My Handsome Husband
We do not drink alcohol. When we get to our stateroom, there are eight bottles of water on the counter. We get bottled water each day, free of charge, because we are long-time cruisers with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.
We amble around every ship we cruise on and go into every shop, including the liquor store. I was fascinated by the bottle of Louis XIII Remy Martin Grande Champagne Cognac that was priced at $4,099.00, a super big price for alcohol. But since we do not drink, we were unaware of the high cost of exotic alcohol beverages.
It was both the bottle and the cost that drew my attention. I took that photo. The salesman told me it was gold-plated at the neck and the crystal bottle was made by Baccarat, a company founded in Baccarat, France, in 1764. Baccarat was famous for making prized crystal items for the aristocrats back then. Baccarat is still desirable to own and it still has a hefty price on it.
The reason for the high price, aside from the Baccarat crystal, was the contents. That Champagne Cognac had been aged four to twelve years in French oak casks (tiercons). It takes a long time for the Champagne Cognac to age; in fact, some of it has been aged 50 to 100 years. Pricey contents are in that crystal bottle.
When I first saw the bottle, I thought it was made by Lalique, another famous French glass company in France, a company that has made, since 1888, beautiful crystal objects. I own one piece of Lalique, a perfume bottle. Below is a picture of my one piece of Lalique. My husband purchased this bottle of perfume in the Lalique crystal bottle in France for his mother when he was overseas during the Vietnam War. He was drafted right out of college.
He lived through that war and made it home. Many didn’t. Some of my friends’ names are on that beautiful black granite, V-shaped wall in Washington, D.C. It was designed by American architect Maya Lin, and her V-shaped wall is a symbol of enduring legacy. I will never forget my friends’ names who are on that wall. They have an enduring legacy in my heart. My husband is always in my heart.
The beautiful Lalique crystal bottle will always remind me of my wonderful mother-in-law, who gave it to me before she passed. I will always miss her and never forget her. She, too, has an enduring legacy in my heart.
I wondered why anyone would pay that much money for alcohol. Did they drink it? Or did they just keep it on display to look at? If you look on eBay, you will see lots of empty Baccarat containers that once held the Louis XIII Champagne Cognac. So people do buy it at that high price, and they do drink its contents. I was surprised.
It made me wonder about other liquors and their costs. With some research on Google, I found that the most expensive liquor in the world is Antica Distilleria Russo’s D’Amalfi Limoncello Supreme. Now that puppy costs near $44 million per bottle. I don’t know what the bottle is made of but it has diamonds, even three 13-carat diamonds on the neck and an 18.5 carat diamond on the body of the bottle. (That would make a nice ring or two for the wife, THIS wife.) The contents must be out of this world. That liqueur is made from lemons peels that come from Italy’s Amalfi Coast.
If you ever watched NCIS on TV, you heard Ducky ask a friend to join him for a glass of Macallan. That’s another pricey drink. A 1926 single malt whiskey will only cost you $2.7 million. Ducky had expensive taste in whiskey, but I doubt it was the 1926 single malt. Macallan is well-known and is reasonable in price when compared to those above that I talked about.
There is a sad end to this story about this bottle of booze on the shelf. The next time we were on that cruise ship, I went again to find the bottle of booze that so fascinated me because of its beautiful crystal container and high price. It was not there. I showed my photo to the clerk. “Ah,” he said. “Ah, ah, ah. That bottle was dropped by an employee. It broke. Cognac everywhere.” There was much tut tutting from him.
My heart ached for the employee. Did he have to pay for that bottle of precious liquid? I don’t see how he could ever afford to pay for it. In my mind, Royal Caribbean was good to the employee, showed him sympathy and understanding. Accidents happen every day to all of us.
I’m just glad I took a photo and did not touch the bottle. I would have had to pay for it if I had broken it.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy your cruising, but don’t pick up anything expensive that can break. The ship rocks at times, it could rock while you had that $4,099.00 bottle of booze in your hands. Don’t risk it. Take a photo.
Trish
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