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FROM SEAFOOD TO SNOWBOARDING
Champagne Pommery has a busy summer ahead once again, with sponsorship
tie-ins including food, music and alpine bars. A seafood and zz theme kicked
o with the Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival in mid-July, with another chance
to indulge at Whitstable Oyster Festival, where Pommery is the exclusive
Champagne partner, running until 2 August. Elsewhere, Pommery will be
owing at the British Summer Time music festival in Hyde Park on 22 to 24
July, followed by an exclusive partnership with snow sports and music festival
Freeze, taking place at London's Battersea Power Station from 14 to 17 October.
CHAMPAGNE
SPECIAL
Aged to
PerfectionGenerally thought to be one
of the best vintages of the past
two decades, 2002 is admired for
its balance and potential longevity.
While most houses have already
released 02s, Billecart-Salmon held
its Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart
2002 back and gave it the extra
ageing it merits. Partly vini ed in old
oak barrels - for further complexity
rather than overt oakiness - this is
biscuity and rich, with notes of orange
zest and spice adding highlights to
ne textural complexity.
£138, Harvey Nichols; £500 (6 bottle case
in bond), Berry Bros Rudd
Celebrating
2005
Dom Pérignon chef de cave Richard
Geo� roy has released the latest Blanc
Vintage 2005 from a year that split
the region's houses as to whether to
release a vintage wine. A cool, wet
September followed an August
heatwave, but good weather for the
harvest allowed those that picked
with care, focusing on optimum
maturity, to make rich and
structured wines.
Dom Pérignon's Blanc Vintage
2005 reveals quite forward,
rich black fruit aromas, with
a concentrated, dense, toasty
palate, lined with a lingering
minerality.
£130; Harrods, Hedonism Wines,
Jeroboams
Under PressureTo assess the e� ect of tide, temperature and water pressure on
Champagne, in June 2013 Drappier submerged 50 cases of its wine
to a depth of 17 metres in Brittany's St-Malo bay. According to owner
Michel Drappier, the idea came from a wine merchant customer
called Yannick Heude, who has stored various wines under the sea.
Acidic whites fared best and other marques of Champagne also
succeeded. At that depth, the environment is dark, a constant 9-10°C
and the bottles move gently with the tide, accelerating the maturing
process, says Drappier. The pressure is similar to the 6bars inside the
bottle. He kept a similar amount of Brut Nature Réserve, the identical
blend disgorged on the same day, for comparison and believes the
submerged wines are better and have a "nice evolution".