1. The oldest bottle of Veuve Clicquot sold for 30,000 euros. The bottle, dated at approximately 1841, was found in an underwater shipwreck and is rumored to have been sampled by Madame Clicquot herself.
2. And Veuve Clicquot is the first champagne house credited for rosé. The pinkish color came about when the brand began adding red wine during production.
3. Four of the world’s top houses are related to Louis Vuitton… in that they’re owned by the same parent company. Moët & Chandon, Krug, Dom Pérignon and Veuve Clicquot are all owned by LVMH, or LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE.
4. Dom Pérignon is only produced six times per decade. In the case of Dom Pérignon, each bottle blends two types grapes – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – from a single year’s harvest. That year’s bottles are then left to ferment for approximately six years, eventually being sold as a vintage. If the grapes from a year’s harvest aren’t up to the Dom Pérignon standard, simply no bottles are made for that year. Essentially, the house has perfect the long game.
5. Sir Winston Churchill drank a lot of Pol Roger. To the point that the house now infamously carries a vintage blend named after the historical figure. The secret composition is said to present the style Churchill liked the most: robust, mature and long-lived.
6. Ruinart’s cellars are under UNESCO protection. The mesmerizing chalk cellars of the first champagne house in Reims, France, along with all other houses in the region, were granted world heritage status – a merit which includes landmarks like the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China.
