One of the most renowned European luxury vodka brands is expanding to the United States. Dragon Bleu Vodka, distilled in the Champagne area of France and consistently recognized among the world’s best vodkas, is to launch in Michigan before distribution across North America in late 2008 and 2009.
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Bloomfield Hills-based RGI Brands LLC is leading the expansion of Dragon Bleu to the United States. RGI was founded two years ago by co-CEOs Jared Rapp and Moti Goldring.

A cocktail function in Queenstown has served up what they believe is the most expensive cocktail made in New Zealand.

The hefty price tag of $1000 is according to its makers, because it is made with some very exclusive ingredients.

The expense of this cocktail is in the rarity of its main ingredient, a 30 year old Jamaican gold rum.

Put a few mils of Louis Tres 13 Cognac in the mix ($2,500 a bottle), and add to that a pinch of saffron, all topped off with a little bling (edible gold dust) and there you have it.

Joy Spence is the reason for this extravagance. The master blender has worked with rum for over 20 years and she has come over from Jamaica for the launch.

The cocktail, called “Joy of Rum” is only available in two Queenstown bars.

Original source:TVNZ

Rum worth $53,000 goes on display

What is believed to be the world’s most expensive bottle of rum has gone on display at a festival in London. The drink, made by the Jamaican distillers Wray and Nephew, is worth $53,000 and is one of only four unopened bottles in the world.

It was bottled in the 1940s using different blends, the oldest of which was about 25 years old, meaning some of the liquid dates back to about 1915.

The bottle is being displayed at RumFest, Europe’s first rum festival.

Supplies of the rum ran out in the mid-1930s following the invention of the Mai Tai cocktail in 1934 which used the 17-year-old Wray and Nephew Rum.

Unmarked bottles

“Mai Tais became so popular that, over two years, the entire supply of Wray and Nephew Rum was exhausted,” said Paul McFadyen, managing director of IP Bartenders, which co-owns the rum festival.

“At that time Wray and Nephew had changed their methods of production at the distillery so that they could make much faster batches of rum.

“This meant that they could not reproduce rum of the same quality meaning that the true Mai Tai could not been recreated.”

We might be persuaded to crack it open Paul McFadyen, festival organiser

It was thought that no more bottles remained until about three years ago, when Wray and Nephew carried out an inventory of their world-wide stores.

It was then, in their Jamaican warehouse, that they discovered the remains of a barrel containing 12 unmarked bottles of the unique rum.

A bottle was given to key bartenders around the world.

But Mr McFadyen said it might prove too tempting to be kept on display and has not ruled out sampling it.

He said: “We might be persuaded to crack it open.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7054120.stm

Rum connoisseurs in Toronto can officially celebrate, the most expensive rum ever sold in Canada is now available at the Summerhill LCBO, and it’s only going to set you back $2000.Launched in September from Havana Club, only nine bottles of Máximo Extra Añejo were made available to customers. The rum has been created by blending the finest and oldest rum reserves, which have been aged over generations by master rum-makers, or Maestros Roneros. Those masters, who pass on their knowledge through at least ten years of training, pass on the essence of the process that has been growing in Cuba since sugar cane first arrived in the country in 1493.

Following that Cuban tradition, the rum goes through multiple steps of ageing and blending before a rum base is created that is then blended with distilled sugarcane. The process continues again, with successive aging and blending until it’s considered ready.

In the words of Don Jose Navarro, the Primer Maestro Ronero, “Havana Club Máximo Extra Añejo first impresses the eye with its amber glow, darkened by prolonged ageing. Next, the nose, with a rich aroma that balances oak and smoke with fresh pear and coconut. Lastly, the tongue, with a powerfully smooth woody taste accented by vanilla and chocolate, and an irresistible spicy finish.”

Visit the Summerhill LCBO at 10 Scrivener Square, (off of Yonge Street, just south of Summerhill Ave.) to purchase a bottle of this magnificent rum, or visit Havana Club’s official website at www.havana-club.com/maximo.

By: W. Andrew Powell (thegate.ca)

Some times you get what you pay for. Few would argue that a top of the line BMW is a better car than a Yugo. Even if you buy it to flaunt your wealth at the riviera, a huge yacht is still more boat than an oar powered dingy. But Vodka?

In what must rank up there as the ultimate in conspicuous consumption, Scottish Blackwood Distillers are marketing a line of vodka under the Diva label for those among us with arguably more money than sense. Indeed, some might argue that it isn’t vodka at all (for one thing it’s wheat based, and not made from potatoes), but pure bottled sticker shock.

Diva is triple distilled and filtered through Nordic birch charcoal, then filtered through a dense column of gems including diamonds, rubies, emeralds and for a final polish before bottling.

No two bottles are alike, with a removable column of crystals which tumble out on removal of the top stopper but are safely in the bottle during pouring. The gems may be used as a drink garnish and decoration. The 48 crystals in each bottle, selected by a Hatton Garden specialist, include cubic zircona, Scottish smoky topaz, pink tourmaline, sky blue topaz, London blue topaz, amethyst, citrine and Peridot.

The crystals in each bottle are hand-prepared by people in the Shetland Isles, Scotland with each person filling the crystals has a favorite colour and puts this at the bottom of each column so each bottle is trackable to the individual.

The producer, Blackwoods Distillers also offers a bespoke service where you can choose the range of jewels to go in the column as a totally unique gift. Jewels chosen may be rubies, diamonds, emeralds, topaz and the rare alenandrite or similar. Prices are available on request with all gems selected by the highly experienced expert, Bill Stead, London’s jewel and diamond centre of Hatton Garden.

With prices ranging from £2,000 to £540,000, depending on your choice of jewels, this calls out for some fairly posh orange juice, perhaps made from oranges hand picked in Florida by illegal immigrants from Belgravia Square and the better parts of Monaco and strained through the lingerie of supermodels?

But really, in the end, what’s the point? For one thing, other than added flavours, a good vodka should ideally just contain two things, pure alcohol and water. Secondly, I might have been asleep in science class that day, but as far as I know, notwithstanding that both are made from carbon, diamonds, unlike active charcoal, has no purifying effects whatsoever, neither do they add much in the way of flavour.

But telling the guests at your party aboard your continent sized yacht how much money they just drained down their gullet, that’s priceless…