The latest major marketing fun

A friend sent me an interesting press release for my perusal.

It seems that the good people at Krug have sat down and said, "Now, how can we get people with more money than the population of Alabama to give lots and lots of cash to us? We already did the Clos d'Ambonnay, and that's selling at a healthy $3,000-per-bottle clip. But that isn't enough, and we don't have enough of it! What can we do?"

Of course, the word lifestyle is an incantation to marketers. Let's see where it leads.

Already having installed "Krug Rooms" - lavish caves of icy crystal and yeasty champagne - in such fine palace hotels as The Dorchester in London and something or other overlooking a Swiss lake, along with a swank skyscraper in Hong Kong - they suddenly decided to amp it up a notch.

For a mere £10,000 ($17,775; 12,275 €; other currencies, please enquire), you may embark upon a splashy, quite fabulous two-day escapade, leaving London's Waterloo station by Eurostar (not included in the package) - to wind up in Paris, the city of light! Behold the gloriously strobing Eiffel Tower by night! The whirling Concorde ferris wheel! Designer stores with things in them by Philippe Starck! Waiters in white gloves handing you petits-fours!

Yes, because you will check into the Plaza-Athénée, and when you wake, you will be served a lavish breakfast alongside a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée. Later, you will do some other stuff, then you will lunch at Le Meurice, with a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée. Following that, you will be whisked off to Reims for more Krug Grande Cuvée and a visit of the vineyards. Then more Krug, maybe a vintage to break it up a little.

Finally, at weekend's end, you will be packed back up into the Eurostar, three sheets to the wind, and sped back home, not quite sure if you still have your keys.

Cost? £10,000. Seeing who buys it? Priceless.