Liquid Gold Rush

The most expensive bottle of cognac ever made was priced at a crunch-defying $2m back in 2008 (just before Lehmans collapsed, presumably). But that’s exactly what it was – a bottle.

Eight kilogrammes of gold and platinum bottle, to be exact. The liquid inside it was, frankly, incidental.

The actual world record for the most expensive cognac in its own right was set at the tail end of last year. An 1858 Cognac Croizet Cuvée Léonie sold at auction for $156,740 in Hong Kong.

As it happens, the bottle itself couldn’t be more understated. You know that bit in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he chooses the real Holy Grail, eschewing the golden bejewelled chalices, and picking the beaten, weathered cup. Well, it’s a bit like that – but with less cheesy quips. The bottle itself doesn’t even have a label, and the glass is pale, light and perilously thin.

Of course, it’s what’s inside that is really important. The 153-year-old cognac was produced from the grape harvest of 1858. What’s especially significant about this is that it’s currently the only cognac in the world on the open market that was produced before the Great French Wine Blight in 1875, where phylloxera devastated the European wine industry.

The rare spirit was part of a dowry given in 1892 to Leonie Croizet – great granddaughter of Leon Croizet, who founded the firm in 1805 – by her father. The barrels remained in the company’s vaults – until now.

There are 44 bottles in total, of which only six have been allocated to the UK. There were seven originally, but I’m afraid square mile has already drunk one. Well, someone has to make sure it’s worth all the hype, right? And I’m happy to report that it is, by far, the most elegant cognac I’ve tasted. It has exceptional length – in fact, I can practically still taste its dried flower tones now, a month on. Proof, as cellar master Jean-Emmanuel Roy says, that “someone, a very long time ago, did his job properly.”

The good news is that if you don’t have the readies for a whole bottle, the Jumeirah Carlton Tower’s recently re-launched Rib Room Bar is selling it: at £2,500 a shot.

cognac-croizet.fr
theribroom.co.uk