The Alderley-Edge Hotel/Cheshire Life Champagne Oscar award goes to a house whose name was forged by strong women
Cheshire’s 2014 Champagne Oscar winner is coming ‘home’. For when guests gather for the magnificent dinner in the Alderley Edge Hotel’s Laurent Perrier Suite in December - one of the most sparkling nights in the county’s social calendar - the award will go to...Laurent Perrier.
The Grande Marque, founded in 1812 and ‘reborn’ in 1945, last won the Oscar, a magnificent specially commissioned silver and gilt trophy from silversmiths Warris & Company, in 2005 and the following year the hotel’s newly developed banqueting suite and dedicated bar were named in its honour.
Like many other great Champagne houses, Laurent Perrier owes its continued existence to the endeavour of determined women. Its name was forged by Mathilde Emilie Perrier, widow of Eugène Laurent. Her daughter Eugenie Hortense Laurent inherited the marque in 1925 and sold it in 1939 to Marie Louise Lanson de Nonancourt who kept it alive while her two sons fought for the French resistance.
Laurent Perrier was chosen Cheshire’s ‘First Among Fizzes’ for 2014 by a panel of judges comprising Louise Allen-Taylor, editor of Cheshire Life, award winning independent wine merchant Ruth Yates, businessman Charles Ledigo, wine expert David Garlick, Dr Brendan Smith, Dr Jo Emery and Ray King, Cheshire Life food and wine writer. The panel was led by Alderley Edge Hotel general manager Ahmet Kurcer who, with former Cheshire Life editor Patrick O’Neill, devised the Oscars as a light-hearted riposte to London critics who think only the capital matters.
Judging was accompanied by a superb five course lunch prepared by the 3 AA Rosette Alderley Restaurant’s head chef Chris Holland and his brigade, featuring slow-cooked squab pigeon, carpaccio of scallops, best end of lamb and crispy sweetbreads, salad of watercress walnuts and Burt’s blue cheese and raspberries with cheesecake cream and Cheshire rosewater cake.
The trio of Laurent Perrier Champagnes served with lunch - the house’s elegant flagship non-vintage cuvée, its sublime and sought-after Rosé and prestigious Grand Siècle - demonstrated the worthiness of the judges’ decision. The hotel’s renowned cellar also yielded vibrant New Zealand Wild Rock Pinot Noir 2012 with the squab; silky Louis Latour St Veran 2012 Burgundy with the scallops and the northern Rhone’s finest, Cote Rotie Vidal Fleury 2006, with the lamb.
Roll out the red carpet.
