Gilles Dumangin

Designed by Inigo Jones for James I and being the last building that Charles I walked through to his execution on the scaffold outside, Whitehall’s Banqueting House is steeped in history. The surroundings of the Main Hall are truly majestic, with a Rubens painted ceiling looking down over proceedings below it is perhaps apt that in more recent years, this has been the home for The Champagne Bureau’s Annual March Tasting.

With over 70 producers in attendance and each one showing a selection of three champagnes, it is thought to be the largest Champagne tasting in the world. It is certainly always much anticipated and well attended. This year I was helping ‘our man in Champagne’, Gilles Dumangin, present his wares to the great and the good of the UK Wine Trade; the wine journalists, the bloggers, fellow merchants, sommeliers and anyone else who could get their hands on a ticket. It is ironic that this is the event that all the Champenois look forward to travelling to as it is the only time that they get to try each other’s wines on such a scale!

The current economic situation had done nothing to dampen people’s enthusiasm and this is reflected in the fact that although imports have dropped in the U.K., we are still the largest importer of Champagne in the world. It is when people are more considered with their spending that it becomes even more important to make sure that what is available is of good quality and value.

Once again, out of the champagne that I had a chance to try, it was the Grower champagnes that stood out best. When up to 50% of the retail price of a ‘Grand Marque’ champagne can go towards marketing and promotion, it is little wonder that the actual product can often fail to live up to the price tag. This made it all the more refreshing that our Dumangin range was so well received on the day. Indeed, it was interesting to see how quickly our Grande Reserve NV was consumed by fellow merchants at the exhibitors’ lunch in the vaults below. Every exhibitor had donated two bottles each for the lunch and by the time I made it downstairs for a bite, the Grande Reserve had long gone!

Gilles is proper récoltant manipulant (a wine-maker producing wine from their own vine holdings) based at Chigny-les-Roses on the Montagne de Reims – as was his great great grandfather Hippolyte Dumangin the first of his forebears to bottle his own wine.  The three champagnes that we were showing were:- Brut Grand Réserve Premier Cru NV, a rich, full flavoured champagne with delightful toasted notes and elegant, smooth finish (£25.50 per bottle); Brut Premier Cru Millésime 2000, a corking vintage which is just coming into its own. Great structure with great balance of mineral, citrus and delicate fruit.  Long refreshing finish that leaves you wanting more! (£30.75); Brut Rosé Premier Cru NV, mouth-filling berry flavours, well balanced with crisp, developed finish (£28.50).

Following an extensive and extremely informative morning tasting of J Dumangin Fils Champagnes, some colleagues and I entertained Gilles Dumangin to lunch at the beautiful Howard’s House Hotel in the quaint Wiltshire village of Teffont Evias.  Neither the village nor the hotel could have looked more stunning on such a glorious Spring day and I felt sure we would be in for a most enjoyable interlude.

Our attentive host, Noele Thompson, brought the menus to us in a comfortable ante-room and, while we made our choices from the short but wonderfully varied menu, we were delighted to hear another party of diners ordering a bottle of Gilles’ Grand Réserve Champagne.   Deciding, though, that we had had our fill of Champagne for one day, we ordered a bottle of 2007 Vouvray Sec from Domaine Champolou which pleased everyone and, with subtle honey nuances that made it seem almost off-dry, it was a sublime pairing with my starter of Twice-Baked Blue Cheese Soufflé with a walnut and poached pear salad.  There was much praise from my colleagues for their starters too and these included a Leek Risotto topped with breast of local pigeon and Home Cured Salmon with a smoked salmon mousse.

The dining room at Howard’s House is small and well-appointed and looks out onto the walled garden and terrace.  Both made an idyllic picture in the sunshine and I could see why the hotel is a popular venue for weddings.  Chef Nick Wentworth’s ethos is to cook simply with the very best of predominantly local ingredients which are sourced from the hotel’s own potager garden and from a stable of impressive local suppliers and we could certainly see this theme coming to life at our table.

Our main courses arrived with appropriate timing and were as exquisitely presented as the starters.  I plumped for Braised Blade of Devon Ruby Red Beef with a root vegetable purée, spinach and confit shallot and I couldn’t have been happier with my choice. The beef was cooked to perfection, the texture of the meat being almost like a Boeuf Bourgignon – meltingly tender and rich.  My fellow diners reported a Fillet of Wild Halibut with fondant potato, baby asparagus and a brown shrimp dressing to be full of flavour and beautifully cooked and the Roasted Tenderloin and Confit Belly of Pork with a wholegrain mustard mash and calvados sauce both looked and smelled divine.  A bottle of Côtes du Rhône Saint Gayan, from the superb 2007 vintage, accompanied our main course and it was extraordinarily good with the beef.

As decadent and delicious as the desserts sounded, and I was sorely tempted by Rhubarb Crumble with Dorset clotted cream, we all decided to go straight for coffee, choosing a mixture of double and single espressos.  When they were brought to the table, each cup looked to have exactly the same measure but, by this time, no-one really cared and the coffee itself was as strong and flavourful as a good espresso should be. 

All in all, this had been a most delicious and convivial lunch.  In fact I can’t remember one so good in a long time. I was keen to hear that a new dining terrace opens in the garden on 1^st May and I have made a mental note to return on a sunny summer’s day to partake of a relaxed al fresco lunch with friends.

Plaquemusephilia may well sounds like a rare dental condition which might be apt considering that Yapp Brothers was started by Robin Yapp, whose profession BW (before wine) was that of a dentist. But in fact, it is the name used for collecting Champagne cork capsules. I hadn’t realised that these were so collectable until my recent visit to see our Champagne producer, Gilles Dumangin, at his house in the picturesque village of Chigny-les-Roses, situated on the plains between Reims and Epernay. Most of the local houses seemed to have specially made wooden boards either hung up on the wall or placed on a coffee table to display their collections.

Historically, champagne bottles used to have a simple piece of wood wrapped in cloth and then sealed with wax as a stopper. This method, especially with the pressure build up in bottle during secondary fermentation, wasn’t ideal and resulted in many explosive incidents and much wasted wine. Then, along came Adolphe Jacquesson – a hugely creative person, who devised numerous methods to improve the processes connected with the making of champagne which, at that time, were still very much at the trial and error stage.

Jacquesson is credited with the idea of planting vines in rows in collaboration with Dr Guyot and for a process of measuring sugar density with the chemist Jean-Baptiste François, but his most famous patent (1844) was the muselet – a wire “muzzle” still used today to hold the corks of champagne and sparkling wine in place.  In these early days the capsule de muselets were just made out of plain discs of metal but, as things progressed, growers began imprinting their “house” mark for promotional purposes. Today, there are unlimited amounts of imprints and themes, from famous people to wildlife to astral constellations!   

The wooden boards are available (in France) in a variety or different shapes – a map of France, Champagne bottle, grape bunches etc – with indentations for 20, 30, 50 and more capsules. I went for the square wooden board with (no messing around here!) 150 slots – thus ensuring, of course, that I will have to keep drinking fine champagne or sparkling wine until I fill the board up. Currently, I have 21 to go but I’ve also included several blank coloured tops which aren’t particularly interesting so, as I gain more capsules, these will be relegated from the main board. Hmmm, unless, of course, I get another board……

We were delighted when our old friend Clive Greenhalgh the genial patron of the Ambassador restaurant invited us for his ‘Magnum Monday’ in an effort to inject some cheer into this miserable winter. The remit was simple – rock up at the restaurant with a decent magnum (each) and enjoy a delicious set menu with fellow wine lovers/bores. What we didn’t know was that 15 other people would be attending which did mean an awful lot of wines to taste and drink.

We kicked off with some Champagne ‘Le Mesnil’ Grand Cru ‘Réserve Sélection’, actually we kicked off with beers then Champagne. This was clearly quite serious stuff but quite heavy to drink comme aperitif although the preceding lager probably hadn’t done it any favours. After a few informal introductions and a bit of wine trade banter we then sat round a large square table and passed lots of big bottles to and fro debating their various merits.

The white wines, which surprisingly accounted for almost half the total, accompanied a Clam and Cockle Velouté (no potatoes deployed so not a chowder). The shellfish came from Colchester and were tasty and plentiful. Highlights here included a Petaluma ‘Hanlin Hill’ Riesling 2005 (courtesy of Gus Evans the landlord of the Butchers Hook in Fulham Broadway) which was mid-weight with classic limey tastes and good minerally undertones and a zesty ‘Loimer’ Grüner Veltliner 2006. Both got along famously with the bivalves and were a pleasant alternative to a proliferation of white Burgundy all of which was pretty good but none of which was great.

Our main course was an impressive chunk of braised Galloway beef (which was the size of an anvil) served with root vegetables. The red wines were as diverse as the whites with a surprising dearth of Claret (excepting a lone Pomerol) and a few real oddities. Here the tasting notes start to get rather confused but the Ridge Vineyards 1999 Geyserville Zinfandel was memorable as was the same vintage of Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf du Pape in which we have a vested interest. I think we had some cheese at some point and possibly some coffee. There was bold talk of regular reunions. All in all a very entertaining evening that made for a rather less enjoyable morning. I think the wines might have faired better if there were fewer of them and of us and we would definitely have benefited from some feminine input – it was rather a blokey affair.

We did glean the priceless information (from his brothers) that our host was a star contender on Junior Masterchef. Now that is footage that we’d pay some serious money for…

www.theambassadorcafe.co.uk

Wines Tasted

White

Champagne ‘Le Mesnil’ Grand Cru – Réserve Sélection NV

Langelois Spiegel ‘Loimer’ Grüner Veltliner 2006

Petaluma ‘Hanlin Hill’ Riesling 2005

Soave Pieropau 2006

Château Simone Palette 2003

Domaine de la Bongran ‘Quintaine’ Viré Clessé 2002

Domaine Robert Denogent – Macon-Solutré ‘Clos des Bertillonnes’ 2005

Chassagne-Montrachet 1^er Cru ‘Les Caillerets’ Domaine Marc Colin et Fils 2001

Red

Savigny Les Beaune 1^er Cru Aux Gravains – Domaine Pavelot 2002

Pomerol Château Combaude Guillot 1995

Domaine de Trévallon 1995

Podere il Bosco – Syrah de Manzane Toscana 1997

Châteauneuf du Pape: Le Vieux Donjon 1999

Casa Lopostelle ‘Cuvée Alexandre’ Apalta Vineyard Merlot 2005

Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Napa 2004

Ridge Vineyards Geyserville Zinfandel 1999

Côtes de Saint Mont ‘Collection Plaimont’ Producteurs Plaimont