Champagne & Food Pairing
For many of us, Champagne conjured thoughts of a welcome toast or served with hors d’oeuvres at a reception. But many sommeliers (and Champagne lovers) also love to suggest it with the main meal. Champagne has a multitude of perks to pair with food. It’s fantastic for breaking through the richness and balancing spicy flavours, and the sweeter the Champagne, the better with acidity and bitterness.
A classic, bold Champagne is delicious with truffles and other wild mushrooms, while a refreshing younger Champagne will suit raw fish, shellfish and molluscs wonderfully. A more citrussy Champagne is ideal with rich, creamy and cheesy dishes, while the overtly versatile rose Champagne is delicious with duck, creamy fish cakes and charcuterie. Finally, we love sweeter Champagnes with desserts decadent with cream and citrus and ripe English strawberries with meringue and lashing of cream.
If you’re getting hungry, we apologise, but please read on to discover Bacchus Wines PLDC’s top-three Paul Lebrun Champagnes that are perfect from start to finish, whether you’re throwing a celebratory meal or hosting a wedding breakfast.
Carte d’Or Brut
Carte d’Or Brut by Paul Lebrun is “a champagne to enjoy anytime”. Carte d’Or Brut is traditional Champagne with a brilliant pale gold colour. The fine bubbles provide a delicate and persistent trail. The moderate effervescence creates a pure nose full of candied lemon, peaches and pears. Carte d’Or Brut presents good volume in the mouth, freshness, and youthful style with harmony.
Carte d’Or Brut is excellent with savoury canapés made with cream cheese and salmon (smoked or not), fish carpaccio, asparagus, cold terrines of vegetables, fish and poultry, and light and lemony pastries. It’s a Champagne ideal for receptions and the perfect welcome fizz.
Extra Brut
Extra Brut Champagne, by Paul Lebrun, is ‘the ultimate expression of a great champagne. The yellow robe with golden glints is enhanced with a flurry of delicate bubbles. It is a champagne that is not overly sweet but precise and elegant.
The nose reveals elegant notes of white blossom, grapefruit and pineapple. The crisp and refined palate offers low sugar content allowing it to express its character fully. The precise, chiselled mouth balances cut herbs and toasted milk caramel.
The Extra Brut Champagne is delightful and goes wonderfully with grilled lobster on a bed of tender endives. The Guide Hachette said, “Discreet on the first nose, this Chardonnay vinified in extra-brut releases elegant notes of white flowers, grapefruit and pineapple upon aeration. An aromatic freshness found in a fleshy mouth, dense without heaviness. Drink with a scallop carpaccio.”
Private Chef Tim Whittam told us, “I served the Extra Brut Champagne at my Burns Night supper club. The citrus notes and creaminess complimented my salmon’s salty, smoky notes. The Champagne solicited much praise from the diners!”
Cuvée Prestige
Cuvée Prestige by Paul Lebrun is a refined and elegant Champagne meeting the highest expectations. It is aged on lees for at least forty-eight months and produced in vats and oak barrels.
The Champagne is complex on the nose and has tiny golden-yellow bubbles. The lively effervescence accentuates the ripe fruitiness of peach and nectarine. Hints of gingerbread are on the nose, alongside freshly churned butter and some floral notes. Quite greedy on the palate, with a creamy texture and well-integrated acidity, the long finish offers softness, suppleness and elegance.
Cuvée Prestige Brut is delightful as an aperitif and the ideal Champagne for gastronomy. It pairs beautifully with carpaccio of white fish or fresh seafood. In a recent taste test, drinkers suggested it would be great with desserts because it’s slightly sweeter. The tasters also thought it would be ideal for brunch and wedding breakfasts, because of the relaxed, smooth, and light composure, with hints of tropical fruit.
Hampshire-based independent chef Tim Whittam said, “There was much surprise at just what a superb paring the Cuvée Prestige was with the peppery richness of a traditional haggis and how the Champagne almost cleansed the palette for the next onslaught of haggis.”