I love champagne, simple, elegant and if I can only have one drink a week it would be a chilled glass of champagne. Champagne is a drink to savour and is associated with celebrations and some of the happiest times in my life as well as the cheeky perk of being relatively low in calories!
So I was delighted when I found out about Global Champagne Day, today!
Now a little bit of Champagne geek – the term ‘champagne’ is used to refer either to wine produced exclusively within the Champagne region (appellation) or France. The grape-growing area of the Champagne appellation encompasses some 34,000 hectares, accounting for 3.4% of France’s total vineyard area.
The vines are mainly concentrated around the city of Reims and the town of Epernay in the Marne valley, but also extend into the departments of the Aube and beyond into the Haute-Marne and Seine-et-Marne. This is the production area as defined and delimited by French law. Only wines exclusively originating and produced within that area, on premises dedicated to Champagne wines, are legally entitled to use the name Champagne.
So I thought what better time to share a few of my personal favourite champagne cocktail recipes and accompaniments. These are not exact recipes and the measures do tend to change each time I make them.
Cocktails:
Classic Champagne Cocktail
1 sugar cube
dash of Angostura bitters
brandy
chilled Champagne
Passionate Affair
Passion fruit puree & Chambord
Champagne
Peach Bellini
Peach Puree or create your own
Champagne
Fraise Royal
Strawberry puree and fraise de boise
Champagne
I have also seen a recipe that I am looking to try myself over on The Champagne Diet called the Passion Mimosa a nice alternative to the usual Mimosa:
2 oz chilled passion-fruit juice
Champagne
strawberries
Pour passion fruit juice into a champagne flute. Fill with chilled champagne, decorate with a strawberry, and serve.
If you are looking to try a new turn on St Germain liqueur and champagne, try their new ‘The Gentleman’ which sounds delicious and I would order it just for the name!
I am a believer in food and alcohol combining to enhance each other, that and if a bottle is open dinner is very unlikely to be made, and so here are some of my favourite champagne food accompaniments:
- shrimp
- strawberries with sweet champagne
- cheese including Emmental
- caviar
- salmon
- prawns/shrimp
- oysters
- fish and chips – no vinegar though
Some new ideas put forward on twitter and facebook that I am looking to try include:
- Crepe Suzette
- Certain Thai and Japanese dishes
- Stuffed mushrooms
- Eggs Benedict
- Spring rolls
- Lobster – I don’t know why I haven’t tried these two together, but is on my todo list!
Let me know what are your favourite champagne combinations.
Monique x x
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