A Lucky Accident

This is really an “Oh No” only for a certain server at the British steakhouse Hawksmoor Manchester. It was definitely a “Yes, Please!” for the two lucky customers in question. According to the BBC, two diners ordered a £260 (or about $330) bottle of 2001 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande Bordeaux. Lucky for them, their server made a mistake. The bottle of 2001 Château Le Pin Pomerol they were actually poured cost £4,500, or over $5,700. So pleased were the diners with their “selection,” they ordered another bottle—only to find that a second bottle was, sadly, unavailable. When the management found out about the accident, they took to Twitter, encouraging the hapless staffer to keep his/her “chin up” in spite of the mistake. On the bright side, reservations at the steakhouse skyrocketed—and the staff member in question was in high demand.

Taittinger and Pommery were the first Champagne houses to plant vineyards and make sparkling wine from grapes grown where?

A. England

B. Tasmania, Australia

C. The original Montagne de Reims area within today’s Champagne region

D. South Africa

Over the last several years, both iconic Champagne producers have invested in southern England’s uncanny combination of chalky soils, climate, and topography—so similar to Champagne’s own terroir.

In 2017, Taittinger planted 50 acres (20 hectares) of traditional Champagne grape varieties near Kent in southeastern England. It was the first time a top Champagne house had planted a vineyard in the U.K. This summer, plans to build a 33K+ case winery adjacent to the venture’s current 550-acre vineyard were approved. The English sparkling wine will be called Domaine Evremond, named after Charles de Saint-Évremond, the French writer credited with introducing 17th-century London society to Champagne. The first vintage is expected in 2024.

Not long after Taittinger’s investment, Pommery purchased and planted 100 acres (40 hectares) of vineyard near Southampton, west of Kent along the southern coast. The following year, Pommery became the first Champagne house to launch an English sparkling wine with the 2018 release of its Louis Pommery England Brut, with grapes purchased from vineyards in Hampshire, Essex, and Sussex. The wine is named for Pommery’s founder.

“For a long time Sherry was a victim of changing tastes, with fortified wines, like sweet wines, having fallen out of style around the time Churchill was born. The category has come back in vogue lately, partly because of its affinity for complex foods, and also because anything grandmothers approve of inevitably ends up becoming hip again.”

—Adam Leith Gollner, Saveur, February 2018

A Lucky Accident

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