I tried 'world first' champagne experience in historic Scottish hotel cellar - my verdict
A luxury Scottish hotel and a top champagne brand have teamed up to offer an ‘elevated’ tasting experience in a totally unique setting. Rosalind Erskine visited to find out more.
My knowledge and experience of Dom Perignon champagne can be boiled down to about three things: I’ve known from a young age that it’s Frasier Crane’s champagne of choice, having loved the TV programme from about 13 years old; a friend and I were aghast at the price when looking for pre-holiday fizz in Heathrow in our mid twenties and I eventually tried it, aged 29, on board an Emirates flight.
Fast forward 10 years and I now not only know a lot more about the brand but about champagne and drinks in general - which is ideal as on the eve of my 40th birthday I found myself deep within the bowels of Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire sipping on a cold glass of this illustrious champagne while chatting to one of the hotel’s sommeliers about the vast wine collection.
This new Dom Perignon Cellar experience was launched in June and offers guests - some who have to book three weeks in advance - the chance of a completely bespoke experience in one of the most historic places within this storied building.
Guests can either enjoy a couple of glasses with a small selection of freshly made canapes right up to the Dom Perignon Experience which includes a five course tasting menu with paired champagnes.
No two menus will be the same and every experience is bespoke which explains the lengthy booking process. So far the team have hosted a wedding party and three other dinners with other bookings coming in thick and fast, as consumers look to more experimental offerings in luxury hospitality.
Housed behind the scenes at Gleneagles, The Cellar remains a working space within the hotel - an area that has served a historic role at Gleneagles as the point of storage and aging for rare and fine wines and spirits for over 100 years.
A century ago, trains travelled north carrying Londoners in search of summers of countryside pursuits by day and long, glamorous evenings. They brought precious cargo, lowered by hand into the cellar below. In this new evolution of the space, The Cellar has been transformed into an atmospheric dining destination.
No matter which experience of the three available is booked, it starts in the Strathearn where guests will wander into the scullery to see some live cooking then they’ll head behind the scenes of Gleneagles into the staff corridors to the cellar, which, if it didn’t have a brass Dom Perignon sign by it, you’d walk right past (and likely into the ‘Staffearn’ staff canteen).
Down candlelit stairs, the cellar unfolds and as well as the intricately housed wines - all 65,000 of them - there’s a welcome high table area surrounded by bespoke wooden cabinetry that’s filled with bottles of Dom Perignon. Further down into the cellar there’s a huge custom made travertine dining table in the same chalky hues you might see in the terroir of champagne. The table is so vast, it was delivered by crane in two pieces, utilising the old service hatch last used for unloading bottles from delivery trains in the 1920s and 30s.
After our 2017 vintage champagne and array of canapes - venison tartar, lobster crouslades, bellinis with sour cream and Oscietra caviar and a mushroom parfait - it was sadly time to leave but it had been an informative and enjoyable hour seeing behind the scenes of the hotel.
It’s clear from the waiting staff to the sommelier, chefs and our charming host that all the staff involved are excited and passionate about this, the only hotel Dom Perignon champagne cellar tasting in the world. With such a historic location, not to mention the quality of service and food and drinks, it’s easy to see why - and I left with a much better appreciation of Frasier Crane’s favourite fizz.
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