Martell Cordon Bleu’s centenary celebrations cap in a auction of a changed one-of-a-kind bottle in Shanghai last December. We jet in for a ambience of a grandeur.
By Christie Lee
The Ultimate Jewel
Pulling in to a manicured drive of a Waldorf Astoria Shanghai upon a Bund, a sap motorist announces: “We’re eventually here!” And so starts a tour in to a last widen of Martell Cordon Bleu’s centenary year – a year which enclosed a recover of Cordon Bleu Centenary singular book as well as culminated in a auction of The Ultimate Jewel, a one-off bejeweled bottle, with deduction benefitting a Singapore-based Asia-Europe Foundation.
The Waldorf Astoria Shanghai upon a Bund
After being quickly checked in, you have been ushered into a plush bedrooms during a European-style hotel. A discerning freshen up as well as you reconvene in a lobby, chatting quickly with Martell brand development physical education instructor Jeremy Oakes and senior code physical education instructor Nicolas Benadon. Oakes confides which he hopes which a Ultimate Jewel will fetch US$ 100,000 tonight.
The Ultimate Jewel cooking during a Waldorf Astoria Club
The auction is staged during a adjoining Waldorf Astoria Club, once a mythological Shanghai Club. In a heyday, a bar played horde to a likes of American boss Ulysses S. Grant as well as English playwright Noel Coward. Amid a elaborately flashy blue-tinted room, a little 100 guest put up with in a intemperate five-course booze pairing dish dreamt up by Martell cook Pascal Nebout in partnership with attic master Benoit Fil. The heat outward has dipped to 5 degrees Celsius so a dram of cognac is generally welcoming.
Auctioneer Brian Hodgson urges guest to bid
Three auction sessions punctuate dinner and infer to be a evening’s highlights. Hesitant to lift their auction cards during first, bidders – egged upon by generous Hong Kong auctioneer Brian Hodgson – shortly rivet in a extreme behest fight to get reason of – to allude to Oakes – a square of story from Martell. To honour a occasion, 5 desired Borderies Millesimes from a 1970s as well as 1980s have been handpicked from Martell’s cellars to be sole to one side a festive tip prize.
Taiwanese thespian Joanna Wang performs Chinese classics
Guests during a dinner
First denounced during a Hotel de Paris in 1912, Martell Cordon Bleu is an additional aged cognac ensuing from a formidable mix of some-more than 100 eaux-de-vie. The golden magic potion is remarkable for a rich, well-spoken ambience – a outcome of a mix being primarily of Borderies Cru. The star lot combines a most appropriate of the fine French suggestion as well as tall valuables worlds. Crafted in partnership with Parisian excellent jeweler Boucheron, The Ultimate Jewel sees Cordon Bleu Centenary singular book bottled in excellent crystal. It presents a Martell residence motifs in an suave way: a Martell swallow, for instance, is wrought in bullion with a solid eye, as well as binds a centenary’s symbol, a forever sign, in a bill similar to a excellent fine cloth ribbon. Oakes’ sad prophecy is not distant off a mark. The Ultimate Jewel goes to a rich Guangzhou office worker for US$ 80,000 (about HK$ 624,000).
Benoit Fil congratulates a successful bidder
COGNAC FOR A CAUSE
High prices were fetched during Martell’s centenary auction in Shanghai, with deduction donated to Asia-Europe Foundation, a non-profit organisation operative to make firm ties between a dual continents.
The Ultimate Jewel:US$ 80,000
Borderies Millesimes 1974: US$ 20,000
Borderies Millesimes 1978: US$ 13,000
Borderies Millesimes 1979: US$ 20,000
Borderies Millesimes 1982: US$ 12,000
Borderies Millesimes 1988: US$ 7,000
