So, what a lucky girl am I? My very clever brother is a member of the Champagne Academy, or Académie du Champagne!
The Academy was established in 1956 to recognise the UK and Ireland as key markets and to foster the appreciation of Grande Marque Champagnes through the education of younger members of the wine trade in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Every year each of the 16 Champagne Houses selects an individual to join the Academy and it’s a fabulous collective of folk from all walks of life, with various connections to the world of Champagne.
One of their fabulous events is a tasting of Champagnes from the 16 Grand Marque Houses and this year it was at the BAFTA Club in Piccadilly.
Joyously my brother, also bigged up by me for his rather splendid Gin, Toby’s Moonshine, invited me to be his guest at this year’s tasting.
Before I accepted, I had to think a minute, hesitate . . . or not!!!
The rather amazing venue tucked away in Piccadilly, kind of oozes a certain sense of awesome, the aura of the many famous artists that have lounged about in the BAFTA Club kind of lingers in the air.
But, to the important business in hand, first we made our way around the Rosé, beginning with Bolly. . . oh my, it was divine, and served in magnums, which many argue is by far the best size of bottle for such wines, followed by Heidsieck, Krug, Lanson, and Runiart . . . 2 extra interesting little numbers were the Louis Roederer, Nature, which means no sugar is added during the fermentation process, coupled with the extraordinary presentation of a label designed by Philippe Starck, it was so fresh and light, but my fave had to be the Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque, stunning painted flowers on the bottle, and the champagne was simply sublime.
The Blanc de Blanc from Perrier Jouet, Brut Imperial by Moet, Grand Cru by Tattinger and Extra Brut by Veuve all surpassed expectations.
Suffice to say, it had to be Espresso Martinis at St Pancras and the milk train home!
Le Champagne, c'est exceptionnel!
Until the next time!
Sarah x
20TH ANNIVERSARY QUIZ
Q19 What is the name of my brother’s gin?
Q20 Which was my favourite champagne?
Just answer in the comments below and we’ll enter you into our prize draw celebrating our 20th anniversary! (Please be sure to put your email address on your comment so that we can contact you if you’re one of our lucky winners)
Look out for other 20th anniversary quiz questions on our future blog posts. Prize draw winners to be announced on 1st January 2020.