Last week Maddie Salters embarked upon an adventure in London’s Southbank that would take her into the heart of France’s Champagne region. Celebrated brand Moët & Chandon re-created the vineyards and wine cellars of its lush estate at OXO along the River Thames, allowing guests absorb the look and feel of the Champagne valleys before relishing the taste of its most famous export.
The experience was called Moët Academy. Educational and interactive, it first took visitors through a mock-up vineyard where real Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier grapes grew in chalky French soil. There, among the leaves, a lecture on traditional production revealed the difference between a Grand Cru estate and a regular, and the effect of temperature and season on quality and taste.
Armed with this knowledge, guests ambled into the second portion of the experience: a Moët & Chandon cellar, where the complex, artistic, and nuanced process of creating their line was demonstrated and recounted. I was floored to learn that in a single bottle of Moët & Chandon vintage, over one-hundred base wines are blended together to create a fabulously malty and deeply acidic brew that is then painstakingly transformed into their brightest, fruitiest, and sweetest Champagne. The process takes over six months of constant care and a deep commitment to professionalism, proving that the journey from vine to glass is one of creativity above science.
The last section of the tour, the ‘School of Champagne,’ boasted a deeply impressive tasting menu. A vintage champagne, a Brut Impérial (the brand’s primer cuvée,) an atypically dry and bitter Rosé, and a summer Iced Impérial were paired off with savoury morsels. Hosted by Master of Wine Peter Richards, I was immediately put at ease by his cool wit as he began the walkthrough of the glasses with a short pronunciation lesson of ‘Moët & Chandon.’ “Mow-way is No Way! Mow-It? No-It Ain’t! Mmmwet is more like it… though it always sounds better when someone French says it.”
Highlights of the class included getting to try the pungent base vintage wine side-by-side with its bubbly counterpart, the Grand Vintage 2006. Usually an honour only reserved for those creating the blend, it was a sensory way to understand the very complex process each bottle undergoes to reach its marketable state. I was also impressed that the brand’s Rosé contained less sugar than its Impérials, meaning it lent itself surprisingly well to food pairings, especially desserts. A swish of refreshing ice wine was a fun and funky way to keep Champagne contemporary as rooftop season begins, and the individual smelling notes that were given to each participants tested our might at being able to identify the many layers of taste and scent in each glass.
Best of all, I was able to capture the moment in their photobook, using the hashtag #moetacademy.
England has never had such marvellous access to the French Champagne region in the luxury of its own backyard. Hopefully, Moët Academy will return next year with more to learn, and of course, more to taste. Cheers.
