Friday, 16 June 2017

Marie Brizard brings ‘exceptionally rare liqueur’ to Vinexpo

Visitors to Vinexpo will have the privilege of seeing an extremely rare bottle of an exceptional liqueur that bears witness to the rich history of Marie Brizard.


This extraordinary piece comes from the cellar of one of the most important private collectors in the world, Michel-Jack Chasseuil.
Among his 40,000 bottles, Chasseuil identified the 100 rarest specimens, and grouped them together in a book (100 Extraordinary Bottles: From the Most Beautiful Wine Cellar in the World - Cellar, published by Firefly Books). In this selection, he chose to present a liqueur of Marie Brizard Danzig*, dating from 1912, linked to the fate of the famous Titanic.
He bought this treasure in 1988, at an auction in Versailles, and explains that on the day of the sale, fortunately, snow was falling heavily, and discouraged most of the potential buyers.
The fact that this was 9 years before the release of James Cameron’s film, Titanic, also explains the lack of interest from other bidders. The auctioneer however explained the extraordinary history of these two bottles.
Indeed, the descendants of Louis Renault, the founder of the Renault cars, had put them on sale. According to him, his ancestor wanted to cross the Atlantic in April 1912 aboard the notorious steamer but for unknown reasons, had not been able to realise his dream.
On the other hand, he had learned that Marie Brizard liqueur “with golden glitter” was to be served on board during the voyage. At that time, this kind of alcohol, enhanced with gold leaf, had the reputation of purifying one’s blood. Louis Renault thus hastened to search and appropriate a few bottles of this precious liquid and, as they say, the rest is history!
Hall 1, Stand BD287

* The liqueur of Danzig or Danzig, German and historic name of Gdańsk, created by a Dutchman in the 16th century, based on roots and herbs, with the peculiarity of including 22-23 carat gold shards

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