldn't be afraid of getting a little sparkle into their wine.

Why? Because, when we drink Champagne (let’s call it that for efficiency), we become one with royalty, romance, tradition, seduction, myth, celebrity and hedonism. Madame de Pompadour, maitresse-en-titre to Louis XV, believed that Champagne was the only thing a beautiful woman should drink. That’s all she sipped. And when she sipped it, the French court followed. Champagne became, and still is, the beverage of royalty.

Yellow Tail Releases Sparkling White Wine

Are you one of the people who likes cute on your wine labels? Y'know the type - someone who can't drink a wine unless it's got something cuddly and fuzzy staring back at them - a penguin, or perhaps a wallaby? So called "critter wines," big market wines aimed at just such folks, are all the rage in a lot of circles, and it looks like the critter wine stable just got one bottle bigger.

We just found out that Yellow Tail, the folks who have the aforementioned wallaby on their label, will be releasing a sparkling white wine on September 1. We'd certainly be interested in trying it as we've never had a bad experience with the other Yellow Tail varieties we've tried. Plus, it's being released nationally so it should be easy to get hands on a bottle - and it should retail for around 11 bucks. Can't go wrong there.

See below for the press release we received.

Continue reading: "Yellow Tail Releases Sparkling White Wine"

Absinthe+Champagne=Death in the Afternoon

The boys over at Liquor Snob might have something here - check out Death in the Afternoon.

We've heard about a drink called the Hemingway cocktail, and we knew it involved a combination of absinthe and champagne. It seemed like a high end way to kill an afternoon, but there were two things we didn't think about (or know). One thing we didn't think about was how champagne's bubbles might distribute the absinthe buzz. Two was the fact that another name for the drink was the Death in the Afternoon (named after a book by Papa himself).

A Fresh Perspective on Champagne

New Year's is just about the only time most people think about Champagne and sparkling wine, because people apparently want to have bubbles tickle their noses as they ring in the new year. We've found an interesting take on Champagne recommendations over at DCist, which has not included your typical label tasting notes but has instead opted to give profiles of different types of the effervescent drink, from Blanc de Blancs to Demi Sec.

We found it interesting, though our Liquor Snob brethren seem to have taken some issue with the author's comparison of Jack Daniel's and Johnnie Walker (see the comments).

All bubbly is not created equal.
This is true both literally – there are numerous methods of getting the bubbles in the bottle – and tastefully. Just as Sunny D does not taste like Tropicana and Jack Daniels does not taste like Johnnie Walker, all sparkling wine does not taste the same simply because it’s all fizzy.

Know thyself.
Before you trek to the wine store to buy bubbles, form an opinion about what you generally like to drink. Do you prefer dry or sweet? White or red? Beer or liquor? Do you always stick to certain brands when you drink? Believe us, this will come in handy when you ask the salesperson for a suggestion. The more specific you can be about what you like (or hate), the better the bottle you’ll walk out with.

Barefoot Bubbly Has Champagne Dreams

While we like the occasional sip of the bubbly, we don't lose a lot of sleep at night wondering about the difference between Champagne and sparkling wine. In fact, we thought we pretty much had it dialed - Champagne is from France and sparkling wine is from anywhere else.

But Kevin from The Scotch Blog has posted a story on his side gig Drink Shoot about Barefoot Bubbly, a "California Champagne," that has opened our eyes. In the words of Jennifer Wall, the winemaker at Barefoot Cellars:

We are legally allowed to use the term “Champagne” in the United States – as long as it is used in conjunction with the region that the grapes originated from. For example – if the wine grapes were grown in California, we can legally say “California Champagne” – that’s the agreement that The United States came up with France so that there was no confusion with the consumer.

Champagne vs Sparkling Wine

The difference between Champagne and sparkling wine was a mystery to us for a long time. Well, that's not true, actually, because we did understand that Champagne could only be made in France, but we weren't sure if there were differences in how it was created, purchased, and enjoyed. Luckily, the folks over at Wine X magazine have put together a little primer for us on the similarities and differences, just in time for us to be a wine boor during the holidays. there's even a glossary - hooray!

Following our Special Tasting in the last issue, we thought maybe, just maybe, you'd be interested in understanding the sparkling wine/Champagne winemaking process. You know what they say: a little knowledge is dangerous. So, here you go.

Swanky Wine Friday: Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque

Leave it to the French to make wine even more expensive. Pernod Ricard has announced that it will be releasing a Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque that retails for just under $1,300 per bottle (we're pretty sure it's not the bottling we've got pictured here, but at least the bottle says the right name, right?). We can't even imagine spending that much for a bottle of wine...that amount of money would let us buy like 65 to 130 of the bottles we usually drink, and can the "quality" or "rarity" of the wine be worth it?

A spokeswoman for the company and a British wine buyer had something to say about that, and we translate it as "no, the wine's not really that much better, but we're not making many bottles of it to drive the price up." Go team France.

"There is a global trend to develop more and more premium and ultra-premium brands," she said.
"I am sure they will have buyers for it because people have money to spend and they want exclusivity," said Ronan Sayburn, head of wine at Gordon Ramsay's restaurants in London. "But there is a trade-off point where the price and the actual flavor of the wine begin to split," he said.
"What you are getting after that is exclusivity, rarity."

Armand de Brignac Champagne is Jay-Z Approved

Our Swanky Wine Friday story this week comes from our friends over at Liquor Snob, who took it upon themselves to cover Jay-Z's new champagne of choice. As you may know, Mr. Z has stopped drinking Cristal after the company's managing director expressed that he was less than pleased about his brand's association with hip hop. Sounds like someone might be eating his words if the bulk of the rappers stop wrapping their grillz around Cristal and move to Brignac country - though we're sure Cristal won't end up in the poor house.

Armand de Brignac has a swanky looking label featuring a golden ace of spades (pictured) and we can't seem to get our hands on a price per bottle. We can only guess if Mr. Premiere Rap Producer and High Mucky Muck at Def Jam endorses it in his video (unofficially of course) it's gotta be spendy.

Armand de Brignac (via Liquor Snob)