The Cognac From The Fall Of The House Of Usher Is Real (But Can You Afford It?)
"The Fall of the House of Usher," Mike Flanagan's 2023 miniseries that draws from horror giant Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories and poems, follows the gruesome unraveling of a wealthy family sick with power. Director Mike Flanagan made sure to include several wildly expensive, real-life liquor brands in the show to accentuate the Usher family's extravagant tastes and spending habits. Unless you're a millionaire, though, you sadly won't be able to find out what the Ushers' luxurious cognac tastes like.
Among several other very real and very pricey drinks that appear throughout the show's eight episodes, the most expensive of them all is the Henri IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grand Champagne. Roderick Usher, the family's patriarch, explains that the bottle cost him €4 million at auction. "You know, a single pour ... it probably costs twice your annual salary," he tells attorney Auguste Dupin. In real life, the bottle is valued at around £1 million, or around €1.15 million.
The jaw-dropping price tag of this cognac brand, which has been in production since 1776, can be traced back to a number of factors, one of which is the century-aged spirit inside. The bottle weighs a whopping 17 pounds and is filled with a liter of cognac that has an alcohol content of 41%. But the inside isn't the only part of the bottle dripping with decadence.
A bottle of Henri IV is encrusted with diamonds and 24 karat gold
Fittingly, this opulent bottle of cognac was named after a wealthy king, and the spirit inside was reportedly first concocted by his direct descendants. Their name also appears on the bottle: Dudognon. "The Fall of the House of Usher" demonstrates just how flashy its namesake family is when Roderick delves into detail about the real-life drink's luxurious exterior. One listing explains that its shapely, eye-catching bottle is crafted with sterling platinum and dipped in 24-karat gold. Not only that, but the bottle's French jeweler, Jose Davalos, chose to inlay 6,500 sparkling diamonds across its surface.
Although the show calls the cognac "the most expensive in the world," there are many more luxury libations out there that surpass even this level of opulence — and they also happen to be expensive liquor encased in diamonds. Regardless, it's clear "The Fall of the House of Usher" uses specific drinks and their respective prices to demonstrate the fluctuating financial status of characters in various flashbacks, so it's only fitting they'd be sipping on Henri IV at the height of their prosperity.