Continue reading »]]> Here she is – back slimmer and trimmer in this Olympic year thanks to her advocating the switch to champagne but which may only aid weight loss as part of a calorie controlled diet…

Don’t have a dry January, have extra dry champagne.

According to Madame Pompadour, the chief mistress of Louis XV, champagne leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it.  So forget detoxing, cancel your gym membership – the perfect antidote to crippling self-loathing and chaffing inner thighs this January is to quaff more fizz.

Back in the 80s I remember my mother buying a book called The Champagne Diet by The Slender Gourmet, published by Debretts. She swore by it. Yes, she’d forget to pick me up from school sometimes but as she habitually reminded me – better to have an addled mind than Gargantuan over-hang. Well, over 20 years later some bright spark across the Atlantic has re-launched the diet with great success.

After trying to have a dry January – I managed six days – I decided to give the diet a go. Five days into the new regime I can report the effects have been miraculous – I am no longer an uptight cow obsessed with the size of my thighs. I am funnier, more effervescent and definitely a size ten.  My husband, High Tower, who is still off the booze, is not convinced it’s working and has been chuntering that my new diet will turn us into Greece, financially.

That’s when I pulled out the God card.  As a devout Catholic there was no way he could deny me my daily elixir discovered by Dom Pierre Pérignon, a French monk from the Abbey d’Hautvillers credited with creating the magic bubble in champagne wines.  “Everyday,” I told him, “I feel the love of Jesus.”  This was music to High Tower’s ears. “Does that mean I can get you rebadged?” he asked opportunistically.  “If I can stay on this diet for life I’ll be whatever you want me to be – Hindu, Jew, Jehovah’s Witness, you name it.”  He too is on the diet and is extremely handsome, taller and less obsessive compulsive.

Champagne is very low in sugar, even a full fat vintage is only 100 calories a glass, but if you really want to see the weight fall off or you are diabetic, why not opt for the zero dosage (aka Brut natural or Brut zero) variety that has no extra sugar added at all. During the ‘methode champenoise’ all the sugar in the original wine converts to alcohol therefore it can be very dry, so before bottling a small amount of dosage is added, which is either sweet wine or older champagne to balance the taste. The zero dosage is sometimes eye-wateringly dry so you might want to add a little crème de cassis to make Kir Royale or perhaps orange juice. Remember Bucks Fizz prevents scurvy. Fact.

The type of glass from which you drink your daily champagne is as important as choosing the bottle. For a drier, zero dosage drink from a crystal flute, as the narrow surface area will keep the wine sparkling for longer.  A champagne coupe or saucer is the perfect option for a sweeter blend and it might make you more beautiful, too.  The glass is fabled to be modeled on Madame Pompadour’s breast, which as you sup your bubbles can’t fail to bring a smile to your ever slimming face.

Continue reading »]]> It’s a very warm welcome to Champagne Charlie (aka Charlotte Reather or @charliereather) who has bravely agreed to join Park Lane Champagne by writing a monthly snippet, squeezed in amidst all the other works that flow from her pen, including her “Wild Life” column for The Field.

We can’t guarantee exactly what each month will bring, but Charlie has promised to live up to the moniker and delve deep into her life experiences involving champagne that she promises are many and varied…  There will also be guides to champagne, interviews with champagne aficionados, and much more beyond.  We hope she will find a moment to cover off personalised champagne in the mix, so long as she wasn’t the buyer we had to invoke the label veto for…

And with no more ado, it’s over the top we go.  Remember if you like what you read do come back next month for more.  To quote another great West Country loving eccentric, “thank you Charlie”:  [Ed]

Screaming Orgasms and other festive champagne cocktails

Forget mulled-wine and eggnog, Christmas is the time for screaming orgasms.  If you’ve never had one, then you’re most likely the uptight guest in the corner covered in cobwebs.  Well, it’s time to dust them off and live a little.  Three parts Champagne to one part sloe gin really gets you in the mood for a party.  I remember one occasion, back in my ever so naughty past, when I was dating a gentleman of advanced years and wicked ways known as Comb-Over Man (COM). It was early December and we were on our way to a lavish do in Rutlandshire.  Unfortunately we bumped into one of COM’s alcoholic compadres, Bad Johnny (BJ), who invited us back to his house for a quick screaming orgasm. How could we refuse? After multiples I realised we were late for dinner. Now incapable of driving, BJ’s son drove us to the party on a trailer full of wood chippings attached to his quad. This wouldn’t have been so bad if hadn’t been blizzard conditions.

We arrived half an hour late with intimate splinters and heads like snowmen.  As we entered the hall a lady screamed. ‘Had we crashed the car? What on earth had happened?’  “Yes, it was awful – the car’s a right off,” said COM. “Could we have a drink?” I looked at him in astonishment.  Everyone fussed over us both. “Brandy!” called Major Broom. “What they need is brandy.”  As he ushered us in to the drawing room he had a brainwave. “How about Champagne cocktails?” I pleaded for clemency but COM thought it was a splendid idea.  I surveyed the scene, everyone was in smoking jackets and wearing monogrammed slippers.  Where was I? Downton Abbey?  As I was introduced, I discovered all the guests had double-barrelled names so, in order not to be left out, I decided for one night only to be Charlotte Smith-Reather.

The butler placed a La Perruche sugar cube into a hand engraved champagne saucer, expertly shook a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters to soak the cube, poured a measure of Courvoisier XO Imperial Cognac into the glass and topped it up with 1992 Perrier-Jouet Champagne Grand Brut. As I watched him work I realised I was swaying again. I tried to pull myself together – the Brooms obviously had a superb cellar and I wanted a return ticket.

COM knocked his glass back and began to smile inanely. I sipped mine but soon discovered it had evaporated and everyone around me was listening to my witty vignettes and laughing uproariously – I was a hit. Thankfully many of the guests got ‘drink envy’ and soon cocktails started to flow all round. By the end of dinner I couldn’t speak and it was best I didn’t.  COM was necking the ’62 port and becoming more inappropriate by the minute. It was at his suggestion of playing ‘naughty horses’ things really began to unravel. All I remember was riding a high court judge to victory at 50/1 – the favourite had been taken out by The Chair.  Now that’s a party – you won’t get that kind of atmosphere with boring mulled wine.

Recipes for Screaming Orgasm and Classic Champagne Cocktail, by popular festive request – perfect when topped up with any of the excellent champagnes we supply…personalised or not!    Happy Christmas.

Continue reading »]]> Amazing after such a warm autumn – where was the October snow that we were promised?! – to think that only 7 weeks on Sunday is Christmas Day…

I reckon that quite a few of our customers have also just realised how close Christmas is as the ‘phone has started ringing off the hook!  All we need is Slade to start playing on the radio and the Iceland adverts to appear on TV and the full onslaught will be with us!

So this year, more and more of Park Lane Champagne’s customers are choosing to order online;  we have a newly revamped range of hampers (retaining all the hallmarks of our previous Frisky Partridge collection), a larger selection of ports (5 types) and whiskies (5 types), in addition to a cheeky bordeaux wine offer AND a burgundy wine offer, all to compliment the excellent champagnes (personalised champagne, house champagne or Grande Marque champagne), house wines and prosecco!

Don’t want to create an essay but we are excited about all that is going on.  New suppliers are fuelling our stampede forward and relevant information can be found in the our producers section of the website.  As you would expect, we choose suppliers carefully on a variety of criteria, including quality, uniqueness, service, sustainability and value.  Note that for us, value is measured in many ways other than just the price and one of the things we really want is products that are not readily available on the high street.  Artisan but established; great quality but affordable with good continuity of supply.

So here it is, whether you want a single bottle of personalised champagne, a large corporate order or a unique festive hamper, please do contact us and we will be delighted to be of service.

Our last day for regular orders with guaranteed delivery before Christmas – assuming snow does not come and interrupt things – is Tuesday 20th December 2011.  However, and as always, the sooner you can get us started, the better for us!

And just to round off, we hope Old St Nick doesn’t dig into too many of the Park Lane Champagne pressies before he squeezes down your chimney on the 24th and lapses into this kind of sherry-fuelled chaos…

Continue reading »]]> It is hard to believe that the last finger to keyboard jotting was Tom’s insight back in August;  here we are nearly two months on and what an eleven weeks it has been;  no need to bore one and all but the roller-coaster is definitely to be avoided if at all possible!

A warm welcome to Beth and Jason who have joined the team.  Good luck to Andy and Tom who are now back at school university studying hard – and helping us out while they can – and more good wishes to Mark who is on a sabbatical year’s break from uni with us, focusing on design, and fighting daily with the “to do” list on his workboard…

Personalised champagne has remained ever popular.  We have increased production capacity by introducing new working practices and procedures to deliver new efficiencies.  Amazing, though, how people are afraid of change – even relevant changes to our internal job sheets have caused unease.

A large single client project has been successfully completed, although the hand-shifting of 1,100 bottles from the loading bay into the Great Hall at Grosvenor House in the scorching September heat caused James and I to suffer!  The complex packing and distribution of 400 individual shipments was completed on time, on budget and without a single error – which is very pleasing although service-second-to-none has always been a key Park Lane Champagne ethos.

Our internet custom has continued to grow.  There are some exciting third party collaborations in the pipeline for early 2012 launch, as well as olympic growth planned for next year.  Our sponsorship of Euroseries has been interesting and put us in great company.  It is also super that Mike Butcher’s TechCrunch have come back to us to get involved with personalised champagne for this year’s Europas awards.

The harvest started (and finished) an unseasonal three weeks early.  Good yields and good natural sugar levels are report and while it may or may not be declared a “vintage” year, that is somewhat immaterial given that champagne is all about the blend of different years – ie. the non-vintage.  From that perspective, the harvest of 2011 will give great wines for the future.

And the World waits to see if Sarkozy and Merkel can pull off enough of a plan to give the €uro and the Eurozone a much needed breathing space and hopefully save us all from the catastrophe we have been told awaits.  I think the body language needs brushing up a little and perhaps the rhetoric as well if the helpful advice from across the Channel which Cameron and Osborne have been dispensing has caused such Sarkozy foot stamping – or maybe that is new father syndrome?

I have returned this week from a quick producer visit and overnight stop in Paris where the radio was full of Euro doom and gloom.  Great to find out that when you get to the top of Gustav’s magic tower, a quick flute of reviver can be purchased to regularise the beating heart;  maybe they need a flute or two of bubbly to ease tensions round the negotiating table…

More soon – especially as Christmas careers closer – and we are likely to become a distributor of a very cheeky little Sussex sparkling in the near future that is really really surprisingly good…

Pip Pip.

Continue reading »]]> Relatively new to Park Lane Champagne, I joined the team back in April after a previous stint to help build the ever growing web presence of the company. Like James, I am another virgin – on the blogging front – but here goes!

Working alongside Andy and Nick, James, Al and the warehouse team, life at Park Lane is not only a steep learning curve but a great experience as well.  Personalised champagne is what we are all about, from a single bottle for an individual customer to over 6,000 bottles for a major UK company – it’s all in the mix!  So we get on with designing banners and customer labels, building bespoke landing pages and client micro-sites, geting involved with order processing, and every day is different.  Coming fresh out of my first year at university where I am studying web design, Nick our lead technology bod has definitely helped me grow my knowledge in the design field.  As for the champagne side of things, this is something that has grown and grown on me since being here and now it’s safe to say I’m a fellow champagne drinker myself – and of course I organised a personalised champagne bottle for my mum’s 44th with a custom label…

Here at Park Lane the working environment is fun and relaxed, whilst making sure everyone gets the jobs done.  Coffee is a must first thing in the morning and luckily we have a great coffee maker, James, on hand when we need one!  Whilst absorbing that caffeine fix, Andy and I liaise with each other on what web development jobs need to be done in the day.  After this it’s work, work, work until the baguette bar in town is shouting out for me at lunch time;  we all love a tasty baguette here (especially a tuna torpedo) when the boys’ vigorous weight loss regime permits – James, Al and London to Brighton bike rides!

Throughout my time here our web presence is ever growing, leading us to exciting new levels.  Whilst James and Alastair continue to sell, sell, sell, our work remains in the background pushing our web presence higher and higher and constantly evolving our systems and processes so that everything runs smoothly. Amazing to think that Park Lane’s ecommerce web presence is only two years old and in that time we have grown to over 4,000 visitors per month.  It will be even more exciting when we top 40,000 per month and especially to think we all laid the early foundations to allow that growth.

Since being a part of the team it’s been a great all round experience and the working environment is one that I definitely haven’t experienced before!  Following my passion for the web, I’ve now grown a new interest for champagne, and I can safely say it is one that is definitely going to stick with me.

Working on the web design and development team at Park Lane Champagne is great – even the nickname of ‘skinny legs’ from the Harrison children!  I can certainly recommend it and if you are searching for a dynamic, diverse, challenging but fun job, do contact us as we certainly need a good digital marketing person and a full time technologist.

Cheers!

Tom

Continue reading »]]> A blogging virgin, Alastair has asked me to put fingers to keyboard with an update on my weekend’s activities for the firm at Barbury Horse Trials. Here goes, with a leap into the cyber unknown!

For the last five years St James’s Place have sponsored the international horse trials at Barbury.  This year they asked us (Park Lane Champagne) to get involved with the helicopter rides and supplying champagne gifts to all the passengers.

With a five o clock start on the Saturday morning I embarked on the journey up the M4 to Wiltshire.  As the rides were dependant on how much wind there was I thought they might not fly as it was getting blowier and blowier the closer I got.  After a coffee and butty pitstop I made my way to the trials, up country lanes with fields of poppies and blue linseed on either side.  The sun was now starting to break through the clouds making it a good start to the weekend ahead.

Once the SJP personalised champagne had been unloaded I was indulged to exceptional hospitality with cakes and buns and more coffee (and flavoured teas for the faint hearted) kindly laid on by SJP.  Soon the helicopter rides began and the clients and partners really had a good time and were surprised to be greeted off the helicopter by me with a complimentary half bottle each of SJP personalised champagne.

The day rolled on and after a three course lunch and some very impressive horsemanship, afternoon tea went down a treat even though I probably didn’t need it!

The day seemed to fly by (no pun intended) and then back to my stables in Marlborough for the overnight stop, so after a pizza in town and a few beers an early night was in order for the next day…

On Sunday the weather was hot and with the helicopter rides starting a little later meant everything was more relaxed.  After meeting a few of the partners and having another delicious lunch I managed to watch some of the trials which weren’t without their dramas – ambulances seemed to be busy but I couldn’t spot the notorious ambulance chasers…!   It was soon time to head back down the road to sunny Sussex.  After having a brief catch up with the SJP chief exec David Bellamy I loaded the car and headed East on the open (and happily not too busy) road.

On arrival back after a great weekend I managed to find a little space for some cheese and biscuits and a draft of champagne!  All that activity and the requirement to be substantially tee-total (driving) meant I certainly deserved it.

St James’s Place Wealth Management have been a client of Park Lane Champagne for over ten years.  They have their own personalised champagne which fits perfectly with their client profile and makes a super gift.  As always, Park Lane goes the extra distance to ensure customer satisfaction with various partners having their own personalised adaptations of the SJP champagne for their individual businesses.

Good to be of service and thanks for thinking of us.  Elaine and her team did a fabulous job…

Continue reading »]]> Whether it happens in a Church, a Registry Office or a beach in Bali, the wedding day is a personal nirvana.  The hopes of the future, of the happy couple and their families are expressed in the magic of the day and it is no wonder that champagne plays such an important part in so many weddings.

Having been around since 1995, Park Lane Champagne has been involved with a number of weddings over the years.  We hope the bubbly has helped add magic to all those special days – and an element of fun as well as a good talking point among the guests!

Since taking our excellent champagne service online two years ago, we are amazed at the inventive uses relating to weddings that personalised champagne has been put to.  Champagne has been used as a “meet me at the Church” groom gift, thank you presents for Best Man, Bridesmaids, Parents, etc.  Mini bottles have made perfect wedding favours for each guest on each table.  Bigger bottles have been used for after the event gifts to the newly Mr & Mrs by wedding guests or friends.  All of this, in addition to champagne for the wedding breakfast or wedding feast after the nuptial knot has been tied!

We have had customers include photos, logos, entwined initials, design complete labels, specify pantone colour references, send an item of cloth for colour matching, and more…  Traditional weddings are in the majority, but we are delighted to assist for the odd civil partnership as well – including one this morning – so good luck to you all!

So, because of this demand we have created a complete wedding section that we plan to build on as an online resource for our customers and prospective customers.  As well as champagne, Park Lane Champagne also offers a select range of wines (and we can source others on request) so that all the liquor needs for the big day are covered.

And as one customer reported back recently this month, his sister was “so chuffed and surprised” with the personalised champagne for her wedding (60 bottles which had been organised as a complete surprise) that it drew out the first emotional weep, two days before the big day!  And there were also good comments about both the personalised label and the quality of the bubbly from various guests…

Satisfied customers all round – now that’s what we always strive to acheive and it’s certainly what we like to hear!

Continue reading »]]> Despite the relentless rain since the weekend, we are all aware that in the UK it has been an extremely sunny and dry start to the year.  In fact, the BBC have reported that various areas of the country were suffering under drought conditions.

Being geographically close to the Champagne Region of France, the same is also true there.  The consequences are not severe in terms of vine growth as the roots are accustomed to burrowing deep into the chalk aquifers in order to tap the stored reserves of water.

The issue is about speed of growth.   Not everyone knows it, but vines do flower, albeit briefly.  The “flowering” is the big indicator and dictates how the fruit will develop and when the harvest will occur.  It normally happens between today (15th June) and the 22nd.  This year, it has occurred THREE WEEKS EARLY!  The impact of this is that harvest will take place from around the 20th of August.

This is not a drama and while the armchair environmentalists will seize on this as “proof” of climate change,  Claude Nomine remembers three separate years in the 1970s when his family started their champagne harvests in August.

For Park Lane Champagne, this means that the usual shipping and supply disruption that occurs in August (French holidays) and September (harvest) will be condensed into August – unless of course a national exception is declared and the public holiday season moves either forward or backwards to accommodate the earlier timing of the harvest.  Might sound silly, but it is France, after all!

To accomodate, we will ensure that the warehouses and cellars are well stocked in July so distribution of all those personalised champagne gifts continue uninterrupted – as usual.

On an environmental note, it is the annual BHF London to Brighton cycle ride this weekend.  The Park Lane team – yes there really is one! – are hoping to complete this in under 5 hours.  Fingers crossed for fine weather – nothing is worse than soggy lycra – and an accident free trip.  Not sure we can promise to be as environmental as the cyclists to the right, despite all this blood, toil, tears and sweat -aka training – in the build up to this 54 mile trot through southern England…

Continue reading »]]> Now here’s something a little different but nonetheless all in a day’s work for Park Lane Champagne.

The folk at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester are having their annual May Ball on Friday this week and for 2011 it is a Willy Wonka themed extravaganza.  Expect big hats, stripey jackets, the odd Charlie and plenty of fun.  We also understand that Boy George will be there to add to the merriment, although surely not dressed as Grandpa…

So as a special commission we have produced a personalised champagne for the event – the Willy Wonka special – and here she is, in all her glory!  Bottles and magnums are available.  One bottle has a unique golden ticket concealed under the neck foil – which gives a FREE MAGNUM – and there is even a “Wonka Plonka” special cocktail – large shot of Jägermeister with champagne…

The champagne, of course, is our usual excellent quality.  As a benchmark, our mainline NV has three years age in bottle, as opposed to the legal minimum of 15 months.  This immediately gives maturity and complexity to the wine, coupled with the very best grapes all harvested by hand.  The blend is classic 40% chardonnay, with 30% each of pinot noir and pinot meunier, and around 10% of reserve wines (from previous harvests – hence the Non-Vintage  moniker).  Seems a shame to dilute it with the Jäger after all that effort but business is business and I am sure it will be great!

Should be a fun evening but I wonder if the Wonka Plonkas might impact on the numbers still standing for the survivors photo at 7am on Saturday?!  Remember:  very often less is more…

Continue reading »]]> Park Lane Champagne is a licensee to Liverpool Football Club, and very proud of it we are as well.  Liverpool FC branded champagne, prosecco and wine, as well as personalised champagne, prosecco and wine is all supplied by us.  We even power the Liverpool Online Offlicence where fans and supporters can buy and personalise the Liverpool FC range online;  LFC was the first club in the World to introduce the concept of an online liquor store and we are delighted to be their supplier and operator.

So yesterday was an all day visit to the famous Anfield ground for licensee presentation and unveiling of plans for the 2011/12 season and beyond.  Much of it confidential but suffice to say is that Liverpool is in a much better place than at the start of the current season.  The dedication and focus of Liverpool FC team is very much on supplying high quality items that the fans really want, as opposed to a sole focus on revenue to the club.  This is refreshing.  It was great to meet other licensees – and what a diverse bunch sourcing a diverse range of goodies they are !- but they day was in my opinion highly beneficial and interesting.

The ever savvy Marie-Louise spearheaded the programme and guided her licensees through the day, always with something bright and incisive to offer to every individual present – particularly as to how she would like to see products and product promotion improved.  ML’s fragrant colleague Susan then accompanied the licensees on a full tour of the ground, including the dressing rooms, the dug out, the pitch and The Kop.  The guides were terrific and their encyclopedic knowledge of games past very impressive.  The day culminated with dinner in the excellent onsite BootRoom restaurant (where again we supply special BootRoom branded personalised wines and personalised champagne) and which, despite only being launched towards Christmas last year, is already proving very popular and well recommended in the North West.  Book early for match days…

And the tour was FANTASTIC!  You cannot help but feel the passion which runs through the club at every level.  The ground may be Victorian and the immediate neighbourhood somewhat dilapidated (by southern standards) but boy does it have heritage.

The ground has real impact and that is indicative of the real sense of history that oozes through every corner of the club.  This is something else and it does feel as if the late great Bill Shankly really is still involved with every move and every action the club takes – having almost a deity status and hold over the whole club.  There seems a deference to “what Shankly would have thought” about different aspects and activities but for my part, I was pleased to see champagne definitely featuring in some of the library photos over the years…albeit not Liverpool branded back in the day!

The dressing rooms are basic.  The ground seats 45,000 at a squeeze.  The ownership has been checkered and the results difficult – although 5th currently in the Barclays Premier League is a great achievement (fingers crossed for the deciding Tottenham game) considering all that talk of relegation at the end of last year.

What anyone can be certain of when visiting Liverpool Football Club is that This Is Anfield.   Brilliant!