You break it, you bought it! £50,000, Please.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything seems to just go wrong? How about clipping something on a store shelf with your clothing and hearing the crash that means a few extra dollars are being paid on that trip?

How would it sound if that crash came with a £50,000 price tag?

A customer at London’s Playboy Club accidentally smashed a £50,000 bottle of Cognac destined for a record-breaking cocktail.

The Coganc, a Clos de Griffier Vieux from 1788, was destroyed after a businessman, who had ordered two glasses of the brandy at £5,050 a measure, asked to look at the bottle.

As the customer stood up, he sent the bottle flying across the club, before it smashed on the floor.

The Cognac was due to feature in the world’s most expensive cocktail, which would have been mixed this week by Salvatore Calabrese in front of judges from Guinness World Records.

Source

Now I would have to call that the most expensive bottle of Cognac this guy never got a drink from. I'd point something out in my own defense if I were him though. Hey, everything has a bright side.

It may no longer have been around for the World Record on most expensive cocktail but it sure must have made the record for most expensive call of 'Cleanup! Isle 3!". Poor guy....I'd have been down with sponges and jars to catch every last drop of my £50k puddle.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Well considering a glass of it cost 5050£, and combined with the fact that he had just ordered 2 of them... this sum of 50k£ is probably just a minor set back to him. Peanuts.

hahah

i was in amsterdam....a drug dealer bumped into me and dropped drugs on the floor....then told me to pay for it...hahahhahaaaaaa,,,,,i guess he didnt know how street londoners are......mug

Sure, I don't imagine normal people like you and me even see the inside of a room holding bottles of booze running as much as some of our mortgages. The total excess of charging that for some alcohol is bad enough but to imagine it's destruction is just enough to make my little middle class mind kinda freeze up and go tilt for a moment.

I read about this last week, he didn't have to pay for it.....phew!!!

But what a waste, cognac is the only alcohol I drink, and only if its a good one. I would have been on my hands and knees with a straw in my mouth

reply to post by VoidHawk


Oh really? My story was light on those details. So was this an insurance cover for damage? I suppose it would have to be since I can't imagine someone just laughing and telling a person not to worry about the mess. (cough)

Has anyone here actually had high dollar liquor before? Perhaps in a special event? I'm just honestly curious if the very expensive stuff actually tastes noticeably better or if it's just about the history and story behind whatever bottle we're talking about? (I know wine varies greatly..but hard alcohol?)

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

Has anyone here actually had high dollar liquor before? Perhaps in a special event? I'm just honestly curious if the very expensive stuff actually tastes noticeably better or if it's just about the history and story behind whatever bottle we're talking about? (I know wine varies greatly..but hard alcohol?)

I've had some very expensive wine before, $200 a bottle. I could not detect a noticeable difference from wine that cost $4.99.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I have had a few expensive brands, and from personal experience, it´s usually like this: The more expensive it is(the older it is), the more # it tastes. At least around where i live. The absolute cheapest possible Wine(as an example) is the best tasting i have ever had as well, and i have tasted alot of them..

Napoleon was 19 years old when this Cognac was bottled.

The value is more to do with the age than the quality. You're drinking a little bit of history.

If I was a multi-millionaire, I'd love to try it.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by VoidHawk

 

Oh really? My story was light on those details. So was this an insurance cover for damage? I suppose it would have to be since I can't imagine someone just laughing and telling a person not to worry about the mess. (cough)

Has anyone here actually had high dollar liquor before? Perhaps in a special event? I'm just honestly curious if the very expensive stuff actually tastes noticeably better or if it's just about the history and story behind whatever bottle we're talking about? (I know wine varies greatly..but hard alcohol?)

edit on 23-7-2012 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

I actualy read about it while on a train journey last week. Saw it in a newspaper left on the train. It was going to be used to make some super dupa cocktail. The person that was the most bothered was the guy who was about to mix it.
The guy who broke the bottle and the owner were both connoisseurs(think thats how its spelt)...what I read suggested the owner basicaly just shrugged his shoulders.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Clean up on isle 3. Forget that I'd just go white trash and start trying to slurp the congnac off the ground. Gross I know. But at least I could say i've tried 50,000 booze.

reply to post by FOXMULDER147

Now that is a stunning thing to consider when you put this in context to what was happening when the bottle was sealed. It would be something to consider, that history. I guess I've never been near the levels of money where the price tag would be worth it, but someone thinks it is.

As far as the guy, the story I linked had mentioned his super-duper cocktail was supposed to make him famous with a Guinness Book of World Records attempt for most expensive. I imagine that was destroyed when the bottle hit the floor. Yeah, for that, I can see how even a rich guy would be upset over what was lost.

Originally posted by NeoVain
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

I have had a few expensive brands, and from personal experience, it´s usually like this: The more expensive it is(the older it is), the more # it tastes. At least around where i live. The absolute cheapest possible Wine(as an example) is the best tasting i have ever had as well, and i have tasted alot of them..

Its the only alcoholic drink I'll have and I have to disagree. There are the expensive but crap bottles, and there's the expensive and extremely nice bottles. About £150 gets you a very nice drink. You wont get a good cognac in a pub!! I'm in the uk and if I want a good bottle I have to goto france to get it.

reply to post by schuyler


Same I cant tell the difference. As I recall wine snobs cant either. Give them a glass of rat piss in a fancy bottle and theyll carry on about how good it is.

Apparently the bottle was not insured:

The Cognac was due to feature in the world’s most expensive cocktail, which would have been mixed this week by Salvatore Calabrese in front of judges from Guinness World Records.

Apparently the bottle is not insured because it had already been opened.

Source

Unfortunately for all, the bottle of Clos de Griffier Vieux wasn't insured because it had already been open. But, it seems the clumsy customer, a club regular, has been forgiven. "Accidents happen," Calabrese told The Evening Standard.

Source

$77,615 of damage was just "forgiven", I guess the elite truly do live in a different world.

To paraphrase a movie.

theres a special place in hell for people who waste good liquor.

Im a big fan of Cognac, I used to have a small bottle of remy martin louis xiii, was a gift.

Originally posted by Domo1
reply to post by schuyler

 

Same I cant tell the difference. As I recall wine snobs cant either. Give them a glass of rat piss in a fancy bottle and theyll carry on about how good it is.

Okay Domo, when I hit the lottery and invite everyone to the 5 Star for an ATS party you'll understand why you get the burger king gift certificate with directions for the after dinner events.

Sorry..I can't help but imagine a comment like that actually being vocalized by the typical 'Ugly American' in a fine restaurantt.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Hey I appreciate good food and beer. Just dont see a difference with wine if it sover $10 a bottle. I think theyve actually done studies on wine snobs that back me up. Where smy whopper? Im hungry.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000

Originally posted by Domo1
reply to post by schuyler

 

Same I cant tell the difference. As I recall wine snobs cant either. Give them a glass of rat piss in a fancy bottle and theyll carry on about how good it is.

Okay Domo, when I hit the lottery and invite everyone to the 5 Star for an ATS party you'll understand why you get the burger king gift certificate with directions for the after dinner events.

Sorry..I can't help but imagine a comment like that actually being vocalized by the typical 'Ugly American' in a fine restaurantt.

We're trying to be honest here. You can chalk it up to an untrained palate if you want. In a restaurant setting, particularly if someone else is paying, you would be almsot forced to say it's really good. By your reasoning the little boy who said "The Emperor has no clothes!" is being an Ugly American when, in fact, he simply did not know he was supposed to pretend to be a snob.

I tasted my bottles of expensive wine on a river rafting trip. No white tableclothes or snooty waiters in sight. Just the porta potty.

There's a quite famous case of fraud involving Thomas Jefferson's private bottling where several bottles were sold by Christioe's auction house. A short account is here but there was a whole book printed on it called The Billionaire's Vinegar. It turns out the bottles were fake and inscibed by a fraudster working in his basement with a dremel tool to inscribe the bottles.

So yeah, there's a lot of fake expertise involved here.

reply to post by schuyler


I want to go on that rafting trip! No fancy wine for me thanks, I brought my own box. I will take a crazy straw or sippy cup if offered though.