These include Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label, Taittinger Reserve Brut, Perrier Jouet Grand Brut, Pol Roger Reserve Brut, and so on.

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Edelman had set up Museum Partners in the 1990s to acquire a stake in a French company then controlled by the Taittinger family that held assets like Baccarat Crystal and Taittinger Champagne.

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Edelman had been unable to get the Taittinger family to relinquish control of his target years ago, but then embarked on years of failed litigation on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

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Thibaud, Count of Champagne, is said to have brought chardonnay to champagne on his return from the Crusades, and the Taittinger family not only owns his palace, dating from 1240, but is among the handful of winemakers who most notably amplify his vine's legacy.

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