If you spent a stupid sum of money on a bottle of wine, you’re probably going to want to do yourself a favour and enjoy it properly. Yes, that does mean you have to let it breathe and oxidize before you drink it, which can take time and involves a fair bit of know-how.
iSommelier filters the ambient air to remove any impurities (moisture, dust, odors) and isolates oxygen from nitrogen and carbon dioxide. It aerates wine with a constant flow of purified and highly concentrated oxygen thanks to its advanced oxygen extraction system which uses no chemicals.
To be perfectly honest, we’re a little doubtful of its ability to actually separate oxygen from the other gases in our atmosphere, but we took our Chemistry classes so long ago, we could be wrong. If we just take the company’s word for it, the iSommelier will speed up the decanting process significantly, and you can track everything it’s doing through a connected smartphone application. It’s $1,499.
[ Product Page ] VIA [ TheGreenHead ]
The attempt to squeeze every bit of dollar available from the phenomenon known as ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ or ‘Game of Thrones’ has reached the wine section of your kitchen, with Common Ventures coming out with a line called ‘Wines of Westeros’.
Anyone who has read the books known George RR Martin loves his food descriptions. Part of what makes the story so great are the details he goes into in giving us a full, breathing, believable (as far as fantasy worlds go) universe.
Part of that is giving us a whole lot of different wines from different parts of his universe: Arbor Gold, Dornish Reds, Sweet plum wine, Sweet Reds from the Reach, Apricot wine, Golden vintage from the Jade sea and more.
The real ‘Westerosi’ wines will retail at around $20, and will probably be set to launch when Season Five premiere’s, which will be about 10 months from now.
There’s also a method to the names: The red wines are all associated with the houses that are head strong and robust. The whites on the other hand are more cunning, perceptive and mysterious, according to Jane Burshop of Common Ventures.
For more on the food of ASOIAF, take a look at the finest receipes from the Game of Thrones cookbook, Inn at the crossroads.
When one spends the extra amount to buy the perfect bottle of wine, it is paramount that just right amount is poured into the glass each time, and that too the right selection. Wine tasters may be at an advantage due to their expertise, but for those who don’t have this advantage, an automated wine dispenser is the gadget to look for. We have previously shown some advanced dispensers such as Vinotemp Dual-zone, Santa Barbara dispenser, and the Vin au Verre dispenser, all of which performed a multitude of functions for the fine wine taster. Now Dacor’s Discovery WineStation goes one-up to provide the additional benefit of choosing the right wine and that too in the right quantity. This additional innovation, gives the discerning wine tasters the perfect appliance, to extract the most out of their wine drinking experience. They come for a price tag of $5,299 from Dacor stores.
Asia’s new wine capital, Hong Kong, seems to be heating up each year for the increased demand of fine wine each year. With the change in lifestyle, and consumers looking west for the best of wines, the auction events certainly are a source of aggressive bidding for the rare varieties, like we saw in Bonham’s 2012 Fine wine auction, 2011 Acker Merrall & Condit wine auction, and the 2011 Domaine de la Romanee auction which fetched much above pre-auction estimates. Now Former Hong Kong Chief secretary’s wine collection bought in $6.2 million at an auction by Christie’s. This collection included 6 magnum bottles of 1995 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, which became the highlights of the auction and a lucky Asian buyer managed to grab it.
Wine auctions have typically managed to garner as much fanfare and interest amongst the collectors, as seen for cars and watches. The serious wine lovers don’t shy away from pitching their best bids at wine auctions like we witnessed in the Bonhams 2012 Fine & Rare Wines Auction held late last year. Besides we have earlier seen how much wine aficionados spend to own world’s most expensive wines. Now on March 29th this year, the wines from a collection held at Massandra, a winery on the Black Sea built for Czar Nicholas II will be up for auction at the Heritage Auction event. This lot is expected to have some of the finest varieties including a bottle of 1915 White Muscat, bottled a couple of years before the October revolution of 1917 where the Tsar was assassinated.
Described to be the greatest wine ever made, the Chateau Cheval Blanc 1947 boasts such an extraordinary reputation that in the recent decades it has consistently fetched the highest price of any comparable Bordeaux. We have earlier seen that this iconic wine which has been given A class status in the Classification of Saint-Emilion wine, set a record of single bottle sold at Christie’s auction in Geneva to a private collector for $304,580, to become the one of the world’s most expensive wines. Acclaimed not only for its rare quality but also for its longevity, the Chateau Cheval Blanc 1947 has now topped the Hong Kong sale held on January 13th. As the lot of 6 bottles consigned from a private cellar in Bordeaux and presented in a new wooden Cheval Blanc case achieved an impressive price of $83,845.
Fit for the royalty, connoisseurs and collectors alike, the Bonhams Hong Kong 2012 Autumn Auction of Fine & Rare Wines scheduled to be held on Nov. 21st, impressively salutes wine of the Tsars, whisky of the monarchs and cognac of the kings. Notably, a total of 500 lots including the fine and rare wines ranging from legendary Bordeaux and French Burgundy to iconic Italian wines carefully sourced from premium private collections in Europe and Asia, with an estimate of $1.67 million will go to the auction block at the Island Shangri-La Hotel. And, some of the lots highlights include the 12 bottles of Romanée-Conti 1988, 12 bottles of Château Pétrus 1982, and the 6 bottles of Romanée-Conti 1997.
Ever since Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced to tie the knot, the world has been going crazy about what might be the “wedding of the year.” We have earlier told you about the $1 million engagement ring Brad Pitt gifted to Jolie, which the actor has designed himself and is also one of the world’s most expensive engagement rings. The latest wedding details to have come out includes the couple’s plan to host a ultra-lavish party at their South of France Chateau Miraval estate. Allegedly there is still not even a wedding date, but one thing that this highest earning celebrity couple have sorted out is the all-important selection of wine brewed on their own private vineyard in Côtes de Provence, which they will serve their distinguished wedding guests. Whatever the wedding date be, Brad Pitt who is now pretty much a certified wine expert after doing a wine steward’s course, have opted for seven different tipples in an effort that guests shouldn’t be disappointed in his taste. And, among the Pitt’s hand-picked wedding wines which include classics and most expensive wines like Bordeaux, Champagne, and German wines, will be the Provençal rosé Pink Floyd.
For the likes of wine aficionados and devotees, Christie’s reached out to a very small group of known and reliable clients whose provenance is second to none, offering Signature Cellar sale which was a curated mix of collectable blue-chip and great rarities wines. Described to be Christie’s first exclusive foray into stand-alone online wine auction to spruce up sales from international investors, Signature Cellar was lead by a case of 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, fetching $42,350 to become the most expensive lot among the 88 percent of the total 301 lots sold. Even earlier last year at an auction by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, Chateau Lafite Rothschild also became the most expensive single wine lot. Also, a wooden case containing 6-bottles of 2000 Chateau Petrus, which has recently been named as king of wine investments, fetched $26,620, exceeding the high estimate price of $20,000.
