Tuesday 8 June 2010

Champagne Pommery: An antidote to football?

Posted by Julian Campbell, Buyer
‘In victory we deserve it, in defeat we need it’. (Winston Churchill)

For every person wishing the England squad good luck for their coming few weeks, there will doubtless be another for whom the beautiful game holds no allure at all.

If you wish to escape the World Cup melée, the Sanderson Hotel’s top chefs and our champagne agency Vranken Pommery have come together to create a champagne and food matching extravaganza to give you an alternative evening to football. The first champagne dinner kicks off on Saturday 12th June at 7pm - probably just around the same time as the referee’s whistle. There will be a second champagne dinner on Friday 18th of June. And should England proceed through the stages, the dinners will continue...

In the UK we have a tendancy to only drink champagne as a celebratory tipple or an aperitif. The French on the other hand have long considered champagne as a perfect partner with food.

The evening starts, on the fabulous al fresco dining Terrace, with a tutored champagne tasting exploring the different combinations of grape varieties and cuvees that make up some of Pommery’s finest champagnes. The tutorial starts with Apanage , created by our Chef de Cave, Thierry Gasco as a champagne specifically for food; then Summertime, a refreshing Blanc de Blancs from our ‘Seasons’ range; a Pommery Grand Cru from 1999, and Apanage Rosé, the newest addition to Pommery’s pink portfolio.

After the tasting we will then combine the champagnes with a gastronomic dinner created by the top chefs at the Sanderson. We will look at why certain champagnes work wonderfully with certain foods, such as the Apanage with an ‘Amuse’ of Seared Scallop and Confit Suckling Pig Belly, or why a Blanc de Blancs has the structure and finesse to compliment a Halbibut Boulangere. If you think champagne and seafood are the only match made in heaven, we will take you through a meat course of roasted Bresse Quail , Mushroom Cannelloni and Albufera sauce matching with Pommery Grand Cru Vintage.

So if an evening of gastronomy and fine champagne is a welcome escape from hours of football call the Sanderson Hotel on 0207 300 1444. Tickets are priced at £90.00 per person, plus Service.

The Courtyard Garden

Sanderson

50 Berners Street

W1T 3NG