Carlsberg's new beer $400 a bottle

Wine and spirits have long had the upper hand when it comes to shockingly expensive products. Now, Scandinavia's largest brewer is getting into the act.

Carlsberg A/S has just introduced Vintage No. 1 priced at $396.47 or so per bottle -- depending on the daily rate of exchange -- to be sold at three upscale restaurants in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Vintage No. 1, which costs more than 350 times Carlsberg's main Danish lager brand, was developed to take advantage of the rising income of many Danes, the company says.

"We can feel that there's an increasing market for this type of product, as some of our customers order extremely expensive wines without blinking an eye," Lau Richter, restaurant chief at Noma, told the Bloomberg New Service.

Carlsberg has produced 600 bottles of the beer, each four-fifths of a pint. Another version costing more will be introduced next year and again in 2010, the company said.

Carlsberg, which sells more than 150 different beer brands in as many countries around the world, has no plans yet to export Vintage No. 1. Some bottles will be offered for sale next week on the brewer's Web site.

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