Andrea had been working so much so I was looking for something that would be a bit of a reward for all of that. We enjoyed all of our meals at Copra and they had a special winemaker dinner with Clémence of Champagne LeLarge Pugeot . The dinner was communal seating, but it really only consisted of 6 diners (2 other couples, one of which also happened to live in Noe and us) and also Clemence, part of the family business, who sat right across from us. We actually never thought of champagne with spicy (and in this case Sri Lankan) food (we’ve generally paired champagne with oysters or caviar), but we were very impressed how well the variety of champagnes worked with the cuisine and really opened us up to other pairings.
The first wine flight consisted of some non-AOC approved champagne (can I even call it that since it’s non AOC?), Super Luna. The first champagne was fortified with honey, which you could taste and the third was a rose made with a combined maceration of chardonnay and pinot (gasp!). Those were the two I enjoyed and Andrea liked the third rose champagne so much we ended up buying 3 bottles from the restaurant.
The second course was paired with 3 Pinot Meunier based champagnes, including one that was a still (i.e. not sparkling). These were paired with delicious octopus dish and a very tasty beet salad.
Third course, a spicy cauliflower curry and a pork belly curry were paired with more “classic” champagnes, but also included a 1997 vintage, which was probably our favorite of this flight.
Dessert was a cardomom pave with a slightly sweeter champagne.
All in all, this was a very enjoyable meal, due to the great food, a unique (for us) pairing with champagne, a small intimate group and a great conversation with one of the winemakers who we hope to see here again either in Petaluma (where she is staying) or in Champagne when we finally do some tasting. It was a great experience that really opened up palates to the possibilities of champagne.
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