CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA

A landmark new book on champagne coincides with an important anniversary connected to one of the world’s most famous cuvées

- JARED PAUL STERN

When Jacques Bollinger died in 1941, he left his champagne house to his wife Lily. She was an extremely colorful personality, who in her 30 years on the throne helped make Bollinger a global name. “I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad,” she famously said. “Sometimes I drink it all alone. When I have company, it’s obligatory. I sip it when I’m a bit peckish and drink it when I’m ravished. In other contexts, I never touch it—unless I happen to be thirsty.”

Famous tippler and The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald put it slightly more succinctly when he said, “Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right.” Both quotes, and plenty more, appear in The Impossible Collection of Champagne: The 100 Most Exceptional Bottles, new from famed French luxury publisher Assouline, with text by Enrico Bernardo, formerly of the legendary Four Seasons George V in Paris, who became the youngest world champion sommelier when he achieved the title in 2004 at the age of 27; his knowledge has only increased since.

The $995 limited edition book’s publication happily coincides with the 120th anniversary of the iconic Art Nouveau Japanese anemone design created by Emile Gallé, which since 1964 has graced the bottle of one of the champagne world’s most famous and coveted cuvées: Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque. No bottle better evokes the ineffable spirit of elegance and celebration in liquid form that the best champagne effortlessly imparts.