expire-images:2008-12-18

Hennessy Beaute du Siecle Cognac

Filed under: Spirits

Hennessy's latest deluxe offering, the Beaute du Siecle, has been making rounds at luxury affairs lately. This impressive display was designed by French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel. Ten different artists collaborated on the chest which is made from melted aluminum and mirrored glass. It has a bronze key and at the press of a button the bottle rises up on a tray. The bottle is Baccarat crystal and set in a metal lattice designed by Guerlain. It contains the Beauté du Siècle Hennessy Cognac, a limited edition blend that was blended by cellar master Yann Fillioux from Hennessy reserves, which are up to 100 years old with the youngest being 47 years. One chest has already been presented to Killian Hennessy as a birthday present, and another was donated to Elizabeth Taylor's AIDS charity and auctioned for $200,000 earlier this year.

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Tags: beaute du siecle, cognac, expire-images:2008-12-18, hennessy, limited edition

Escargot Goes Eggy

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Getting most people to eat snails is hard enough, but how about snail eggs? Snail's egg caviar is now being sold by a couple of French snail farmers from Soissons, which is located in the Picardie region northeast of Paris. Dominique and Sylvie Pierru are French entrepreneurs who own a snail farm and spent the last three years learning how to harvest the eggs from their 50,000 gasteropods and developing a method of processing and tenderizing the eggs. The caviar from snails is small and cream colored with a woodsy taste.

The Pierrus have already sold 400 jars of the caviar which sells for around $115 per 50 grams, which is not much different than the cost of sturgeon egg caviar. The caviar, which is unpasteurized, lasts for three months. Everything from the harvesting to the cleaning and sorting is done by hand which also contributes to the price.

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Tags: caviar, escargots, expire-images:2008-12-18, france, snails