Mariah Carey explains the sloshy speech she gave at the Palm Springs Film Festival. It turns out that she had been drinking a lot of champagne. She said it's kind of like a party atmosphere at the awards. Take a look:
There are up to twenty million bubbles in one bottle of champagne. For centuries, champagne makers considered pent-up carbon dioxide a hazard that could make their bottles explode. But when 17th century Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Perignon invented the wire cage that holds the cork onto the bottle, everything changed. Now 322 million bottles of champagne are sold every year around the world. The WSJ's Robert Lee Hotz investigates the science behind the bubbly. Take a look:
Leon Verres has launched a line of ultra high-end luxury shoes. The Leon Verres website says the sandals above are made with real gold and contain sparkling diamonds. The sandals on the left cost $145,000 and the sandals on the right are priced at $119,000. Earlier this year Leon Verres debuted a champagne that costs $2.75 million a bottle due to the diamond and fur bottle covers.
Scarlett Johansson is the new brand ambassador for Moet & Chandon. Scarlett holds a champagne flute between her toes in the champagne ad above. The ads were taken while Scarlett was still a blonde. Scarlett's hair color is now an auburn red. Below Scarlett is reaching into a bucket of ice. You can see more photos from the campaign here.
Valentine's Week is Big Week for Chocolate and Sparkling Wine
The recession isn't going to keep people away from chocolate. A study did find that consumers will be spending less on Valentine's Day this year but Valentine's week is still a very big week overall for sales of chocolate and sparking wine. Here are some Valentine chocolate facts and trends from a Nielsen Company report (PDF).
Consumers are expected to purchase more than $345 million in chocolate candy during Valentine's week, accounting for 5.1 percent of chocolate candy's annual sales. On a total candy basis, consumers will purchase more than $448 million during Valentine's week.
More than 58 million pounds of chocolate candy will be sold during Valentine's week. By comparison, nearly 90 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Halloween week.
Lovebirds aren't necessarily early birds, with February 13 - the day before Valentine's Day - as the top total candy and chocolate candy buying day in February.
Bargain shoppers are out the day after Valentine's Day with February 15 as the second most important chocolate candy buying day in February.
Valentine's week is one of the top weeks for sparkling wine sales, with more than $8.6 million in sales, trailing only Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. More than 881,000 bottles of sparkling wine will be sold during the holiday week.
Retailers charge more for sparkling wine during the Valentine's Day period. Nielsen says sparkling wine also has its highest average pricing during Valentine's week at $9.75 (750 ml) which is about 5% more than other peak sales weeks.
Herve, the founder and owner of Flute Bar in Manhattan shares his tips for tasting champagne and pairing it with food. We recommend having a glass or two of champagne before listening to the video. And just for the record, the chocolate experts are wrong. Monsieur Rousseau is correct: champagne does indeed go with chocolate.
Perrier-Jouet's champagne experts have dispelled several champagne myths. Perrier-Jouet says that many people are intimidated by champagne and are often misinformed when it comes to the do's and don'ts and facts about champagne.
Myth: There is champagne and there is wine.
Fact: Champagne is actually wine. In fact, many top chefs consider
champagne the ultimate wine for food. Due to the acidity of
champagne, it complements the widest variety of menu items. Plus,
you don't have the added pressure of picking a red or a white wine,
as you get both in champagne!
Myth: Champagne is only supposed to be used for celebrations or with dessert.
Fact: Champagne should be considered as any wine would be and most
desserts are too sweet to accompany a brut champagne (the most
common variety of champagne; some demi-sec champagnes are more
suited for dessert).
Myth: Champagne should be ice cold.
Fact: The colder it is- the fewer tastes and aromas are experienced.
Myth: The fastest way to chill champagne is to put it into a bucket of ice.
Fact: Ice water will chill a bottle much faster (in approximately 20
minutes!)
Myth: The proper way to open a bottle is to allow the cork to fly off the top of the bottle.
Fact: To avoid injury, a hand should always be placed firmly over the wire cage holding the cork to properly open a bottle.
Myth: Once that fantastic bottle of champagne is opened, it needs to be consumed.
Fact: Perrier-Jouet reminds individuals that if a bottle is re-corked properly, it will not go flat and still be bubbly.
Myth: Champagne comes from the mini champagne grapes.
Fact: Champagne (with the exception of blanc de blancs) is made with two red variety grapes: Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, as well as one
white grape, the chardonnay grape.
Myth: Champagne can come from different regions in the world.
Fact: Unless the champagne comes from the Champagne region of France, it's not really champagne. All wines made outside of Champagne, France
are Sparkling Wine.
It's time to think about champagne and sparkling wines for New Year's Eve. But the choices are overwhelming. So many sparkling wines, so little time. There are sweet wines, cry wines, fruity wines, yeasty wines and the prices vary widely. Jim Clarke, wine director at New York restaurant Megu Downtown, who points out some of his favorite picks.
Five of Forbes' top ten picks include:
Champagne: Delamotte Blanc de Blancs 1999, $70, California
J Wine Co. Brut 2000, California, $50
Champagne: Delamotte Blanc de Blancs 1999, $70
Alsace: Lucien Albrecht Cremant d'Alsace NV, $15
Champagne: Soutiran Perle Noir Blanc de Noirs NV, $63
You can read the full article and see the slide show at Forbes.com here.
LVMH announced Friday that it has acquired French champagne house Montaudon, which is well known for its excellent vintages. Montaudon is a small house which employees 29 people. The purchase expands LVMH reach in the
champagne world. It already owns Dom Perignon, Moet et Chandon, Veuve Clicquot Krug, Ruinart, Mercier and Ponsardin
Moet Hennessy, the wines and spirits group owned by LVMH, the world's leading luxury products group, announces the acquisition of the Montaudon champagne house. Founded in 1891, the Montaudon family business is situated at the heart of Reims.
Christophe Navarre, Chairman of Moet Hennessy, said: "The acquisition of Montaudon enables us to complete our portfolio of prestigious brands and to increase our champagne reserves. This corresponds with Moet Hennessy's strategy to strengthen its worldwide leadership in the luxury wines and spirits sector."
For a light-bodied French champagne, our favorite these days is
Perrier Jouet. But if you're looking for a low-priced domestic sparkling wine or American Champagne as the American vintners call it (to the horror of the
French wine industry), Korbel is always a good choice. And what's more fun than to tour the wine country? For 2005, Korbel has made some wonderful additions and improvements to its gardens. Korbel says horticulturist Xavier Corral and his team of gardeners have expanded the collection of roses -- 250 varieties strong and counting -- to include two rare two-tone hybrid tea roses.
Korbel describes the garden as follows:
To highlight their vibrant blooms amid the towering redwoods that shade the
original circa 1882 Korbel Family House, Corral and his team have surrounded
the rose plantings with an elegant ground cover of white bachelor buttons
and used in the planting beds dark mulch created from Chardonnay grapes
crushed for Korbel champagne. Two beautiful fountains have been restored, their gentle murmur enhancing the natural ambience. Half barrels featuring spring annuals and weeping trees (cedar, spruce, pine, birch, beech and cherry), introduced last year in Korbel's public areas and parking lot, have been expanded in number to allow tasting room visitors to share the garden experience.
Korbel says it will be offering free tours of the garden Tuesday through
Sunday at 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. through mid-October. And of
course you can obtain Korbel champagne at the tasting room and a gourmet
lunch from the winery's delicatessen. Korbel is located on River Road near
Guerneville, California, 14 miles west of Highway 101. Combine this
with visits to some of the other fabulous wineries in the area and it sounds
like a terrific afternoon -- after you draw straws to see who gets to be the designated driver. Wines & Vines has a good collection of
links to California winery websites, if you're feeling like a wine-enhanced vacation.
The recession isn't going to keep people away from chocolate. A 
Perrier-Jouet's champagne experts have dispelled several champagne myths. Perrier-Jouet says that many people are intimidated by champagne and are often misinformed when it comes to the do's and don'ts and facts about champagne.
For a light-bodied French champagne, our favorite these days is
Perrier Jouet. But if you're looking for a low-priced domestic sparkling wine or American Champagne as the American vintners call it (to the horror of the
French wine industry), 
