DECEMBER GUILD EVENT

This month’s Guild event is a Champagne dinner, to be held at French American Brasserie this evening. I’m planning to be there with my friend Stefan (a member of the legendary Legion of Stevies); we hope to see Denny there as well.

Stefan is a wine collector of long standing, as well as being a retired MP. That’s MP as in “Military Police,” not “Member of Parliament,” in case you were wondering. He and Denny should get along famously. (It also doesn’t hurt that Stefan supplied many of the ethanol-bearing ingredients of the Chatham Artillery Punch for this year’s Helen Blodgemeet.)

What’s on the menu? Glad you asked:

Speaker’s Wine
Raymond Henriot Brut NV

First Flight
Domaine Carneros Brut Blanc de Blancs “Le Rêve” 2000
Roederer Estate Brut “L’Ermitage” 1999
Schramsberg Brut “J Schram” 1999

Oysters de jour with mignonette

Second Flight
Perrier-Jouet Brut “Grand Brut” NV
Moët & Chandon “White Star” NV
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut (Orange Label) NV

Toast with salmon rillettes and Armagnac duck pâté

Third Flight
Perrier-Jouet Brut “Fleur de Champagne” 1999
Moët & Chandon Brut “Dom Pérignon” 1999
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut “Le Grande Dame” 1996

Blue crab cake with fennel and citrus salad, blood orange vinaigrette

Yeah, I know. Sucks to be us, don’t it?

Update: Superb, as expected. Thanks to a relatively light turnout for this event, fourteen people drank up about $1,500 (approximate retail value) worth of bubbly. Twenty bottles, in all. My favorite - and the overwhelming preference of the group - was the Veuve Clicquot “La Grande Dame,” which was both the oldest and most costly one on the list. It was Damn Tasty, and at $175-200 a bottle retail, it oughta be.