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Percentage of the world’s ten most valuable spirits brands that are Chinese, according to a report by the consulting company Brand Finance. The number 1 spirit brand in the world is Moutai, a producer of baijiu (a clear spirit usually distilled from fermented sorghum) valued at $45.3 billion. The second, third, fourth, and fifth place spirit brands are also all Chinese. Number 6 is Jack Daniels, followed by Hennessy, Smirnoff, Bacardi, and Johnnie Walker.

La Grande Dame, Comtes de Champagne, and Cristal are all examples of:

A. Prestige Cuvées

B. Grand Marques

C. Blanc de Blancs

D. Premier Grand Crus

The most expensive, longest-aged, and often highest-quality Champagnes are known as prestige cuvées, and virtually every producer makes one. The first prestige cuvée was made in 1876 by the House of Roederer for Czar Alexander II of Russia, who wanted an exclusive Champagne not available to (God forbid) the lower aristocracy. The czar further dictated that it be shipped in leaded crystal bottles. Roederer’s prestige cuvée was hence named “Cristal.” Veuve Clicquot named their top bottling, “La Grande Dame,” after Madame Clicquot, the house’s esteemed matriarch. Taittinger created the Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs, its most exclusive and premium wine, in honor of the Comtes de Champagne (Counts of Champagne), particularly Thibaud IV, whose seal adorns every bottle of Taittinger.

“I like on the table, when we’re speaking, the light of a bottle of intelligent wine.”

—Pablo Neruda
Chilean poet, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1904 – 1973)

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