Apologies for the long hiatus of posts to our blog on here but the process of working up the new website has taken longer than anticipated. I understand it always does – but that is not meant to be an excuse.
In the meantime, I have to mention an upcoming champagne event in London. La Fete du Champagne, most of which takes place on Saturday the 4th November at the Savoy Hotel. Quite simply, this promises to be, from what I can see, to be the most important consumer champagne event ever to take place in London. You can learn all about the programme on their website here, by clicking on highlighted words and following the link. I suggest booking as quickly as possible.
There has been a quiet start to publicity but if you subscribe to The World of Fine Wine magazine, which just happens to be the best wine publication in print bar none, I think, you wilk have heard about this already.
The seminars and the grand dinner look amazing and the grand tasting has a starry array of top producers. Having run for several years in New York, as the brain child of champagne expert Peter Liem and top sommelier Daniel Johnnes, the stand out feature of excellence for me, what catches my eye most, is the combination of great houses and top single estates (‘growers’) who will be there. There’s a tendancy for ‘ne’er the twain shall meet’ when it comes to houses and growers in Champagne, a silly tradition, because it’s clear that if you rank the top champagne makers for quality, you are going to get a more or less 50-50 mix of elite growers and houses in the top 20.
And that is born out here. Not all the superstars are represented but the top 10 for me has to be: Pol Roger, Vilmart, Jacquesson, Jacques Lassaigne, Charles Heidsieck, Eric Rodez, AR Lenoble, Maison Bérêche, DomPérignon and Pierre Péters. In fact there are 15 more top names and many will have their own ideas about the pecking order!
But above all, you will surely meet like-minded champagne people there, the talk will rival the tasting. Just as it should.
Hope to see you there!
