The pairing of musicians and liquor is not exactly uncommon, however it is often the case that the musicians are drinking the spirits, rather than having them named after them. The Duke Ellington Cognac is a 25-year-old XO blend from the French cognac house Meukow and aims to connect the drinker "to a different time and place," much as Ellington's music does. The cognac will retail for $150 per 750mL bottle, but it doesn't seem to be available in stores quite yet. Bottle Watch has some contact information if you want to know when it will be available.

[via Slashfood]

We mentioned that Pasion Azteca was the most expensive tequila back in June, priced at $150,000 per bottle. And June was a long time ago, as the company that put it out, Ley .925, has already outdone themselves to set a world record for the priciest tequila ever made. The new version is a Grand Reserve Pasion Azteca. The tequila is made of 100% Blue Agave, aged for 6 years and is packaged in a platinum bottle. It already sold to a collector for $225,000.

The creator of the tequila, Fernando Altamirano, already has his sights set even higher. He plans to create a million-dollar tequila over the course of the next year, packaged in a bottle made of platinum and encrusted with diamonds.

If your tastes run to the exotic, the new Lichido might be just the thing to tempt your palate. It is a blend of premium vodka, flavored with lychees, guava and kissed with peach, all blended together into a balanced drink and packaged in a stunning bottle. It has only recently been introduced to the US, but has already made a splash with drinkers at the recent New York Culinary Festival and several other NYC events. With all the New York appearances, it's no surprise that that was the first market that Lichido was brought in to, but it is available for $28 at Astor Wines and will be more widely available later this year.

Monasteries have long been known as places to find a spiritual, relaxing escape from the workaday world, but they did so in spare accommodations, just as the monks lived without any luxuries. Recently, however, many monasteries have been renovated into hotels, hotels that are growing in popularity as people look for places to escape to that are relaxing and far removed from the crowds of many other resorts. The renovations are introducing luxury accommodations to what have traditionally been places designed to comfort the spirit, not the body. Are the monasteries still able to offer a spiritual retreat? This month's Travel+Leisure checked out some of Europe's renovated and converted monasteries to find out.