If you like to gamble…

‘If you like to gamble, I tell you I’m your man
You win some, lose some, it’s all the same to me
The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say
I don’t share your greed, the only card I need is
The Ace of Spades, The Ace of Spades’

Now, with the attitude of celebration and also taking into consideration the word`s of Lemmie here, we have opened a large golden bottle of Armand de Brignac’s ‘Ace of Spades’, to celebrate the end of the week. It has sure been a tough one.

Some white cherry on the nose, toast, dried apricot and salted almond on the palate.

Well-balanced and smoky, structured by firm acidity and a lively mousse. I like it, I really didn`t think I would.

Now however much one is into or not into, the “blingy thingy“(J-Z or someone poor fellow), it is still quite an impressive bottle to look at. The blend, according to Maison Cattier, the producers of this pewter appendage from the village of Chigny-les-Roses, is an even three-way blend of Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot meunier. The grapes are pressed in a traditional Coquard basket press, and only the first pressing of the cuvée is used to make the wine. Impressive eh!

Unlike Champagne Cristal and Dom Pérignon, it is a non-vintage cuvée, comprising 60 percent wines of the current vintage and 40 percent reserve wines from the two previous years. The Champagne is aged for three years in the deepest, darkest part of the Cattier cellar (hold yer breath, more than 30 meters underground) and riddled and disgorged by hand. The dosage, which is added at this stage, has been aged in oak casks to bring extra complexity and “soul” to the wine. The total production is around 60,000 bottles, which is relatively small for a Champagne house these days. The wine was once put in a blind tasting amongst other Grande Marques Champagne and came out on top. This surprised me, but then again, the world is still full of surprises thank goodness.

A Bloomberg news article once read, “is Jay Z’s New Champagne Worth $760 a Bottle?”

Well is it?