What would you pay for a non-alcoholic sparkling beverage that has been "suffused" with 24-karat gold? We have seen the gold leaf sandwich, which was priced at $160 but had some redeeming qualities in the form of a generous helping of lobster. While this $150 per bottle sparkling non-alcoholic white wine features grapes from Spain and Germany and some specks of pure gold. The rationale for producing this non-alcoholic sparkling wine is to hit up the wealthy Middle Eastern market where alcohol consumption is forbidden (or only allowed under strict rules), the people have a lot of money to burn and an image to maintain. Enter the Lussory Gold sparkling non-alcoholic white wine. And a quote that describes the state of things in this part of the world:
"Tony Colley, head manager of Lootah Premium Foods, told Reuters: “It has gold in it for no good reason apart from it’s fun, it’s fantastic, it’s frivolous, it’s totally Dubai.”
What's so fun and fantastic about grape juice? It may be totally frivolous...but what the heck. 26,000 bottles of Lussory Gold sparkling non-alcoholic white wine are on their way to the Emirates and surely all of these $150 bottles of sparkling grape juice will get snapped up, post-haste.
Let them drink (highly diluted) gold speckled grape juice!