Drinking Stars

The story goes that the monk Dom Perignon said “Come quickly, I am drinking the stars” at his discovery of Champagne. Many refute this, and say that this quote was actually used by Dom Perignon, the champagne company named for the monk, in advertising in the 1800’s. Well regardless, what a wonderful quote it is and it greatly inspired my pattern. All I could think of was stars and bubbles spiraling their way up the champagne flute.
“Drinking the Stars” is also the name of a cocktail served at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room in SF. A $650 cocktail... wait they offer it for $325 too... my mistake, i was going to say they were crazy.
So what is in it… gold dust? Tiny specks of diamonds? Um, no. Chateau De Ravignan 1979 Bas Armagnac infused with Madagascar Vanilla Bean, Orange Peel, Raisins and Dom Perignon. I know nothing about Armagnac so maybe that is akin to specs of gold.
The above images are from my champagne note card. Each one is hand silk screened in metallic inks by me in my studio. The inks are all hand mixed so each batch's colors are a bit different from the next. Available online at www.jhilldesign.com and in NYC at Trunkt, 393 Greenwich Street

Evolution of a Champagne Drinker

The first time I had Champagne involved new years, high school and a bottle that may have been pink and was definitely under $10.00. I'm pretty sure I hated it.
In college I moved on to the "Andre", not pink but still under $10.00, and i think I enjoyed it slightly more than the aforementioned bottle.
It wasn’t until I was in Paris with my dear friend Sarah that I began to truly enjoy champagne. We were on a backpacking-through-Europe trip our senior year in college. One night at a café she ordered me a Kir Royale. Mmmmm… creme de cassis and champagne, it is still one of my favorite cocktails.
After college I went on to design for a beauty company who’s parent company happened to be LVMH. The M stands for Moet and Moet stands for Champagne. I always had visions of walking in and there being a nice bottle of Champagne on my desk from our “parent”, just cause we were doing a good job. Well, I've yet to have a bottle of Moet & Chandon.
Last year at Sasso’s company’s holiday party I got asked a question that every champagne drinker likes to hear. “Would you like a glass of Dom Perignon?” Ummm… yes, please! We all had our fair share of glasses that evening. I knew from experience that free champagne, (and Dom Perignon at that), doesn’t come around that often.

A bit of info about Champagne

She is a historic wine region in the northeast of France, about 100 miles east of Paris. The region is famous for that sparkly drink. That’s right… Champagne. Anyone anywhere can make sparkly wine, but only someone in Champagne can make Champagne. The 100+ Champagne houses produce about 220 million bottles each year. The most famous producers (the grande marques) are Moet et Chandon, Taittinger, Mumm, Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin and Perrier-Jouet. (Wouldn’t it be fun to get a bottle from each house for a little tasting?)
You can tour the houses and head underground into the “caves” where the “remuers” give each of the millions of bottles just a tiny bit of a turn every day. Hmm… I have visions of water fountains and sprinklers spouting champagne, glasses flowing everywhere. I had the same vision (but with chocolate of course), when we took a tour of the Hershey Factory in Hershey, PA when I was 10. The only chocolate we got there was a kiss at the end so I’m going to guess that the champagne tour is the same way.
“1,000 Places To See Before You Die” points you to Pommery, the largest and most impressive vineyard in Champage. Their cellars were carved by the ancient Gallo-Romans and used as schools, hospitals and shelters during the wars. Looks like it has this whole underground DaVinci Code feel to it.
Champagne is also home to the famous Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims with the amazing stained glass windows by Marc Chagall.

“drinking and eating stars” was the subtitle that got me.

I was reading through the great book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” when I came to the entry for “Champagne and Les Crayères” in Reims, France. The description of this famous restaurant, this famous region and this famous drink… well it sounded just magical…