We're the toast of Champagne

ALL 16 presidents of Champagne's great houses, including Henri Krug and Claude Taittinger, are to meet together for the first time to celebrate sales of their wines to Britain last year and over the millennium.

As a mark of the importance of British drinkers, who bought more champagne than any other country in 1999 - 32 million bottles - the meeting will not be in Paris, but in London.

The champagne families will hold this first collaborative celebration at the Savoy Hotel next month, at an enormous cost. The fact they have chosen London, rather than Paris or even Reims, has astonished the French wine trade, but the families were adamant that they should mark their first meeting of the millennium in the city which consumed the most champagne.

A spokesman for the Champagne Academy of France confirmed that the 330 guests on 12 May were in for "something of a gastronomic treat", as the value of the champagnes and food to be consumed is estimated at close to half a million pounds.

The event will also raise 50,000 for British charities, in an auction of rare magnums, as a "thank you" to the nation which has consumed the most of their fine wines. Most of the guests will be from the British trade and the lucky diners will taste all 16 houses' wines before the dinner.

The hosts include Yves Dumont, president of Laurent Perrier, Jean- Marie Laborde, president of Mo't & Chandon, Ghislain de Montgolfier of Bollinger, Philippe Pascal of Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin, Christian de Billy of Pol Roger, Jean-Marie Barillere of Mumm and Francois- Xavier Mora of Lanson. They are rival companies, but millennium sales have helped bring them together.

Aside from the extravagance, the 16 Grand Marque Champagne houses are acknowledging the growing importance of the British market by inviting 16 members of the British and Irish wine trade to attend a course in France, where they will be taught how the famous wines are made, and how they taste.

They will then sit an arduous examination which, if passed, enables them to become Academicians of one of the most exclusive associations in the world, which has grown from 12 houses in 1956, to the 16 today.

Although the Academy does not mind sharing its "secrets" with British, Irish and other European wine-growers - as, by law, real champagne can only come from the Champagne region centred around Reims and Epernay - one country which has never been invited to attend the Academy is America, itself now a major winemaking nation.

One grower said the French have a "cautious mistrust" of the Americans when it comes to their wines, and some secrets are still jealously guarded.

The current president of the Academy, Thierry Budin, also president of Perrier-Jouet, told the Evening Standard: "Although we are all very competitive in the market place, we are reflecting some unity with this first gathering of all the presidents of the Grand Marque Champagne Houses.

Everyone is looking forward to meeting together under one roof."

The champagnes during the six-course dinner will be Belle Epoque 1990, Piper Heidsieck Rare, Chateau Magnol '94, Louise Pommery 1990 and Belle Epoque Rose '89.

Copyright 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.