The week in pictures

Laurent-Perrier’s new Grand Siècle Les Reserves rests sur point at the Champagne house’s extensive cellars. The wine has just been released to celebrate Laurent-Perrier’s bicentenary.

Bill Page with Martin Johnson, Michael Cox and Ian Harris at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust vintners dinner.

Trigger Happy TV star Dom Joly discussed his global quest for mythical monsters, a possible second career as a sniper and adultery in the Cotswolds during an event sponsored by Westons Cider at this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Piper Heidsieck chef de cave, Regis Camus, outlined some of the key quality improvements he has implemented during nearly two decades in charge of the Champagne house’s winemaking team.

Over 100 guests enjoyed the dinner held to celebrate the Wine & Spirit Education Trust’s 43rd birthday.

A selection of Vinos de Autor unveiled after the drinks business Rioja Masters had finished. As expected, these vintners’ blends were concentrated and high quality, but certainly atypical for Rioja.

Paul Symington and Oz Clarke at the WSET vintners dinner, with Michael Broadbent and Ben Howkins in background.

Laurent-Perrier cellar master Michel Fauconnet appears visibly moved by a vertical tasting of Grand Siècle back to the first ever multi-vintage blend made by Bernard de Nonancourt using the 55, 53 and 52 vintages.

db was treated this week to a stay at the sumptuous Les Crayeres hotel in Reims this week, for a special experiment…

At Les Crayeres’ restaurant, Dom Pérignon’s chef de cave Richard Geoffroy invited us to take part in a temperature control experiment, where a bottle of Oenothèque 1996 was poured for each guest into four different glasses and then tasted at eight different temperatures, from 8-16 degrees Celsius, alongside a dish matched especially to pair with the flavour profile of the Champagne during its eight stages of development.

Among the guests taking part in the experiment were Champagne enthusiast Margaret Rand and organiser Emma Wellings of Emma Wellings PR

After the event, Richard Geoffroy was forced to protect his delicious Oenothèque 1996 stocks

The next morning, we were given a tour of Hautvillers, and the monastery where monk Dom Pierre Pérignon created the historic fizz.

Within the abbey we stumbled across this stunning stained glass window…

…and Dom Pérignon’s tomb.

Afterwards, we moved up to the DP tasting room in Hautvillers for a memorable vertical tasting of the Dom Pérignon range

The two wines that will live long in the memory were the 1975 and 1969 vintages of library series Oenothèque, the former rich and generous with notes of toffee apple and honey, the latter intriguing and biscuity with roasted coffee bean aromas.

Somewhat excited by the experience, db’s Lucy Shaw forgot there was some pink fizz left in the bottle when she attempted a Kodak moment with the 2000 Rosé, spilling the majority of it on her teal trousers – the new red apparently.

db was invited to delve into its artistic side at a Spier Creative Block tasting held at the owner’s art-filled London home. The South African winery asks local artists to create mini works of art from small blocks like the ones above, which are hung together to create a giant artwork.

db couldn’t resist the opportunity to try and unleash its inner artist. Given a blank canvas and a glass of wine, here’s what we came up with – a Miró-inspired apocalyptic vision of the universe during an intense meteor shower. Or, yup, just a load of paint swishes.