Wine tasting at The Langham

Even though I’m not EHL (Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, hotel school in Switzerland) Alumni, I get ‘dragged’ to their events by my husband. They have monthly meet-ups and other events related to hospitality industry (not always) – visiting new hotels, bars, restaurants, celebrating Swiss national day, EHL birthday etc.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to join them for wine tasting hosted by The Bolney Estate at The Langham. The host, Jennifer Yates, was an absolute pleasure to listen to and her enthusiasm for English (sparkling) wines came across vividly. We sampled the following:

• Blanc de Blancs Brut, 2009 – their best seller and four times award winning sparkling wine, smooth with fresh citrus notes
• Cuveé Rosé, 2009 – another award winning vintage sparkling
• Pinot Gris, 2014 – dry, creamy and fresh
• Pinot Noir, 2014 – my favourite, medium bodied with strong cherry flavours

After all this we decided to stay in the hotel for a bit longer and managed to get into their ever popular Artesian bar – the “World’s Best Bar” for three consecutive years, as voted for by Drinks International. They had the most surreal cocktails that I have ever seen – one, for example, was served in a box that glowed and produced smoke…. Yes, really.

Cocktails are £18 each though, so you might want to save up ‘a little’ for this trip. 🙂

All in all, a very enjoyable evening networking with the EHL graduates while drinking wine and cocktails in a spectacular setting of the world’s first “Grand Hotel” in Europe – The Langham. Event photos available from here: Marc Mordant Photography – Bolney Estate wine tasting.

Featured image: Courtesy of Marc Mordant Photography.