Chateau du Falcon Crest

At the end of November, the Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, celebrated its 120th anniversary with a gourmet extravaganza lasting nine days. It included a wine tasting conducted by wine-glass maker Georg Riedel, a cigar dinner with a cigar-roller imported from Cuba, a French dinner overseen by two three-star chefs, Jean-Claude Vrinat and Joel Robuchon . . . and one big surprise (apart from the fact that Robuchon actually came out of the kitchen and greeted diners, something he never used to do in Paris).

The photo above is from a wine tasting with two of the biggest names in Bordeaux: Baroness Philippine de Rothschild of Cha^teau Mouton-Rothschild (center) and Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces of Cha^teau d’Yquem (second from left). If the Count has a strained expression in the picture, it may be because he has just learned that, while he was away in Thailand, other members of the Lur Saluces family sold a majority interest the world-famous chateau, which has been family-owned since the 14th century.

The purchaser was LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton, possibly the world’s most high-toned holding company. It owns the Champagne houses Veuve Cliquot-Ponsardin and Moet & Chandon, Hennessy Cognac, the California wineries Simi and Domaine Chandon, Louis Vuitton (yes, the luggage firm) and the fashion houses Givenchy, Christian Lacroix and Dior.

The instant the tasting was over, the count headed straight for the airport. On his return to France, he announced that, like each of the 40-odd other shareholders in the chateau, he had preemptive rights over any sale, so the story is not over yet.

Le Toast

If you are still of an age when you want to be entertained by the shape of your breakfast cereal, General Mills has a new one for you: French Toast Crunch. Actually, as the label dutifully mentions, it’s a “crispy, sweetened corn cereal”: essentially, corn puffs shaped like miniature slices of toast, complete with brown “crust.”