The 19th century neoclassic private mansion of the House of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin located in Reims (France), has been entirely restored.

The Hotel du Marc has had a complete freshening up, from the façade which was severely damaged in the First World War, to the updated interior design.

The renovation work has involved many different talents, ranging from professionals who specialize in historic preservation to artists and renowned designers such as Mathieu Lehanneur, Pablo Reinoso, Fredrikson Stallard and the Campana Brothers.

Two bottles of 200-year old champagne recently salvaged from a Baltic Sea shipwreck will be auctioned off in June.

Finland’s autonomous province of Aaland “has decided that two bottles will be sold at an exclusive champagne auction held in (the capital) Mariehamn on June 3, 2011″.

One of the auctioned bottles will be from the house of Veuve-Clicquot and the other from the now extinct house of Juglar.

This year at the Salone del Mobile, Veuve Clicquot will debut “Clicq’Up”, an origami inspired design object by Belgian designer Mathias van de Walle.

Clicq’Up is the first foldable Champagne bucket and is based on a concept of origami on ice, marrying form and function to create a contemporary, reusable design object that can be folded for easy transportation, set up, and storage.

Champagne experts have discovered what are believed to be the oldest existing bottles of Heidsieck champagne, salvaged from a shipwreck in the waters south of Aaland, a Finnish-controlled archipelago of 6,500 islands in the Baltic sea.

Divers stumbled across a cargo of around 150 champagne bottles last July in a two-masted schooner which had run aground sometime between 1825 and 1830.

And by last November experts had already identified the world’s oldest Juglar and Veuve Clicquot brands among the bottles.

With New Year’s just around the corner, The Beverly Hills Cigar Club has compiled its Top 5 Champagne and Cigar Pairings: ideal combinations for ringing in 2011.

BHCC’s pairings were formed by compiling a list of the highest rated champagnes, then selecting a top rated cigar that would complement the beverage.

Selections for both ranged through multiple price categories, ensuring, fairly surprisingly, this pleasurable combination is available for every budget.

Wine experts Wednesday popped the corks of two bottles of champagne recently salvaged from the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

They had lain in a sunken ship for nearly 200 years, 50 meters below the surface in the waters south of Aaland, a Finnish-controlled archipelago of 6,500 islands.

On stage, they eased the fragile corks from the dark brown bottles — one from the house of Veuve-Clicquot and the other from the now extinct house of Juglar.