Sunday 19 July 2009

The Million $ Book

Maybe this is just me, but in a time of economic difficulties, I think the world might be going a little mad. Well, the publishing world at least. I was amazed to read in Decanter that publisher Kraken Opus is due to publish a wine book next year weighing in at 30kg and costing US$1m (£600,000)!

The wine opus will list the world’s top 100 wineries, and every purchaser of the book will receive a six bottle case from every one of the 100 wineries listed. In addition to that, there will also be an invite to visit some of them!

Only 100 copies will be produced, making it a very limited edition (no surprise at this price!). However, another reason for this maybe that many of the wines are of limited supply. A proportion of the copies will go to auction, and amazingly, 25 have already been pre-ordered, so if you want one, better get that order in soon!

In order to create the contents, first of all a list of the top 100 wineries must be made. A panel of experts will short list around 300 producers, a second panel of 40 sommeliers will narrow it down to the required 100, with a third vote to decide the top 10. Who will be making these decisions is yet to be revealed, they have however said that Marco Pierre White will be involved in the launch.

I suppose the 600 bottle wine collection you receive with each book goes some way to justify the price tag, though it puts it out of the reach of many of the most enthusiastic wine lovers. However, those lucky enough to be able to buy it will at least be safe in the knowledge that they are enjoying some of the greatest wines in the world!

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