£50,000 cognac

£50,000 cognac: $77,615 Bottle Of 224-Year-Old Cognac Shattered By Clumsy Customer - A plan to break the Guinness World Record for most expensive cocktail is in pieces after an unidentified "wealthy customer" accidentally smashed a £50,000 ($77,579) bottle of Clos de Griffier Vieux cognac, dated in 1778. Renowned bartender Salvatore Calabrese had reportedly been due to produce the concoction in front of judges at London's posh Playboy Club, when the customer, who'd asked to view the bottle, stood up and sent it crashing to the floor.

Here's something groan-worthy. A customer at London's Playboy Club recently managed to destroy a $77,615 (£50,000) bottle of historic Cognac, which dated back to 1788.

The Drinks Business tells us that the customer, a businessman with apparently expensive tastes and butter fingers, had ordered two glasses of the brandy for $7,839 (£5,000) a pop when he asked to look at the bottle. When he stood up, he sent it flying across the room. It broke into smithereens upon hitting the floor.

The bottle had previously been sold for $37,000 at a Paris auction in 2009. It was supposed to have been featured this week by mixologist Salvatore Calabrese in the making of the world's most expensive cocktail for Guinness World Records.

Calabrese, a Cognac expert with an antique spirits collection valued at more than $1.5 million, expressed his horror and sadness to The Evening Standard:

Mr Calabrese said: “We all just froze, then it sunk in. I’ve been heartbroken. Not because of the value of the bottle, but because it is a piece of history that has been lost.”
Unfortunately for all, the bottle of Clos de Griffier Vieux wasn't insured because it had already been open. But, it seems the clumsy customer, a club regular, has been forgiven. "Accidents happen," Calabrese told The Evening Standard.