BORDEAUX, France, October 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
Winemaker Ilja Gort of Chateau La Tulipe in Bordeaux has recently been included in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the "most valuable nose". The Dutch chateau owner insured his nose for 5 million euro with Lloyds of London. In doing so he joined the illustrious company of several other top professionals who insured their livelihood with Lloyds, including F1 driver Fernando Alonso, who insured his thumbs for 9 million pounds, Bruce Springsteen, who insured his voice for 3.5 million pounds, and Keith Richards, who insured his hands for 1.6 million dollars.
Ilja Gort claims that his nose is 'his second most important organ'. He explains: "During the winter of '08 my whole team got together for a major tasting of our wines. Because I had a cold and my nose was completely blocked, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between furniture wax and washing up liquid. That made me realize how important my nose really is to me. I made some calculations as to what it would cost me if I were forced to stop working. When I saw the figure below the line, I immediately called Lloyds. I asked them to insure my precious smell organ for 10 million euro. Lloyds demanded an extensive scent test and all manner of scientific investigation to ascertain the value of my nose. Even though the results showed that my nose performs far above average, they refused to insure my nose for anything over 5 million euro, which I reluctantly accepted."
In the contract Gort had to sign, Lloyds put a few restricting clauses: signing it meant that the wine producer could no longer go skiing, could no longer appear as a "knife throwers assistant" and is no longer allowed to get pregnant. Fortunately Gort's nose is still highly successful at its job. Every year his wines (distributed in The UK by Sainsbury's) are rewarded with an abundance of gold and silver medals.
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