Save the date for the 10th anniversary celebration of La Fête du Champagne in New York City!

Building upon the Champagne Masters, the most in-depth certification program on Champagne wines, this 5-day, intensive classroom, field trip and tasting experience will be taught by Champagne wine experts and instructors of the WSG Champagne Masters program, Essi Avellan MW and Peter Liem. For more information, click here.

I’ll be in Riga, Latvia, for an action-packed weekend of champagne events with Riga Wine & Champagne, including dinners, masterclasses, a special Comtes de Champagne vertical tasting, and the annual Bubble Parade and Gala Party.

Welcome to the fifth edition of La Fête du Champagne, to be held in New York City on November 8-10, 2018! The festivities kick off with our Déjeuner Champenois at Racines on Thursday the 8th, featuring Laurent Champs of Vilmart & Cie., Jean-Hervé Chiquet of Jacquesson, Quentin Paillard of Pierre Paillard and Charles Philipponnat of Philipponnat, who will each be pouring three vintages of a selected cuvée. That evening we welcome Rodolphe Péters of Pierre Péters to a dinner at Eleven Madison Park for a once-in-a-lifetime vertical tasting of Les Chêtillons, featuring 12 vintages of this storied wine, all served in magnums sent directly from the estate’s cellars.

On Friday the 9th, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon of Louis Roederer will pour an array of champagnes both young and old at a special dinner at The Pool, showcasing the house’s extraordinary vineyard holdings. Also, Olivier Krug of Champagne Krug will be at The Beekman for a Krug x Vinyl event, pairing the house’s champagnes with music by a live DJ and small bites prepared by Chef Arnaud Lallement of L’Assiette Champenoise in Reims and Chef Tom Colicchio of Temple Court.

I’ll be hosting a seminar on Saturday the 10th with importer Terry Theise and wine writer Jon Bonné, talking about different terroirs of chardonnay in Champagne and pouring a selection of Blanc de Blancs from across the region. Daniel Johnnes will also be leading a seminar with four of NYC’s top sommeliers—Michael Engelmann, Sabra Lewis, John Burns Paterson and Hristo Zisovski—each of whom will choose a champagne to pair with a dish created by Chef Abram Bissell of The Modern.

La Fête du Champagne culminates with the Grand Tasting at Pier 60 on the waterfront, which features 34 of Champagne’s finest houses and grower estates, pouring over 125 different champagnes. As always, each of these producers is represented by a winemaker or principal figure, offering the chance to meet some of the region’s most notable personalities, and service is provided by a team made up of a number of the country’s top sommeliers. My book will also be available for purchase at the tasting, along with new books by our friends Terry Theise, Jon Bonné and Rajat Parr. That evening we host our Gala Dinner, where Chef Arnaud Lallement of L’Assiette Champenoise is joined by our chef d’honneur Daniel Boulud, James Knappett of Kitchen Table in London, Michael White of the Altamarea Group, and Philip DeMaiolo of Pier Sixty and the Lighthouse. In addition to enjoying the special bottles provided by all attending producers, guests are invited to bring bottles of Champagne from their own cellars to share throughout the room.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, please visit our website.

I’ll be hosting a series of Champagne seminars in Taiwan in partnership with Domaine Wine Cellars, beginning in Taichung on Friday, October 19th, and continuing in Taipei on Saturday the 20th and Kaohsiung on Sunday the 21st. We’ll also be featuring the wines of Savart at a special dinner in Taipei on the 20th, and showcasing Egly-Ouriet at a dinner in Kaohsiung on the 21st. For more details, please visit Domaine’s website.

I'll be at Riga Wine & Champagne, where we'll have an action-packed calendar of events, including the annual Bubble Parade and a Gala Dinner with a number of Champenois winemakers, including Laurent Champs of Vilmart & Cie., Adrien Dhondt of Dhondt-Grellet, Christophe Constant of Paul Bara, and Frédéric Panaïotis of Ruinart. 

Sherryfest returns to NYC! We'll be hosting an exciting range of seminars, including biological aging with Antonio Flores of González Byass, vintage sherries with Paola Medina of Williams & Humbert, and single-vineyard sherries with Jaime Gil of Valdespino. We'll also feature several terrific sherry dinners, as well as a Grand Tasting of over 150 different sherries. For info, and to purchase tickets, please visit sherryfest.com.

I'll be in Taipei, Taiwan, with Domaine Wine Cellars, presenting a series of masterclasses and champagne dinners. For further information, click here.