They say real pain for your enemies, Champagne for your friends.
Thus, make a date to celebrate Global Champagne Day, which takes place on the fourth Friday in October every year, and falls on October 22 in 2021. The day after, head along to Bonnie & Wild at St James Quarter, where they’re holding an afternoon tasting on October 23, with two hour-long sessions at 3pm and 5pm, and tickets for £25pp.
It’ll be hosted by Guy Chatfield, wine brand manager of wine and spirit merchant, Inverarity Morton.
He’ll be sharing anecdotes from his trade, and talking guests through a couple of the best known Champagne brands, as well as a version that’s produced by the estate where the vines are grown.
“Global Champagne Day is a perfect opportunity to delve into the fizz everyone recognises and loves, but possibly doesn’t know much about,” says Chatfield. “Always at the forefront of a celebration, guests will be tasting wines from the famous houses of Bollinger and Laurent Perrier with a stunning vintage cuvee from an artisan ‘grower’ champagne that has been in the producer’s family for nine generations. In a light-hearted fun tasting, I’ll touch on some of the wonderful stories of the region, like the Champagne Riots of the early twentieth century and reveal some of the ingenious methods the producers have used to keep their world-famous wine in the public consciousness for generations.”
Get something fishy to eat afterwards, as this event will be running alongside St James Quarter’s Edinburgh Seafood Festival in partnership with Seafood Scotland. It will be on from Friday 22 until Sunday 24, and, among other events and themed menus, will include a free cooking demo and ‘Where food comes from’ talk with National Chef of Scotland, Gary MacLean, on Saturday 23, noon until 3pm, in their Seafood Dome in St James Square. There will also be 10 per cent discounts on selected food items from their restaurants, including Creel Caught’s entire menu and the oysters served at The Gannet East’s Oyster Bar. The full programme will be released later this week.
