ChevalBlanc

La Tour D'Argent Wines Up For Sale

An AP story doesn't make it sound too appetizing (old wine bottles covered in black fungus anyone?) but the upcoming auction of wine bottles from the Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris, France has oenophiles very excited. The restaurant, a landmark that traces its history all the way back to 1582, has a 450,000-bottle cellar and is selling 18,000 bottles at an auction in December. The auction through French auctioneer Piasa will include everything from modest 10-euro bottles of wine to those fungus-covered bottles of 1875 Armagnac Vieux (estimated at 400-500 euros) and other notable oldies.

The restaurant is paring down on its bottles and wants to modernize. Some of the usual suspects at fine wine auctions including vintages from Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Cheval Blanc and Chateau Margaux will also be up for sale and the grand total is expected to be over one million euros. The provenance of the bottles may also be a selling factor not just because the integrity of the bottles, which were bought directly from vinters, can be assured but also because the bottles bear the restaurant's insignia, the famous tower.

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Tags: cheval blanc, ChevalBlanc, fine wine, FineWine, tour dargent, TourDargent, wine, wine auction, WineAuction

Chateau Cheval Blanc Goes For Broke With Wallet-Busting Prices

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Is the time when everyone is dropping prices the moment you should raise yours? The team behind the Chateau Cheval Blanc 2008 seems to think so. Decanter reports that the wine has gone on sale for around £3,500 a case far above the First Growths. Even the always-pricey Lafite Rothschild is hovering around the £2000 mark. The other Bordeaux have also been out a while, so basically Cheval Blanc released at double the price of the top wines. Admittedly, the Chateau Cheval Blanc is one of the best "brand names" in French wine and it did get 97 points from Robert Parker. Still, the price seems extreme. The Decanter article suggests that pricing the wine high was a way to position it as a super-luxury product on par with Ausone or Petrus. This seems to imply that the luxury wine consumer is thinking with his wallet and not his palate. Is raising the price the only way to let the public know that a chateau has a good vintage on its hands?

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Tags: bordeaux, chateau cheval blanc, ChateauChevalBlanc, cheval blanc, ChevalBlanc, wine

Hotel Le Cheval Blanc To Open in December

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

For the dedicated snow bunnies, the second there is a nip in the fall air it is time to think about skiing. Online ski magazine First Tracks covers what might be one of the poshest options for your winter getaway. The new Hotel Le Cheval Blanc in the elite resort town of Courchevel 1850 in France is set to open this December. The hotel is owned by Bernard Arnault, the CEO of the luxury conglomerate LVMH and is set to open this November. The 34-room hotel offers only luxury suites, two private chalets and penthouses and you can ski straight from your door. It will also be home to a Givenchy spa and Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior boutiques.The resort already has a waiting list.

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Tags: cheval blanc, ChevalBlanc, courcheval 1850, france, ski, travel