Hôtel du Marc

For nearly two centuries, Hôtel du Marc has been a private oasis for guests of the champagne house, Veuve Clicquot. Constructed in 1840, this historic building in the heart of Reims, France has survived two world wars, the first leaving visual pockmarks on the building’s façades. While having been in the family’s possession since 1840 the maison underwent a four year renovation project to update the home with both traditional grandeur and modern day connivence and story telling. A perfect example of this is the ombré carpet on the grand staircase which is made to symbolize the wine making process from the chalky soil of the Champagne region of France to the deep burgundy red color of the pinot noir grapes used to create the house’s signature yellow label brut champagne. 

I found myself here commissioned with Kevin Burg to create videos for the brand in celebration of La Grande Dame which pays homage to the “Grande Dame de la Champagne,” Madame Clicquot who took over her husband’s wine making business at the age of 27 when he left her widowed in 1804. She turned a humble wine making venture into one of the first brands to develop the champagne technique and the rest is history. 

Though it bears “hotel” in the name, sadly it is not in the traditional sense of the word. The property is used privately by Veuve Clicquot to host friends, events, press, and business partners of the label so you can imagine how special it was to step inside such an exclusive place at the heart of the brand. 

You can see the short videos we created and get a more intimate peek inside here

 

Dom Pérignon P2 1998

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From the fields of France to the tables in Barcelona, we have been on some amazing journeys with Dom Pérignon. The latest adventure has us standing over the Californian desert horizon of Joshua Tree, drawing parallels between a 100 million year old natural park with its rich history of change and Dom Pérignon’s 1998 vintage which is now, according to Chef de Cave Richard Geoffroy, entering its Second Pléntitude on its own journey through time and change.

The Second Pléntitude, or P2 as they call it, happens around year fifteen in the champagne aging process. According to Geoffroy, champagne has three peak stages: The first at around seven years, the second at fifteen and the final stage around thirty. For the sake of comparison, a typical champagne is aged around three years. When you contrast the aging of Joshua Tree and how it has had many stages created and affected by nature you see how the stages of champagne are a small mirror to a vast landscape, both displaying their beautiful triumphs as a result of mother nature.

I love champagne, of course, it is greatly heightened by the master craft and artisanship of a wine like Dom, but I don’t drink it because of the name on the label. I love champagne because I’ve never had a bad time with it. It evokes memories of celebration, joy, friendship, laughter, perfect sunsets and even perfect sunrises. When we toast with champagne it is that sparkle in our eyes that effortlessly compliments the golden movements of the silent symphony inside that golden glass leaving your memories to float up into the night-sky and dance among the stars.

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Guide to Dallas, Texas

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There are two things I love dearly: Champagne & Texas. So it was a joy when Veuve Clicquot asked me to do an Instagram takeover guide to Dallas this past weekend! As if going back home could get any sweeter…

Below are the images in the series they edited down to their 5 favorites but here are a few of my other must see, eat, play places!:

Shopping

Forty Five Ten– A new luxury boutique offering designer clothes and home decor in a historic building surrounded with Texas live oaks with its own cafe.

Neiman Marcus– The historic flagship luxury retailer store opened originally in downtown Dallas in 1907 and still stands to this day with the chic Zodiac restaurant.

Grange Hall– A new and lavish shop that boasts and exquisite collection of home décor, jewelry, handbags, apothecary and other opulent oddities with a floral shop and gorgeous restaurant.

Cocktails

Five Sixty Reunion Tower– See in the above image. This chic and glamorous restaurant and bar by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck sits high atop Dallas in the Reunion Tower, a famous spherical piece of architecture iconic to the Dallas skyline.

Midnight Rambler– An underground craft cocktail salon located in the hip Joule Hotel in the heart of downtown Dallas.

Bowen House– Set in a historic house in Dallas’s cosmopolitan Uptown neighborhood, this charming and cozy watering hole serves craft cocktails and Texas bites.

Activities 

Nasher Sculpture Center– Located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, the Nasher is one of my favorite art museums to take in modern and contemporary sculptures, especially in their curated gardens.

Dallas Arboretum Botanical Garden– I grew up visiting this tranquil and beautiful 66-acre botanical garden with historic structures and sweeping views of White Rock Lake.

Dallas Farmer Market- A Texas-sized sprawling daily market with a focus on seasonal produce, local farms, speciality foods, honey and beds of flowers all for purchase.

The Rustic– Kick up your boots and listen to live Texas music on the patio under string lights at The Rustic in the heart of Dallas, featuring a bar stocked full of Texas made beers and liquors and farm to table eats.

EAT

Bolsa– A cool Bishop Arts District spot in a historic building known as Settles Garage with local seasonal food and amazing flatbreads.

Pecan Lodge– Texas BBQ joint located in Deep Ellum serves up classic comfort with a variety of smoked meats, sides and desserts served on no-frills metal trays, a true southern experience.

El Come Taco– Don’t let the location in a strip mall fool you- this small, loval and hip counter-service taqueria offers the best Mexican fare famous for their street tacos and breakfast tortas.


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Above~ Have champagne, will travel. The perfect backpack for both, by Buscemi

Below~ Attending Veuve Clicquot’s kick-off dinner at the Hotel Zaza starting a nationwide journey for the Champagne house in a silk satin dress by Kaelen & Schutz heels.

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Dinner with Dom Pérignon

Dinner with Dom Pérignon in Hautvillers, France

It can only be described as “like a dream” to dine with the winemakers of Dom Pérignon in a glowing mansion in Épernay on the Moët & Chandon estate. If I let my mind wander from the conversation I could sit back and imagine that it must have not been unlike this to dine in a miniature version of Versailles. But if anything could outshine the grandeur of the room it was the incredible chocolate soufflé created by Chef de Cuisine Pascal Tingaud for us that evening as a perfect finish to a meal paired with Dom Pérignon Rosé vintages. It was served in a large soufflé dish and bought around to each person family style at the table… sometimes twice. I asked the chef if he wouldn’t mind sharing this heavenly dessert recipe for my own dinner parties at home in New York.

See below for the recipe of the night’s star dish by Chef de Cuisine Pascal Tingaud

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Dom Pérignon

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We first began our journey to “Decode Dom Pérignon” in Barcelona, questioning the idea of champagne and trying to understand it beyond the simple pleasures of drinking. The second part of our discovery took us to the birthplace of champagne, a sacred abbey high atop a hill in Hautvillers where a monk named Dom Pérignon lived in from 1668 until his death in 1715. It was here Dom Pérignon gave birth to champagne as we know it. 

As we walked the grounds of the cloisters it was easier to understand the philosophy of today’s champagne makers of Dom Pérignon. They come here, to this tranquil place that is the spirit and soul of Dom, to reflect on the past and think about the future. It was one of those perfect days. Crisp, damp and cool in the morning opening like a pathway to a glorious sun filled afternoon. I stood on the grounds of the abbey where the first champagne was created and closed my eyes to the smell of old stone, chalk, and earth while the wind whipped the trees around me making a sparkling symphony of the leaves while the golden sunlight danced between the shadows. If a place could sparkle like a glass of champagne, this was the place and in the spirit of inspiration, like with Dom Pérignon, could leave your thoughts amongst the stars. 

Following the benedictine rule set by the Sun King Louis IX which transformed France into a country of luxury and craftsmanship, he cared for the vineyards in great detail and through years of contemplation and study transformed the wine making process in three important ways. First, in place of manually stomping grapes with your feet he used a large machine to separate the juice of the grapes from the skin. Second was the blend. He had the idea to blend a variety of grapes from the Champagne villages. Lastly, which lead to the revaluation of champagne, he started the aging process in bottles as opposed to wooden casks which were used in the 17th century. It was through this process he discovered the creation of bubbles in the 2nd fermentation. 

The production of Dom Pérignon is far beyond technical. Having now spent many lunches and dinners with the Chef de Cave Richard Geoffroy and Vincent Chaperon they speak of the wine making process in such a romantic and idyllic way it is a constant reminder that we are speaking about something which comes from the earth. It is organic, and most of all, it is a gift from nature

One of the most poingoint points by Geoffry shared over our tasting of 11 Dom Pérignon vintages was  in the way champagne lingers which leads to memory. Memory is a constant in my own work. I take photographs like memories, to see the way it felt, to remember the beautiful moments. Each time I am so fortunate to find myself with a glass of Dom Pérignon I take in the smell which brings back memories of celebration, successes, all those magical nights faded with laughter and distant sparkling lights. Of course, as a winemaker, memory to him refers to the harvest, the conditions of the year that make the DNA of the vintage. The memory of characteristics from vintage to vintage. For example, the 2002 being elegant, refined, creamy, perfectly balanced while the 2003 is robust, bright, exciting, crisp. The memory of tradition and the relationship to time to project themselves forward into the future. It’s amazing to me that you can find so much life lived in one sip of champagne. 

Welcome to the home of Dom Pérignon and the birthplace of champagne.   Visiting the Dom Pérignon, the birthplace of Champagne.    Visiting the Dom Pérignon, the birthplace of Champagne. Visiting the Dom Pérignon, the birthplace of Champagne. Visiting the Dom Pérignon, the birthplace of Champagne. Continue reading “Dom Pérignon”

“This is not a Dinner”

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I recently found myself with this incredible opportunity to go to Spain and spend two days “decoding Dom Pérignon“. With the Chef de Cave Richard Geoffroy and culinary mastermind Ferran Adrià, we were to have the gustatory experience of a lifetime joining them as brought back elBulli’s most famous “snacks” that took the global gastronomy world by storm. What Dom Pérignon was hoping to achieve through this solo tasting and minimallistic experience was a study into the four facets of their newly released 2005 vintage which are: Minerality, Intensity, Seamlessness and Harmony. Ferran built the entire menu around these four themes, making the wine the centre or “sun” and the snacks like orbiting planets orbiting around it.

We were seated at a mirrored table in a dark room, no utensils. Waiters dressed in black delivered the first wave of snacks based around Minerality. The experience would be broken up into four chapters based on the characteristics of the champagne. With each snack would come instructions, “eat this all in one bite.”, “eat this in two bites and drink this in-between.” It was insane. Things were surprisingly sweet when it looked salty, weightless when it looked dense. Everything you think you know about food you had to throw out the window.

I had parmesan ice cream, deconstructed olives, crunchy raviolis made form a seaweed shell with a lemon filling. This was not at all what I would think of when I think of ravioli but that’s precisely what Ferran loves to ask: What makes ravioli, ravioli? Because it’s made of pasta or because it’s a pocket filled?

After the first chapter was completed the room (or, what I thought was a room) changed suddenly as the walls began to move and open up towards the sky high ceiling, revealing the other tables of guests. The lighting changed from a sharp contrast to a warm soft glow following a change in music changing the entire mood for the participates. Then, just as with Farran’s approach to food, my whole experience changed.

The experience went well beyond the the thrill of being one of the first people to try a new Dom Pérignon Vintage. It taught me to think about creativity in a different way than just what is. How can you take something we all know and try to understand it more? How can you think one way and then teach yourself to think it again totally differently. The slogan for the elBulli Foundation is “Feed Creativity”… he did that and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

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Minerality

-Mimetic peanuts

-Hibiscus and peanut palet

-Walnut catanias

-Yoghurt pistachulines

-Beetroot and yoghurt meringue / profiterole

-Mango croquant leaf and marigold

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Decoding Dom Pérignon

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Visiting the El Bulli Foundation is like visiting an alternate reality where utopias of learning and discovery exist and are the highest forms of human achievement. The objective is discovery, understanding the nature of food, how it is prepared and experienced. Ferran Adrià has a passion for this discovery and, after 25 years as head chef at El Bulli, he is devoting himself and his team to cataloging haute cuisine and creative expression in general.

The foundation’s walls are the inside of Adrià’s mind come to life – rooms with drawings and research pinned to foam board, books on all subjects, and a staff of artists and researchers delving into all of it. Ferran asks us questions meant to twist our expectations of food – is champagne still a drink if it’s served in a bowl and you eat it with a spoon? His mind and career has been keenly pursuing these questions for a quarter century.

Dom Perignon‘s Chef de Cave Richard Geoffroy was at the foundation as well, discussing a new three year partnership between the esteemed wine makers and the El Bulli foundation with the hopes to “decode champagne”. We visited the new Dom Pérignon wing within the foundation and discussed their process of blending that yields a vintage to meet their standards. For them, tasting and decoding is a constant task, as they are tracking the changing characteristics of their wine and, in a macro sense, they look at the similarities and differences between many releases of Dom Pérignon, dating back to 1921. On a wall in one room of the foundation we see colored strings connecting Dom Pérignon releases, creating a stunning visual way to trace the complex flavors of their champagne expressions over time.

When I asked Richard what Dom Pérignon hoped to achieve by having one of the greatest creative minds decode their champagne over the course of three years, he said it was impossible to know on this journey of discovery…

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I had no creative personality before I was working in the kitchen. I think this is a good example for how important it is to do what you really like to be able to be creative. 

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I’m here for a reason. It is the same reason I was in the restaurant for. To look for the limits. But there are no limits. Life isn’t long enough. It can take years and years and our brains aren’t clever enough to understand it all… However clever you are, there will always be something you don’t understand.

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Lady Argyle

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Lady Argyle, the matriarch of the House, possesses the kind of confident elegance only one of experience may possess…it gives her the ability to glide instead of walk, and glow as vibrantly as the royally violet jewels that cast a spell on those who glance her way. She waits on the terrace for her Lord Byron, sipping champagne, lost in the memories of so many summers ago. She knows the emotions the young ones will be looking for tonight, but at this moment she’s happy living in her memories, or at least, being the gracious host she is, that might be just what she wants us to believe.

No matter what #ChopardSecrets may be whispered across these halls, rest assured…Lady Argyle knows them all…

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 In the Manor & on the Terrace, Lady Argyle wears Chopard’s Imperiale Ring, Pendant and Watch // Zac Posen Gown

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Lady Argyle played by Elodie // Shot on location at Old Westbury Gardens by Ann Street Studio // Styled by Kelly Framel // Props by Zio & Sons // Makeup by Ashlee Glazer // Hair by Justin Woods // Manicurist Katie Hughes for Butter London // All watches and high jewelry provided by Chopard

Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic

Veuve Clicquot Polo (86)

Veuve Clicquot Polo (85)

Nothing kicks off the summer better than Veuve Clicquot’s Polo Classic at Liberty State Park under a shining sun and star-studded spectator tent. With the pop of champagne ringing in your ear and the rumble of horses galloping by, you feel the earth tremble from the power and might of each play. I love these afternoons, so sweet with champagne, so lost in beautiful people’s laughter, with the skyline of New York City watching on…

Cheers ~

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Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic

Last weekend Kevin and I got to escape the crisp fall air of the east coast and join our Veuve Clicquot friends in sunny California for a perfect Saturday of polo and bubbles. The west coast did not let us down with its beautiful people, bevy of celebrity, the CUTEST polo players and endless sunshine set amongst a 1922 New Delhi themed event. It was really torture… muwha.

Welcome to Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in Los Angeles, California~

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Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic

What a magical way to spend an afternoon… 

Veuve Clicquot’s Polo Classic was in full swing this past Saturday at Liberty State Park with guests stomping the divots in tops hats, bow ties, chiffon and seersucker all without spilling a drop of that bubbly champagne. It was the most civilized sport I have ever witnessed where the view on the field was just as exciting as the one off-

The Polo Classic:

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