Pol Roger in Pictures

To celebrate the launch of the 2006 vintage of its prestige cuvée, Sir Winston Churchill, and the revival of the historical Pol Roger Club lunch, the great-great-grandson of the founder of Pol Roger, Hubert de Billy, welcomed a cherry picked group of journalists, chefs and designers to the maison in Epernay last week.

The event kicked off as the sun was setting over Pol Roger’s vines, of which it owns 92-hectares in the region. To toast his guests’ arrival, de Billy cracked open a Jeroboam of Pol Roger’s flagship fizz, Brut Reserve, which spends four-and-a-half years in the Pol cellars before release.

On hand to ensure the proceedings ran smoothly was the lovely Freya Miller of Pol Roger Ltd, who did a sterling job of handing out the Champagne.

… she also proved a dab hand in pouring it too…

db’s Lucy Shaw couldn’t resist the opportunity to recreate the colours of the French flag with the help of Freya and a bottle of Pol Brut Reserve.

We then headed to the maison at Epernay, where we were given a grand tour.

Deep down in the cellars, Hubert de Billy explained how the house is one of the few remaining maisons to hand riddle all of its Champagnes.

As you would expect, the maison was full of hat tips to lifelong fan of the fizz, Sir Winston Churchill.

Before the Pol Roger Club lunch, Freya and Lucy challenged each other to see who could lift the Jeroboam of Pol Roger Brut 1985 the highest.

Keen to tell the Pol Roger story to young influencers in different fields, many of the guests on the trip were younger than the 1985 vintage.

Paul Graham and Freya Miller of Pol Roger Ltd hosted the Pol Roger Club lunch with Hubert de Billy in a tradition stretching back decades. All of the guests on the trip signed the historic Pol Roger Club book after the lunch, which is always mentioned as a nib in The Times newspaper.

Among the wines we got to try over dinner was top drop Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 2006, which was a particular privilege as we were the first to try it after the Churchill family. Hubert de Billy describes the Pinot dominant fizz as being a mixture between the 2002 and 2004 in character.

We were also treated to a taste of the sublime 2002 vintage.

Cheers!