Champagne Assembly - learn more about this wonderful drink

Just in case you didn’t have enough champagne over Christmas and the New Year, here’s a chance to quaff a little more.

Sparkling St Pancras: the G. H. Mumm and
Perrier-Jouët Champagne Assembly

  The second G.H. Mumm and Perrier-Jouët Champagne Assembly takes place at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel on Friday 27 January, featuring a series of expert lectures, workshops and tastings which lend a fresh perspective to Champagne and the wider world of luxury.

  Attending will be sommeliers, wine buyers, chefs, hoteliers and restaurateurs as well as wine and champagne journalists. There is an all-day walk-in tasting (no booking required) and a diverse programme of tastings, lectures, and workshops. This year’s theme is ‘Champagne in Black and White’, evoking the Pinot Noir of G.H. Mumm and the Chardonnay of Perrier-Jouët.

  Workshops include the longevity of Chardonnay. Here Perrier-Jouët Chef de Cave Hervé Deschamps looks at the ageing potential of Chardonnay and how it might vary with bottle format. He hosts a remarkable vertical tasting of magnums spanning nearly two decades from 1985, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1998 and 2002.

  In the Power of Pinot Noir: G.H. Mumm Chef de Cave Didier Marotti discusses the importance of Pinot Noir with a unique tasting of wines from the key Grand Cru villages including Bouzy, Ambonnay and Verzenay.

  The Luxury Lecture explores the very relevant idea of luxury in a fast moving consumer society. With Perrier-Jouët: the best things come to those who wait but we live in a fast food society where gratification is immediate. So, do true craftsmen have a place in the future of luxury goods, products and retail? Speakers Peter Cross (business partner of Mary Portas at Yellow Door) and James Amos (MD Boodles UK).

   There is also a Food Workshop in which the UK’s youngest Michelin-starred chefs Jonray & Peter Sanchez-Iglesias from Casamia in Bristol and Professor Peter Barham, Professor of Molecular Gastronomy at the University of Copenhagen talk about their collaboration to produce a series of 'temperature controlled' canapes matched to G. H. Mumm Champagnes designed to enhance the eating experience.

You know it makes scents:
A tasting session from last year

  The Champagne Lecture looks at the past, present and future of Champagne. Following Perrier-Jouët’s bicentenary in 2011, the company looks back on the last 200 years to the social and economic factors that have shaped the Champagne landscape and look to the future with trends and predictions. Speakers including Champagne expert Giles Fallowfield, historian Dan Jones, the Champagne Information Bureau’s Francoise Peretti and Spiros Malandrakis (Euromonitor International).

 There will also be a wine workshop.

 The event will take place in the Hansom Hall at St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Road London, NW1 2AR / www.stpancrasrenaissance.com