London has the longest champagne bar in the world, situated in St. Pancras Station. Searcy’s runs the bar in St. Pancras but it’s not the only champagne bar they have, they also have a series of champagne bars across the capital, in such diverse locations as train stations, upscale malls and even across the street from...
read moreThere seems to be a campaign on to decant champagne. I was at a lunch recently with Michel Drappier where he was presenting his unsulfured champagnes and the conversation got around to the idea of decanting champagne. Now, as readers of The Winesleuth know, I’m a big fan of decanting wines and truth be told, in order to make...
read moreA few summers ago in the south of France, the bartenders of St. Tropez noticed that guests were adding ice to their champagne to combat the intense heat of those hot Mediterranean afternoons. Word got back to what the punters were doing and a bright spark at Moet & Chandon realized that while you can’t stop people from...
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It’s a funny thing but now I’ve started to smell my food before I eat it. Granted, I don’t smell all my food but anytime I encounter a new dish or perhaps a new ingredient, I take a second before putting it into my mouth to think about it. I’ll take a deep whiff of it and try and commit it to memory. It...
read moreIs there anything nicer then a magnum of champagne? How about a couple of vintage bottles of champagne in jeroboam? I ran into my friend, Neil Phillips, not long ago at the Harper’s Champagne summit held at the Soho Hotel in Central London recently and he twisted my arm into trying the Perrier-Jouët Cuvée Belle Epoque...
read moreSpring is in the air! London is enjoying some particularly fine weather today. In the spirit of these sunny days, I’m posting a short interview I did with Dominique Demarville, one of the two cellar masters of Veuve Clicquot about the blend that goes into their Yellow Label champagne. Warm spring days like today are just made...
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