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50 Cent’s Champagne sells for US$325,000 at auction

01 March 2023 By Louis Thomas

Rapper Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, enjoyed great success at this year’s Rodeo Uncorked in Houston, with a bottle from his Le Chemin du Roi Champagne brand selling at auction for an unprecedented US$325,000.

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Texas resident Jackson has become something of a regular at the event, spending US$125,000 on a single bottle of 2017 Hye Meadow Winery Boooom Red at last year’s edition. But this year, the ‘I Get Money’ singer outdid himself, successfully bidding US$165,000 on the 2020 Bernhardt Winery Antiquity Chardonnay Reserve Danube Plain, from Houston Hill Country, which won the Best of Show Reserve Champion title.

After securing the prized bottle, he wrote on Instagram: “You think you know money until you make it to the Rodeo in Houston. I bought the lot two Reserve champion for US$165,000, you need a real bag to play over here.”

But the rapper’s successful day did not stop there. His Le Chemin du Roi Brut Champagne AOC won Grand Champion Best of Show.

The winning wine was then put up for auction, with the successful bidders from J. Alan Kent Development forking out US$325,000 for a bottle that might normally retail for around US$150. Proceeds from the auction go towards supporting Texas youth programmes.

Jackson launched Le Chemin du Roi, meaning ‘the king’s path’, in 2018 and, perhaps fittingly given his success at Rodeo Uncorked, described it at the time as being “for winners only“. Each bottle is adorned with a 14 karat gold-plated emblem resembling the king chess piece. A sign of Jackson’s newfound affinity for Houston is that his wine is the official Champagne of the Houston Astros (MLB), Houston Rockets (NBA) and the Houston Texans (NFL).