What Ballers Are Drinking Tonight: Moët's $6200 Luxury Leopard Methuselah Of Rosé Champagne.

As you're toasting the new year tonight with your $20 bottle of champagne from the local liquor outlet, the hip crowd at the most exclusive night clubs and a select number of the elite (or perhaps, extravagant) will be sipping something from a bottle they don't dare to trash once it's empty.



Moët & Chandon Nectar Rose has presented 60 huge fancy schmancy bottles of bubbly - the Luxury Leopard Methuselah: a six liter bottle (the equivalent of eight regular sized bottles) hand-decorated with 22 carat gold leaf.



The majestic six-liter bottle of Moët & Chandon Nectar Impérial Rosé Leopard Luxury Edition's exterior is finely covered in a luxurious layer of 22 carat golden leaves, delicately adorned with the design of the leopard's noble rosettes:



For this new coat, Moët & Chandon called upon the expertise of renowned French jewelers and engravers Arthus-Bertrand.



Only 60 bottles were produced worldwide, a rarity available only in the most select nightclubs or through Sherry-Lehmann Wine & Spirits in New York for $6,200.



Moët Nectar Impérial Rosé distinguishes itself by its extravagant fruitiness and delightfully crisp finish. The refined and sophisticated richness of Nectar Impérial Rosé is a champagne crafted to please the senses.


Moet & Chandon

Price $6200 USD
Buy it here 

Whatever you're drinking, here's to a Happy 2014 with love from If It's Hip, It's Here.

Ring In The New Year With The $3000 Bottle Of Bubbly Wrapped In Carbon Fiber: Cuvée Carbon Champagne.

As this time of year rolls around, I like to point out unusual, highly exclusive vintages and bottles of Champagne. Having exposed you to the fabulously fun and bizarre Zarb Champagne, the Prestige Cuvées of Goût de Diamants (Taste of Diamonds), and the celeb-favorite Angel Champagne, it's time to turn you onto the elegant and luxurious Devravry House's Carbon Cuvée Champagne, a bit of bubbly clad in a carbon fiber wrapped bottle, costing $3000 a pop.



The House of Devavry started in 1946 with Bertrand Devavry. Jean Loup, following his footsteps, while adding his personal touch, keeps on creating his wines solely from the “cuvée” (the “vintage”) using a traditional wine press without going for the malolactic fermentation in order to preserve the quality, vivacity and better aging of his wines.



Alexandre Mea-Devavry, the youngest son of Bertrand and Gisele Devavry, inspired by the legacy of his family and his culture of striving to the best at all times, created from the best vines located on the famous slopes of the Champagne region the Cuvee Carbon.



With a wine created from only the best grapes in the Grand and Premier cru rated vineyards, and superb vines located on the famous slopes of the Champagne region, the House of Devavry has both the know how and the experience.



Carefully kept in their cellars with rigorous measures to assure the best aging possible, all the conditions are reunited to guarantee the finest quality that is the standard of the Devravry House since the beginning.




The Grapes:
A clever mix of the greatest grapes from the Côte des Blancs chardonnay and the Marne Valley Pinot Noir gives it a subtle mixture of strength and finesse, elegance and structured freshness.



The Magic of Carbon vintage is the result of complex and harmonious association of these two grapes comprised of up to 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir.

Vines Avize, Chouilly, Oger make up the Chardonnay grape. Located on the Kingdom of the Côte des Blancs, synonymous with delicacy and finesse but also highly accurate in its purity, a character that remains a beautiful presence in the mouth.

For the Pinot noir grape, the vineyards of Ay are selected : brilliant power and consistency to develop its specific aroma of red fruits.

The Bottle Design:


As the most precious jewels should be protected in the most beautiful cases, Alexandre Mea taught that the valuable heritage that his family passes from generation to generation was meant to be kept in an iconic bottle.



Therefore he thought that the Carbon would both keep the wine safe from alteration and give to the container the prestige that deserves the Cuvée. Which lead him to create this bottle, embodiment of the family’s philosophy.



Well known for its qualities of lightness and strength, Carbon is a highly sought after material and courted by the best designers who strive to innovation in their creations.



Each bottle is unique and bears the signature of the craftsman, a true artist. The achievement of each bottle requires six days of work before receiving therein the precious nectar of the Cuvée.



Collection:
For every moment of joy and type of meal, Cuvée Carbon is perfect accompaniment, with a collection of different champagnes having each one their own character. Vintage 2006, Vintage Rosé 2005 and Blanc de Blancs

•Vintage 2006 - The original and most famous of the collection, there is no type of festivity that doesn’t suit perfectly with this bottle.

•Vintage Rosé 2005 - Exquisite with Salmon, Poultry, Game and even red fruits based desserts.

•Blanc De Blanc - Great as appetizer, with light hors-d’oeuvre, seafood, or fish.


above: Available in Magnum (1,5L), Jéroboam (3L), Nabuchodonosor (15L), and Melchizedek (30L)




Carbon Cuvée Champagne

Champagne Cooler With Branches To Hold The Bubbly. The Enchanting Tree for Perrier Jouet Champagne by Tord Boontje.

As part of its artistic heritage, Perrier-Jouët continues its tradition of supporting and collaborating with artists and designers. This year the brand unveiled "The Enchanting Tree", a creation that reinvents the gesture of champagne.



Six participants can pluck a flute of Perrier-Jouët’s Belle Epoque cuvee from the tree designed by Tord Boontje. At its base, an ice bucket preserves the champagne’s coolness. Perrier-Jouët and Tord Boontje collaboration is rooted in a shared appreciation of Nature, Art Nouveau & craftsmanship.



Inspired by Nature as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, the designer has reinterpreted nature light-heartedly to create a fairytale in honour of spring, with floral forms flowing through a golden hand-worked tree.




With his hand-worked metal branches, the leaves soldered one by one, the anemones lacquered in white; Tord Boontje has reinvented the tasting ritual to create a decidedly Perrier-Jouët moment.





In 1902, a spray of Japanese anemones designed by Emile Gallé heralded the emergence of an artistic movement, Art Nouveau, symbolic of a yearning to which Perrier-Jouët has always remained true:


Inspired by those iconic swirling anemones, Tord Boontje designed a fluid and flowing tree, a plant sculpture with anemones and champagne flutes for blossoms. Suspended in mid-air in order to maintain the coolness of the champagne, they bathe the golden branches in light, reflecting the pearly drops of water on the ice bucket below. A refined and resolutely modern Perrier-Jouët creation, lending a hint of the sublime to the tasting of a Belle Epoque cuvée.



Tord Boontje, an artist born in 1968 in the Netherlands, studied industrial design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven (1986-1991) then at the Royal College of Art in London (1992-1994), before founding his own design studio in 1996 in London. He draws inspiration from nature and incessantly explores the relationship between nature and technology: the association with Perrier-Jouët was thus a marriage made in heaven. "My ideas come to me while strolling in the forest and observing the way light and nature interact" explains the designer, who refuses to link modernism and minimalism.

Perrier Jouet

photos courtesy of Perrier Jouet, The Wine Sleuth  and Cocorosa

Ross Lovegrove Designs This Year's Traditional Saber and Champagne Case For Mumm.

In the past I shared with you designer Patrick Jouin's specially designed versions of Champagne House G.H. Mumm's traditional Cordon Rouge Case and Saber for 2011 and 2010. The companies' ceremonial Saber is a sword used to expel the cork and an accompanying case is designed to bold both the Saber and the Champagne.



This year, G.H. MUMM enlisted industrial designer Ross Lovegrove for the annual task. By entrusting the internationally renowned designer with the task of creating a sabre, G.H.MUMM has brought a modern touch to this great tradition. A gamble that has paid off handsomely, combining two worlds: that of a Champagne House constantly looking to innovate and that of a designer recognised as a leader of 21st century aesthetics.



"It's one of those magical acts that is so poly-sensorial and culturally enriching that as a designer one is naturally drawn to the cult of the object"- Ross Lovegrove for G.H.MUMM.

THE SABER:





The G.H.MUMM sabre is a true product of Ross Lovegrove’s world: an approach in which beauty and intelligence unite, where energy is transformed into an object with clean-cut lines. Stainless steel was the designer’s material of choice precisely because of its modernity and because it is as timeless as champagne itself". Curved at the pommel, the line then straightens towards the tip, where the signatures of the House and the artist are engraved. Designed for both left- and right-handed use, the G.H.MUMM sabre offers the perfect balance between weight and mass."

THE DELUXE CASE:




The lines of the Deluxe Case are beautifully sculpted, a prestigious casket designed exclusively by the artist to house both the sabre and a magnum of G.H.MUMM Cordon Rouge. In white polyurethane lacquer, embellished by the touch of red that is a G.H.MUMM hallmark, it is a clean-cut case, a metaphor for an age marked by innovation and discovery, style and freedom of expression". Personally signed by the designer, G.H.MUMM's Deluxe Case illustrates Ross Lovegrove's desire to create objects of timeless beauty."



This video was created in collaboration with GH.Mumm, John Ross studio and Ross Lovegrove. It beautifully documents Ross’ vision from sketch to finished object and the wonderful act of the sabrage:



Ross Lovegrove
G.H. Mumm

Can't Pay 20k For Jeff Koons and Dom Pérignon's Balloon Venus? Get The Limited Gift Box Versions Instead.

The news broke last June that artist Jeff Koons and Dom Pérignon collaborated on a limited number (650 worldwide) of manually assembled and hand polished champagne holders inspired by Koons' Balloon Venus.



The two-foot tall polyurethane resin version (shown above) of the artist's bulbous take on the 25,000 year old fertility symbol, Venus of Willendorf, was designed to cradle a bottle of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2003 and is offered in a limited edition of 650 worldwide costing $20,000 a piece.


above: Jeff Koons and Dom Pérignon's Richard Geoffroy with Koons' Balloon Venus for Dom Pérignon design and the hot pink full-sized sculpture that inspired it.



If you can't afford the $20,000 Balloon Venus bottle holder (and if you can, I'd like to be your friend) than perhaps the limited edition gift box is a better choice.



The Limited Edition gift box was designed by Jeff Koons himself for both Dom Pérignon Vintage 2004 and Dom Perignon Rose Vintage 2003. The exterior of the boxes feature silk-screened spot-varnished images of a yellow Balloon Venus and a hot pink Balloon Venus (to match the respective cuvees) on a dark background.


above: Koons' full-sized Balloon Venus in yellow

From the outside, the gift box extends the feeling of being in the presence of Balloon Venus, as the reproduction features a 360 degree view of the sculpture.



A view of the artist’s studio is visible on the reflective surface of the Balloon Venus, a reference to the place where Jeff Koons takes his inspiration, just as the Abbey of Hautvillers is where Richard Geoffroy, Chef de Cave of Dom Pérignon, creates the Dom Pérignon vintages.

The gift box opens to expose the bottle, unveiling first an elaborate design that simulates the iridescent interior of the original sculpture made of high chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating dress. The iconic Dom Pérignon bottle erupts, exactly as it does from the body of the Balloon Venus for Dom Pérignon.



Similar to the boxes, the bottle foils give a pop twist to the color of its cuvée, Blanc or Rose, interpreting the tension between the colors and the dark bottle. It bears a metallic shield with the same color layout as the foil and the box.



The label plays with colored surface on the depth of the shield, emphasizing its allure, playful and yet mysterious.



Richard Geoffroy of Dom Pérignon said that the label first approached Koons with the idea two years ago, and gave the artist free rein on the end design of the package.



The limited edition boxes can be found at select specialty liquor and wine stores all over the world.

Dom Pérignon has previously collaborated with such artists as David Lynch, Marc Newsom, Martin Szekely, and the estate of Andy Warhol for limited edition champagne buckets and bottles.

Dom Pérignon
images courtesy of Dom Perignon and Jeff Koons