Friday Afternoon Champagne (Part 2)

Last Friday, girl-e and I decided to sample another champagne bar to compare our experience at Hugh's a couple of weeks ago. We decided to visit the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar at Malmaison on West George Street. The champagne bar is downstairs and just outside the bistro - it's really just a clever use of what might otherwise be a foyer or ante-room with ample nooks and crannies to display the distinctive orange-yellow branding of the Champagne House. Archtecturally, it's interesting as this was formally just the space between two buildings that's been enclosed and filled with comfy furniture - but still gives just a hint of the feel of being outside without being subject to the elements. The bar menu was extensive with cocktails and snacks - but we were pretty focused on the champagne. The list was short but nice - two Veuve Clicquot selections (NV Brut and NV Brut Rose), one lesser known Champagne (Mercier) and one prosecco. We splurged on the Brut Rose first (11.95 per glass). This is definitely a splurge - but this wine is gorgeous, elegant and balanced. If you are content to have one of something fabulous rather than several of something so-so then this is the ticket....gorgeous orange-y salmon-y colour, lovely summer berry nose with hints of sweet biscuits baking. Sadly, it was outside our budget to have a second glass but the Mercier NV brut was a very nice stand in at £8.95. Referring back to my comments in the previous post, it doesn't have to be from a well known champange house to be very enjoyable and a champagne bar that gets this wrong is very disappointing. The Mercier was lovely - soft, light and fresh with a more apple/pear/flower sort of personality than the berry fruits of the rose. To add to what was already an exceedingly pleasant experience, we ordered a single order of chips to split (since we sat in the bar for best part of 3 hours!) and these were stellar - crisp outside, soft inside, cut into thin strips, nicely salty. This was a very nice experience that I would be keen to repeat when I want to treat myself to something a bit special.