Pol Roger is one of the few remaining family-owned champagne houses in France.
Although not as large and therefore well known a producer as the likes of Moet & Chandon or Veuve Clicquot (who have between them almost half the market), the house, which was founded in 1849, is highly regarded within the wine trade.
Suitably bespoke city caterer Vacherin called in recently at Pol Roger's Epernay base, which is situated in a splendid manor house, with a mix of directors, managers and clients on an educational trip organised via Laytons wine merchants.
Pol Roger's Hubert de Billy, director of sales and marketing for France, was on hand to give an extremely entertaining tour of the adjacent production facility and cellars.
It seems with demand for the fizzy stuff being fuelled by emerging markets such as China and India, Champagne is already struggling to meet this unquenchable global demand and finding enough grapes for production is much more difficult than finding customers.
At a sumptuous lunch after the tour, with each course matched to one of Pol Roger's top-notch champagnes, Hubert explained the company's close links with the UK and Sir Winston Churchill (see Odette Pol-Roger), who was a lifetime fan and who the company's prestige cuvée is named after.
Speaking of his life, which includes trips to London on business and stays at top hotels including the Ritz, Hubert spoke of his passion for hunting, usually wild boar, in the beautiful rolling countryside of the region. In short, being a family member involved in the business isn't without its perks.
But what exactly does a director of one of the premier champagne houses get up to in his spare time? Racing ridiculously overpowered cars, powering along in his speedboat, galloping through the countryside on an Arabian mare? Not exactly.
In fact the director revealed to the Vacherin party that he was happiest of all when doing DIY (albeit on his 18th century house in Brittany). How refreshing.
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