At Art Basel Miami Beach next month, renowned French champagne house Ruinart will offer a one-of-a-kind surrealistic sculpture by Dutch artist Martin Baas. Designed as the ultimate centerpiece for a champagne-lover's table, the artwork (detail above) was inspired by an elaborate 18th century Venetian chandelier. Constructed from clear Murano glass and silver, the piece was designed to appear as if a chandelier has fallen from above and is melting into the table, along with bottles of Dom Ruinart and specially designed flutes. The piece will be offered for sale at $100,000.

"Maarten's piece is all at once elegant, complex, delicate and powerful," says Ruinart's Jean Christophe Laizeau. "It is the perfect physical representation of the Dom Ruinart universe. We could not have collaborated with a more innovative and inspiring artist to express the stirring sensory experience of vertigo." Founded by Nicholas Ruinart in Reims in 1792, Ruinart was introduced to the U.S. in 1831 by Viscount Edmond Ruinart, and has been a favorite of conoisseurs ever since.

The history of renowned French champagne house Veuve Clicquot is told in a fascinating new book by Tilar J. Mazzeo, who reveals the young widow who brought it to fame and fortune. The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It is the story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who was "a young witness to the dramatic events of the French Revolution and a new widow during the chaotic years of the Napoleonic Wars."

After her husband Francois' death, Barbe-Nicole, 27, defied convention by assuming control of their fledgling family wine business. With much bravery and good fortune, against all odds and through "dizzying political and financial reversals", she became one of the world's first great businesswomen and one of the richest women of her time. Pictured above is her estate the Hotel du Marc in Reims.

A legend in her native France, Barbe-Nicole's story is not well known abroad. Mazzeo has uncovered many fascinating details about the grande dame of champagne, including the following:

• By her late 30s, Barbe-Nicole was one of the richest women in France, with annual sales of more than $30 million per year. She's credited with having taken champagne from marginal to mainstream and making it synonymous with style.

• As the Napoleonic Wars wound down, Barbe-Nicole risked her entire fortune and ran the blockade with 10,000 bottles of her most precious vintage, positioning herself to corner the huge Russian market the moment it re-opened. She was there weeks ahead of her competitors, selling her champagne for $100 a bottle to the celebrating Russians, becoming famous practically overnight.

• Barbe-Nicole invented champagne-making techniques that shaved months off production time and are still used today. Thanks to her employees' loyalty and a shrewd profit-sharing plan, she kept her method secret for almost a decade, solidifying her market dominance.

How do you preserve an open bottle of sparkling wine? The silver spoon trick? A champagne stopper? A little foil hat? I've tried all of those and more with varying results so I'm intrigued by the Perlage system which promises to preserve open bottles of sparkling wine for weeks "with no loss of quality, taste or effervescence." It works by returning the headspace of the opened bottle to exactly the same composition and pressure of gasses that existed before the bottle was opened by first taking out the oxygen and then repressurizing with carbon dioxide. A bottle is place in the Perlage enclosure, air is taken out and it is resealed and pressurized with carbon dioxide. When you need another glass you can pour from the bottle while it is still inside the safety shell. The Perlage System comes in two versions a commercial one designed for restaurants and bars that can be connected to their existing CO2 systems or one for home use with disposable CO2 cartridges. It sells for $295 for the home version and is in use in over 1,000 restaurants worldwide so far.

Veuve Clicquot has launched another Champagne Bar, this time in a place where you might need a break after holiday shopping, Harrod's in London. The Veuve Clicquot boutique is located on the first floor amid luxury fashion labels. There is also a lounge area with gray and yellow tones and glass topped tables for a more quiet place to contemplate money spent. The full range of Veuve Clicquot Cuvees are available by the glass and by the bottle and there is a small a la carte menu. The Boutique also offers the Veuve Clicquot gifts and carriers.

Karma, the elegant California brut-style sparkling wine in modern single-serving bottles, has partnered with Richard Branson's California-based Virgin America airlines on upscale cocktails for high fliers. Created by San Diego native Patrick Wilson, the premium ready-to-drink treat is packaged in a glass bottle resembling a champagne flute.

Virgin America flights feature moodlighting, custom-designed leather seats and the only on-demand, in-flight food ordering system via a video touch-screen at every seat. Karma, made from hand-selected California grapes, is clean, crisp and dry with subtle hints of melon and pear. Wilson decided to package it this way to further the concept that every day should be a celebration. We're with him there.

What's more beautiful than a bottle of champagne? A gold bottle of champagne.

Here at right is Moët & Chandon's newest luxury: A limited edition, gold-cased bottle of Midnight Gold, an Imperial Crude Moët & Chandon signed by French designer Camille Toupet.

The case is gold lambskin with Swarovski crystals and gilded pearls to simulate champagne bubbles. The "neck tie" at the top of the bottle can be removed and worn as a bracelet.

Only 100 handmade Moët & Chandon Midnight Gold cases will be released in 2009. Better reserve yours today at Lavinia. We hope you speak French.

[via luxuo.com]

A rare box of pre-embargo Romeo y Julieta Cuban cigars stars in Christie's Fine and Rare Wines and Vintage Cigars sale in London this Thursday. Expected to fetch up to $16,000, the box of 100 cigars from Winston Churchill's favored brand, labeled "Selección de Luxe", was originally purchased at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York prior to the enactment of the U.S. embargo against Cuba in 1962. The mint condition cigars in a wooden presentation case consist of 25 Petit Coronas, 25 Coronas, and 25 each of two sizes of Perfectos. Also featured in the luxurious sale are several cases of vintage Krug champagne, headed by a couple cases of Vintage 1985 estimated at about $3,000 each.

French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH is best known for its marquee property Louis Vuitton, but the company has also amassed the world's most amazing collection of top-class wine and spirits brands under its Moët Hennessy group. The incomparable portfolio is celebrated in a suitably lavish new book called Distinctive Vintages ($200, right) just out from Flammarion.

Moët Hennessy owns too many luxury brands to list, but to name a few: Hennessy Cognac; Moët & Chandon, luxe Dom Pérignon, Krug and Veuve Clicquot champagnes; Belvedere and Chopin vodkas; Glenmorangie and deliciously smoky Ardbeg single malt Scotch whiskies; and the famed Chateau d'Yquem wine, synonymous with the finest money can buy.

The book focuses on the collection of fine French wines and spirits, personified in three regions that are "as noble as they are prestigious": Cognac, the ancestral birthplace of Hennessy; Champagne, home Dom Pérignon and its confreres; and Bordeaux, graced by the magical Château d'Yquem. It offers both a practical guide to the three regions as well as an explanation of the different vintages and results produced by the famed houses.

Another grim sign of the global economy comes from the Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, the Champagne producers' professional body. The Times Online reports that the committee has released its most recent figures which show that Champagne sales are down for the first time in almost a decade. In eight months, global sales have fallen by 2.6 percent. Exports to the States have really plummeted, down by 22 per cent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2007. Sales in the UK are also down but only by 4 percent, and the French consumption of Champagne fell by 4.2 percent. This may actually be a little bit of good news for Champagne producers who have been struggling to keep up with demand for the past few years. Also it may allow time for vineyards in the newly assigned Champagne districts to flourish before an increase in cork popping begins anew.

Liquor ads often hint at seduction but the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain has banned ads for Saile and Sabga Champagne for being a bit too racy. The image, shown above, which shows a bikini-clad woman emptying the bottle over a man's torso has been deemed a metaphor for seduction. The ad appeared in Ryanair's in-flight magazine and is now forbidden to be used again. I'm not quite sure what makes this ad so much more inflammatory than Eva Herzigova's sexy shots for Dom Perignon.

As my colleague Deidre Woollard reported earlier, the product tie-ins to the upcoming James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, are beginning to hit the market.

The latest is from famed French champagne house Bollinger, founded in 1829. Bollinger has been featured in Bond films as 007's favorite celebratory tipple since Moonraker back in 1979.

Conceived by French designer Eric Berthès, the lockable steel bullet-shaped case engraved "Bollinger 007" holds a magnum of Bollinger's Grande Année 1999 champagne.

Packaged in a wooden box, the whole weighs over 50 pounds and costs about $5,800; only 207 numbered Bullets will be produced.

[via Born Rich]

For years the invention of Champagne has been attributed to Benedictine monk Dom Perignon, shown above. Now new research suggest that it was British scientist Christopher Merrett who first invented the process and bottle for making Champagne. The Daily Mail reports that Merrett used techniques from the cider industry to control the second fermentation which adds the fizz and he also pioneered the use of stronger glass needed to prevent the bottle exploding. He gave a paper to the Royal Society in 1662 describing a process of adding sugar and molasses to make a wine taste sparkling. This was over 30 years before Dom Perignon's work at the Abbey of Hautvillers at Epernay. The research comes from author James Crowden, whose new book, Ciderland, looks at the history of cider in the West Country.

Swiss sculptor and mixed media artist Sylvie Fleury has turned her talents to a pair of limited edition crystal wine glasses for Dom Pérignon. Each glass is marked with a seductive hand-painted lipstick stain, hence the title "Stolen Kisses." Each pair is signed and numbered and comes with a bottle of Dom Pérignon's Rosé Vintage 1998.

Produced in a limited edition of 999, these are bound to disappear quickly, unlike Fleury's beguiling statement. The set will be available in November for $600.

[via Vogue UK]

Wine scion Edouard de Nazelle, a descendant of one Veuve Clicquot's founders, drives this extremely unique vintage Bentley branded with the famed French champagne house's signature colors. The beautiful one-of-a-kind car, a c.1960 S2 Continental "Flying Spur" with coachwork by H J Mulliner, is painted the same color as Veuve Clicquot's world-renowned Yellow Label bubbly (which is in fact more akin to a mandarin orange), contrasted with deep aubergine. The interior is finished in black leather with beautiful burled wood paneling. The Bentley is very similar to the 1961 S2 formerly owned by Sean Connery which as we reported was auctioned off in June.

[via NOTCOT]

The ultra-luxe Byblos hotel in St. Tropez is selling ten limited edition $150,000 wood and leather caskets containing an oversized bottle of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque champagne and a Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry set. The casket, available from the hotel's exclusive club Les Caves du Roy and made to celebrate the Byblos' 41st anniversary, contains a Salmanazar of the vintage 1999 Belle Époque, which is 9 liters or the equivalent of 12 standard bottles. In addition to the Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry set, which is designed to resemble the Anemone, the flower that adorns the Belle Époque bottle, there are four hand-decorated champagne glasses in the casket.

[via Elite Choice]