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How to drink like a billionaire

With access to tropical islands, private yachts and the best food and drink that money can buy, the life of a billionaire can be a decadent one to say the least.

We have trawled through the world of high end food and drinks, top end hotels and luxury goods to bring you our summation of how best to live like a billionaire.

With a limitless wallet and taste for the fine things in life, the world is truly the billionaire’s oyster.

While most of us will never get close to the heights of wealth needed to indulge in the following luxuries, they might just inspire you to aim for the high life, or buy a few more lottery tickets.

Scroll through for a sneak inside the world of the super rich…

Travel only by air, preferably in your own gulf stream with private bar

For €50,500,000 ($65million) this Bombardier Global 8000 business jet can be yours. It features space for 12 passengers along with a stateroom with permanent bed and en-suite, dining area and galley kitchen allowing your on board chef to prepare you a decadent feast. We suggest packing a bottle of 1811 Château d’Yquem for the trip, if you can get your hands on one.

In 2011 it became the most expensive bottle of white wine ever bought, sold by the Antique Wine Company at a private sale at the Ritz in London for £75,000. The buyer was French collector Christian Vanneque, former head sommelier of the Michelin-starred restaurant La Tour d’Argent in Paris. Vanneque called his purchase his little “folie” but insisted that it really was for drinking and would never be for sale again, “even if a wealthy Chinese gentleman or a rich man from the Middle East offers to buy it,” he said afterwards. Wine critic Robert Parker gave the 1811 vintage 100 points in 1999 when he described it as “liquefied crème brûlée.

Refuse to vacation anywhere that doesn’t come with Champagne on tap

Laucala is an island resort in Fiji. Having opened in 2008 it has built a reputation as being the destination for the celebrity elite and super rich. Described as a real-life James Bond resort, the hotel’s rates start at £28,000 (US$44k) a night. For that, guests have access to a submarine worth £1 million (US$1.7m) to explore the ocean, Champagne and caviar on tap 24 hours a day and the freedom to roam the hotel’s 3,500-acre grounds where a herd of Wagyu cattle roam. Owned by the Austrian co-founder of Red Bull, Dietrich Mateschitz, the island is only accessible via the island’s King Air B200 private jet, or your own of course. It boasts five different restaurants, including a Japanese restaurant that serves up Waygu farmed on the island. Four Wagyu cattle were originally flown to the island at a cost of £77,000 ($120k), with a herd now thriving.

Stop off for a private dinner on the Burj al Arab helipad

When Michelin-starred restaurants get boring, look skyward to the Burj al Arab’s helipad. The lookout has become a symbol of Dubai’s architectural prowess, and popular for hosting weddings and events. Andre Agassi and Roger Federer famously played a tennis match atop the hotel, while Tiger Woods launched a golf ball off it in 2004.

The hotel hosted a one-off private dinner for 12 lucky guests atop the hotel last year to mark the end of the first Dubai Food Festival. Set 212 metres above the Arabian Gulf, 12 tickets were sold at a cost of AED 10,000 (£1,700 / US$2772) each, with proceeds going toward the United Nations World Food Programme “Eat and Feed” initiative.

If you watch a sports event, do so only while snacking on the world’s most expensive hot dog, soaked in 100-year-old Louis XIII Cognac

Credit: DougieDogs Facebook

This hot dog, soaked in 100-year-old Louis XIII Cognac, has been officially recognised as the world’s most expensive example of the fast-food favourite by the Guinness World Records.

Created by Vancouver-based restaurant Dougie Dog, the foot-long “Dragon Dog” comes soaked in the $2,000 a bottle vintage Cognac, fried in truffle oil and topped with Kobe beef, fresh lobster and the restaurant’s signature picante sauce. The £64 (US$100) price tag won’t bother a billionaire – order a round for 100 of your closest friends next time they visit.

Get back to reality by taking the family on a camping holiday, in the world’s most expensive motorhome

Yours for £2 million (US$3.1m), the 40ft eleMMent palazzo is currently the world’s most expensive motorhome, designed by Austrian company Marchi Mobile. It comes complete with a pop-up roof terrace measuring 215 sq ft, underfloor heating and a private bar.

We suggest pulling up at a local beauty spot, whipping out the oysters and caviar and treating your guests to a glass of Krug Clos d’Ambonnay Champagne. Made only with Pinot Noir, a bottle has an average selling price of £1,615 (US$2,500) – peanuts to the seasoned billionaire.

When not on the road, sip cocktails on your luxury yacht, but only if they cost at least £8,200 (US$13,000)

The Winston, a cocktail made with 1858-vintage Croizet Cuvee Leonie Cognac, earned Crown Casino’s Club 23 in Melbourne a Guinness World Record when it was “bought” in 2013 for AUS$12,500 (£8,200 / US$13,000). Featuring Grand Marnier Quintessence, Chartreuse Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongè and Angostura Bitters, it is served with a chocolate and nutmeg “soil” and garnish made using the same Grand Marnier and Chartreuse and finished with a misting of dry ice essence infused with citrus peel and spices.

However while this cocktail holds the world record as being the most expensive, it recently emerged that it was never sold at all, and was instead used to cover up an “Oceans 11-style” AUS$32 million (£15m / US$24m) casino heist.

Build a fabulous cellar and fill it with the world’s most expensive wines

This cellar is located within inside a palatial mansion in the Hamptons, recently renovated by architect Andre Tchelistcheff and his team. The sprawling estate is currently on sale for $49,500,000 (£31m).

A few cases from Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, which has an average annual production run of just 450 cases, are certain to feature in any billionaire’s wine lineup. Sotheby’s top lot of 2014 was a “superlot” of DRC made up of 114 bottles spanning 1992-2010. It sold for HK$12.5m (£1m / US$1.6m) last October in Hong Kong and set a new world record for wine sold at auction.

Elsewhere a Balthazar of Château Margaux went on sale for £122,000 (US$19k)at fine wine shop Le Clos in Dubai International Airport, making it the most expensive single bottle of wine ever to be retailed. The store has the exclusive retail rights to three 12-litre bottles of the Bordeaux first growth, with just six produced worldwide. A much-lauded vintage in Bordeaux, 2009 is said to be one of the best vintages ever produced by Margaux. The wine comes housed in an engraved oak case designed by French agency Partisan du Sens.

New world wine-loving billionaires should look to Penfolds in Australia. At £100,000 (US$156k) a bottle, its Ampoule comes packaged in a hand blown glass bottle containing Penfolds Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon 2004. Only 12 ampoules have been produced.

Attend only the most exclusive parties and treat your friends by dropping at least half a million dollars on a round of drinks

In 2013 British entrepreneur splashed £330,000 (US$516k) on the first Armand de Brignac ‘Dynastie’ collection at a club in Monaco. The collection, formed of nine different sizes of Armand de Brignac Brut Gold NV ranging from a standard 75cl bottle to a 30litre Midas, was bought by businessman Charles Shaker at the Billionaire Club in Monte-Carlo to celebrate the Monaco Grand Prix. The equivalent of 109 standard 75cl bottles, it took a procession of 12 waiting staff to carry the collection through the club, with the Midas alone requiring the strength of four men.

“Buying the Dynastie at the Grand Prix party was such a joy and I wanted everyone to be part of the celebration”, said Shaker at the time. “There was certainly enough Champagne to go around.”

The Armand de Brignac brand, which is produced by Champagne house Cattier, was recently bought by Jay-Z for a reported £200 million (US$312m).

But Shaker doesn’s have anything on American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who happened to be among the celebrities at the party. He is reported to have spent US$3m on Armand de Brignac Champagne when he celebrated his 38th birthday in New York.

Only drink shots that cost at least £70,000 each

Released in 2010, Pasion Azteca platinum by Tequila Ley .925 carries an astonishing price tag of $3.5 million (£2.1m). Much of its value is carried by its white gold and platinum bottle which is encrusted with 6,400 diamonds designed by Mexican artist Alejandro Gomez Oropeza.

At £2.1 million pounds a bottle, each 25ml shot costs the equivalent of £70,000 (US$110k)

After a long day of being loaded, relax with a glass of the world’s most expensive Cognac while smoking the world’s most expensive cigar

Henry IV Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne will set you back £1.2 million (US$2 million) but lays claim to being one of the rarest and most expensive drinks on the planet.

This 100-year-old Cognac comes in a 24-carat gold and sterling platinum bottle scattered with 6,500 diamonds made by jeweller Jose Davalos. The expression itself was first produced in 1776 and was named to honour King Henri IV. It is aged in barrels for more than 100 years and just 100cl is decanted into the 8kg diamond studded bottle.

Round off you day of being a billionaire by puffing away on a Gurkha Black Dragon, the world’s most expensive cigar at $1,150 (£740) a smoke, and pat yourself on the back for being so damn rich.

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