Nothing compares to the perfect pairing of champagne and a cigar. Too often, cigars wind up with dark liquors, their natural partners. Rum, port, scotch and cognac are the norm for an after-dinner smoke -- not champagne. With the holiday season coming, of course, the preferred beverage will likely bubble, so finding the right cigars for the top libation will be crucial.

Fortunately, Vin Lee, CEO of the Beverly Hills Cigar Club, has agreed to help us out. As you prepare for the new year, take a look at the cigar and champagne pairings that he recommends, with both ubiquitous and rare products on the list. Lee says, "In this day and age, not everyone can afford a $50 cigar and a $300 bottle of champagne," said Lee. "Complementing a wonderful glass of champagne with a great cigar for the holidays is something everyone should be able to enjoy."

BHCC's 2010 Top 10 Champagne and Cigar Pairings are:

A couple weeks back we wrote that Prince Harry would be competing in in the second annual Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic during his first official visit to the U.S. In the match, which took place this past weekend on Governor's Island, the Prince's Sentebale polo team triumphed over Ralph Lauren's Black Watch, captained by Polo model Nacho Figueras, five goals to four. VIP spectators at the historic event who enjoyed afternoon tea prepared by Sandro Micheli, executive pastry chef at Adour Alain Ducasse at The St. Regis New York, included Madonna and her male model pal Jesus Luz, Kate Hudson, Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Chloe Sevigny and LL Cool J.

On May 30 Britain's Prince Harry will play in the second annual Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic during his first official visit to the U.S. Last year we told you about the launch of the Manhattan Classic, the first polo match to be played in NYC in 70 years. For this year's event the famed St. Regis hotel is offering an Aficionado package, including a stay at the ultra-luxe hotel, VIP seating at the match for two guests, and brunch the next day with Nacho Figueras, captain of Ralph Lauren's Black Watch polo team (and a Ralph Lauren model).

The St. Regis will feature its renowned Afternoon Tea at the polo match, and Sandro Micheli of Adour Alain Ducasse at The St. Regis New York has created a special menu for the occasion. At the match taking place on Governor's Island, the Prince will play opposite Black Watch on a team captained by Nick Roldan. Veuve Clicquot is donating proceeds from the event to American Friends of Sentebale, a charity supporting at-risk children in Lesotho, Africa, founded by Prince Harry and Lesotho's Prince Seeiso.

[via JustLuxe]

Famed French champagne house Veuve Clicquot is known for many innovative products designed to enhance the experience of enjoying their world-class wine. The latest addition is a nifty new version of their thermodynamic Ice Jacket. The high-tech isotherm sleeve is tailored to the shape of the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label bottle and designed to keep it at the perfect temperature. The high-tech fabric with leather detailing highlights the vibrant Clicquot Yellow color. The Ice Jacket can maintain the champagne at an optimal tasting temperature for up to two hours, and it comes with a customizable leather-trimmed label as well as a leather tab at the bottle neck ensure a snug fit.

[via JustLuxe]

Famed French champagne house Veuve Clicquot is known for inspiring a wide variety of interesting accessories to enhance what's already a luxurious quaffing experience. The latest example is merely conceptual but the company should seriously consider producing it in our opinion. French industrial designer Thomas Lemaire came up with the innovative tribute to one of his country's finest products. The Dry Blizzard consists of a high-tech cooler and champagne flutes ensuring the wine is always perfectly chilled.

The super-sleek cooler uses dry ice and a battery-powered fan to circulate cold air around the bottle, dispensing with wet, messy melted ice. The system keeps the champagne at the optimum temperature and also prevents the label from coming unstuck in icy water. The three-part flutes are also designed to keep the Veuve from being warmed by your hand. Double-walled glass insulates the contents, while an aluminum grip for your fingers also keeps unwanted heat at bay.

Enthusiasm for the noble sport of polo and the luxurious lifestyle it entails has never been more in evidence. It seems the economic downturn has done little to dampen it, perhaps because polo's roots are so steeped in class and tradition. Over the past several months we saw Veuve Clicquot stage the first polo match in New York City in over 70 years; St. Regis inaugurate a major new International Polo Cup; the Snow Polo championships take place in Aspen and St. Moritz; and the first Desert Palm Nations Polo Cup in Dubai. Polo player Johnny Lynn (above) saw it all coming. In 2001 he founded Polistas, the first true polo lifestyle brand, made for polo players by polo players, and now he's opening up branches all over the world.

Lynn, a Canadian-born former financier who plays polo internationally and teaches as well, conceived of Polistas to outfit polo teams with high quality clothing and accessories both for playing in and for après polo. An immediate success, polo and equestrian enthusiasts of all stripes soon gravitated to his flagship store in London's famed Burlington Arcade. The name Polistas is Argentine slang for "polo players" and it is the classic Argentinian polo lifestyle - rugged, laid-back and timeless - that comes through in Polistas' products and attitude. For the past six years Polistas has had a major presence at Harrods and other high-end boutiques worldwide, and has been selected as the official supplier to several major tournaments, including the Veuve Clicquot British Open Gold Cup, The Hildon Queen's Cup, and the Prince of Wales Trophy in the UK.

Back in the summer we wrote about the super-cool collaboration between famed French champagne house Veuve Clicquot and iconic Italian yacht builder Riva. Now Veuve and Riva have teamed up again to produce a new yacht-inspired gift box (above) for a bottle of Veuve Clicquot's exquisite La Grande Dame 1998. Made of mahogany, chrome and black lacquer and modeled on one of Riva's classic Dolce Vita-esque wooden motoryachts - their latest, the $944,000 Aquariva Super, just debuted at the New York Boat Show - the box is priced at $140. La Grande Dame is Veuve Clicquot's prestige cuvée, named after its legendary founder, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin.

[via JustLuxe]

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.

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.

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.

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]

One of the world's most famous luxury hotel brands is getting into the polo game in a big way this summer with the first annual St. Regis International Cup. England and Italy will compete for the prestigious trophy in the inaugural match, taking place this Sunday (the 31st) at the historic Cowdray Park Polo Club in West Sussex, surrounded by the ruins of Cowdray Castle.

Of course, St. Regis isn't about to slack off when it comes to hospitality either. They've partnered with Asprey, Veuve Clicquot and Audi to create the ultimate VIP tent at Cowdray, where a crack regiment of St. Regis butlers brought in from the hotels will cater to the toffs' every need. Even the general public will be able to avail themselves of a bar serving the signature St. Regis Bloody Mary. Damned democratic of them, no?

Now you no longer need ice or a refrigerator to keep your Champagne cold. Veuve Clicquot has come out with the icebox, a bright yellow box that contains the Champagne, two flutes and a couple of chemicals that react together when you snap the seal, creating a reaction that cools the bottle. The reaction only happens once and the set costs £99 at Selfridges.

Veuve Clicquot has created a lot of unique designs in the past few years, check out the gallery below for a small sample.

After reading "The Billionaire's Vinegar" it's hard not to be skeptical about wine finding stories but this one from the BBC is pretty amazing. An 1893 bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne was found in a sideboard at a Scottish castle. The BBC News reports the sideboard came from Torosay Castle on the Isle of Mull. The owner Chris James found the bottle after getting a locksmith to cut a key to open the piece of furniture. Once opened the sideboard revealed a bottle of brandy, a port decanter, a bottle of claret and the single bottle of 1893 Veuve Clicquot. The drinks are believed to have been locked up since at least 1897.

James contacted Veuve Clicquot, who said the bottle was the oldest in existence. The priceless bottle is now displayed at the company' s visitors center in Reims, France.

[Thanks, Lana]

Renowned French champagne house Veuve Clicquot has teamed up with luxury Italian motoryacht maker Riva to produce an amazing new Grande Dame Cruise Collection of coolers and accessories for discerning yachtsmen. It's nothing short of a match made in style heaven of two very chic European marques. The top offering from the collaboration is an $80,000 made-to-order cruising trunk that resembles a small boat in itself and harks back to the golden age of traveling in style which we reminisced about recently. For something done on such a grand scale it's rather refined, a luxurious design without resorting to odious "bling" to attract those with more money than sense.

The trunk comes packed with four bottles (1988) and two magnums (1998) of Clicquot's coveted La Grande Dame champagne, six Riedel crystal champagne flutes and elegant table settings for six people. A smaller limited edition Cruiser Bag comes with a single bottle of Grande Dame and two flutes for more intimate occasions, and a matching ice bucket is crafted with marine flair to spare. All pieces feature the same lacquer work, mahogany inlay, chrome detailing and leather trim found on Riva's beautiful boats.

Riva, which dates from the 1800s, is an icon of the Italian Riviera's Dolce Vita style. The company first captured the attention of movie stars and the international jet set in the '50s. Its classic wooden craft, which inspired the Cruise Collection, have been owned by the likes of Brigitte Bardot, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Aristotle Onassis and Prince Ranier of Monaco. Their yachts, including more modern designs, can be seen at the chic European seaside resorts where the bon ton gather, and they have their own line of elegant nautical-inspired clothing as well.