Glengarry Event Report

ANNUAL GLENGARRY GREAT CHAMPAGNE TASTING

Event Venue	Glengarry Victoria Park 118 Wellesley St West Auckland
Event Date	7:00pm Wednesday 7 November

On Wednesday evening our Fine Wine Manager Regan McCaffery, hosted the Annual Great Glengarry Champagne tasting. This wonderful tasting is an introduction to the Champagne region, how the wines are made, and a comparison of eight fantastic examples of Non-Vintage wines. This year the line-up went from Chardonnay through to the richer Pinot Noir dominated cuvées. We also looked at a mix of Grower and small houses as well as the famous Grande Marques. We started with three Blanc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay), the first two being rare 100% Grand Cru NV from the Cote de Blancs. Lilbert-Fils and Delamotte. The former is the smallest house we bring in, making a mere 27,000 bottles of this soft and delicate wine. For perspective, Moet & Chandon produces over 30 million bottles a year! Delamotte is the small sister house of the famed Champagne Salon, they operate out of the same building with the same team of 14 staff. Like Lilbert, this beautiful wine is produced from the Grand cru Chardonnay villages of Les Mesnil, Oger, Cramant and Avize. Our final BdB was the Henri Giraud Blanc de Craie. This is a much richer example with the fruit coming from a different part of the region. 90% from the Montagne de Reims, which has a 200m-thick layer of chalky limestone (Craie). The wine spends twelve months in stainless steel before being blended with 10% Grand Cru Aÿ Chardonnay that has spent the same time in Argonne oak barrels. Sitting alone in style was the Pol Roger Brut Reserve. This Champagne is always the perfect example of balance, being made from 1/3 Chardonnay, 1/3 Pinot Noir, and 1/3 Pinot Meunier. The house has had the Royal warrant since Queen Victoria, and was recently served at the Weddings of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Next up was two very rich Pinot dominated Champagnes, Paul Bara Brut Reserve and the Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve. The small family owned house of Paul Bara gets all his old vine fruit from th