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Champagne training: all aboard for the St Pancras by Searcys school of bubbles
Enjoy a night filled with fizz at the bubbliest education site in Britain
There is something extremely romantic about St Pancras by Searcys. Sipping a glass of champagne under the station’s impressive glass and wrought iron ceiling, you invariably begin searching the crowds heading for their trains in the hope of spotting Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson bidding an emotional farewell.
Over its 150 years’ of history, the station has seen more than its share of emotional farewells and Europe’s longest champagne bar has launched a new venture to let you toast them in style – and with a little knowledge behind your choice of bubbly.
This month sees the start of the bar’s new champagne school, where guests can learn more about our fizzy favourite and the perfect dishes to eat with it. And in the spirit of entente cordiale, the best in English sparkling wines also make an appearance.
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In charge of the corks is Searcys’ drinks ambassador Joel Claustre, who talks guests through his choices at an exclusive monthly masterclass held in the new 12-seater tasting room, which is also available for meetings for those businessmen who like their work to go with a pop.
The Week Portfolio, however, had clocked off for the day and instead enjoyed Searcys champagne dinner, created by executive chef Colin Layfield and development chef Shaun Rowlands and featuring the best of seasonal British.
Guests are greeted with an elegant carved-stone map of Champagne, below which lies a wall of bottles, and, of course, a classic flute of fizz. Claustre, meanwhile, tells us about the different varieties we will be sampling – which includes an English sparkling. When asked about this strange sight on a night celebrating France’s most famous wine, he replies with a Gallic shrug and says the English are producing some fine sparkling wine these days so why not. It is, after all, about quality.
After handbaked bread that has our table begging for more, we are treated to an baked mixed beetroot salad with Bath blue cheese and candied walnuts, the clean, earthy and creamy flavours perfectly set off by a glass of sugar-free Laurent Perrier Ultra Brut.
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Sweet, soft and delicate Lyme Bay scallops with silky pork cheek in a ginger follow, along with a glass of outstanding Veuve Fourny blanc de blanc, a champagne from a small winery now being run by the fifth generation of the Fourny family.
Our main is a British classic: chicken pie with, incredibly, the tastiest kale ever. It is here the English sparkler steps up to the glass, a blanc de noirs brut from Furleigh Estate in Dorset. One sip of this lemon gold nectar, its tiny bubbles bubbling up merrily, and we see why the French are so good at wine: they truly do know quality when they taste it – even if it is from the wrong side of the Channel.
Dessert has us wondering: what fizz has Joel got up his sleeve for this notoriously difficult course to match wines with? The answer is a Tattinger nocturne sec, a non-vintage that is sweeter than the brut and with a rich, full body to cut through the sharpness of the preserved cherry sauce surrounding our baked alaskas. Our very large baked alaskas, I note with some trepidation as it is placed in front of me, and yet I still manage to finish it.
Our night over, we head off to catch trains and while there was still no sign of Trevor and Celia, Portfolio vows this will be more than a Brief Encounter.
