There are certain joys in life that come with being a journalist – that buzz you get when you break a big story, the excitement of bagging a cracking exclusive, the constant abuse you get on social media for merely existing.
But the biggest one of all is getting to try a product that a mere mortal would never normally get the chance to get hold of because of the extortionate price. Enter Cristiano Ronaldo’s sister Elma Aveiro’s creation called The 777 Goals Champagne, celebrating 777 goals scored by the Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Portugal legend.
At £1,500 – or €1,777 – there was no chance on Earth that I would be buying this as a normal person, so thanks to Elma Aviero’s company, I managed to get hold of a bottle as a gift to review.
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But fear not, dear reader, that doesn’t mean I’m going to be shouting from the roof tops about how wonderful it is…but read on, to find out, as they say.
The champagne was created to celebrate Elma’s brother Cristiano Ronaldo ’s 777th career goal, with each bottle numbered from 1 to 777 – with the company claiming it will be “used in the event of Portugal’s victory” at the current Euro 2024 championships.
It contains a unique prestige cuvée, specially created for Cristiano Ronaldo and is a 2016 vintage Pinot, 50% Chardonnay, delivered in its “precious case”.
(Image: Icon Sport via Getty Images)
When someone says something is being sold, in this country, for around £1,500, I’d expect it to be the greatest thing I’ve ever had presented to me – but alas, the warning signs were already appearing when the relatively cheap, black cardboard box arrived, with the golden sticker keeping the box sealed already hanging off.
But I was still excited to try what I was hoping would be something out of this world…but when taking it out of the box, I realised that this was basically one giant marketing ploy.
The golden champagne bottle – which is clearly just gold-coloured plastic surrounding a generic champagne bottle – had the special “777 goals” metal stick half hanging off, as was the Elma Aveiro label with the unique bottle number. And it was all delicately wrapped in a wafer thing plastic bag, which wasn’t exactly very well protected
I was gifted the bottle representing his 277th goal scored against the world-beating giants of football . . . Birmingham City at St Andrews in 2007. That’s worth £1,500, really?
Onto the contents of the bottle itself. When it comes to me and alcohol, I am not a big drinker. I save myself for the finer things, like Port or decent wines which have legs, or even quality champagnes on rare celebratory occasions.
Fair play to this champagne, it was actually pretty decent. Although far from the greatest liquid to ever grace my lips, it had notes of citrus, apple, and a Port-like undertone that did leave me wanting more.
I found myself constantly returning to the glass, as it was very moreish. My wife also had a glass, and came to pretty much the same tasting notes conclusion that I did. It also left us with a lingering warming sensation, as well as a sharp, but pleasant, aftertaste.
We both agreed that we’d give it a 7/10 – but also both agreed that this was by no means a £1,500 bottle of champagne.
Having done some research, it turns out that several bottles of this have gone to wine auctions already, and have failed to sell. One had five bids, with the maximum being £180 – which again, failed to sell.
I realistically can’t believe that anyone, even the most ardent Cristiano Ronaldo lover, would pay that eye-watering amount they’re asking for for this, but we live in crazy times where anything can happen, so who knows.
I wouldn’t say this was JUST a marketing ploy, as the liquid product itself is actually very nice, but it does smack of something that deserves to be far better – especially the overall presentation – if you were going to part with that amount of dosh.
However, it would make a nice celebration bottle if Ronaldo does “siuuuuu” his way to another trophy in the next few weeks.
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