Obscure Champagne Hits It Big Thanks to Jay-Z
In these dreary times of belt-tightening and austerity, you'd be forgiven for not keeping track of which ridiculously expensive champagne is currently de rigueur among rappers and jet setters. But it is our solemn duty to report that since Jay-Z's famous boycott of Cristal—which was triggered by the company's dismay over the hip hop community's association with the brand and led to a decline in sales—the bubbly that seems to have taken its place, Armand de Brignac, is doing better than ever.
The company now reports it's selling out of its entire production run. This is despite the fact that Armand de Brignac is made not by a big luxury house like LVMH, but an obscure little winery, that it's only three years old, and that when it first appeared in one of Jay's videos, people assumed that the shiny gold bottle with a big pewter label was too over the top to be real. "Certainly it is eye-catching," says the brand's commercial director, "but if we wanted Armand De Brignac to be a success then it had to be eye-catching."
But is the champagne, known as "Ace of Spades" as delicious as Krug or Bollinger? You'll have to splash out $500 on a bottle or hang out with a rapper's entourage to find out.
