Most people know by now, but some of you may not, that blogging is A LOT of hard work. People have the impression that you are sent a lot of free things and they’re right – you are. But 9/10 times it’s not actually free things you want. Often it’s new brands or brands that aren’t well-loved, all hoping for some extra exposure which, inevitably, means unpaid work for you. It can be a lot of hard work without much return.
But every now and again, a brand will approach you that makes blogging a pleasure. That MAKES you want to write about them and share the joy that they presented to you. This week, that was GH Mumm, a champagne (a real one) managed under Pernod Ricard.
GH Mumm invited me to a beautiful dinner at YoungBlood. I’m not going to lie, the venue immediately piqued my interest as I do like the inner city space often used to display artwork.
I arrived nearly an hour late because I read the invite as 8pm, not 7pm. Eish. So apparently I missed a beautiful acrobat/gymnast, but that’s ok. After doing pole dancing, I’m good! I was warmly welcomed with a glass of GH Mumm rose champagne and staff in theme, red carpet and warm lighting.
In the ‘gallery’ was a long table spanning the entire width of the room, set with beautiful, light modern decor. Folder paper flowers (not origami) and warm candles set the tone on the transparent chaired table. A pianist was playing live upon a beautiful black baby grand. I found my seat between young SA pop singer, Jimmy Nevis, and Pernod Ricard marketing manager Sibusiso.
The purpose of the evening was to celebrate GH Mumm through great food and demonstration from GH Mumm representatives. We were fortunate enough to have GH Mumm’s French cellar master, Mr Didlier Mariotti (all the way from France, currently on tour in SA), join us for the evening and tell us more about the champagne. It was really interesting learning about the French bubbly and how many bottles they have under their stock at one time – around the million mark! Truly fascinating.
While enjoying the rose champagne to start, our first course was a beautiful beetroot cured salmon ceviche. Again, I don’t like seafood, but I gave it a go – and it was delicious! If you like seafood you would have LOVED it! Not fishy at all, light acid balanced with the dressed greens and crunch of melba toast.
This was followed by the most fascinating granita palate cleanser! I just couldn’t put my finger on the flavour, it was a bit gin like, a bit medicinal, but which herb? I don’t know!
Before our main course, Mr Mariotti popped a GINORMOUS bottle of GH Mumm! It was probably over half a meter high. He popped it and then banged it, which caused the champagne to rocket out of the top of the bottle! I couldn’t get my Snapchat going to capture it as they started before the whole table had arrived, but I saw the burst of liquid fly in the sky! A naughty waste, but really fun to see!
Our main was perfectly cooked honey glazed quail, with garden peas, confit baby onions, potato medallions and black-eyed peas (I think). It was delicious. Pink quail, the pea puree adding moisture next to the jus, paired with tender sweet onions and GH Mumm Brut.
Just before a dessert of bread and butter pudding, a cannon shot out confetti all over the table, nearly causing my eyes to pop out of my head. I even laughed at myself having heart failure! I wish I could have seen my own face, HAHA!
Our dessert was paired with more GH Mumm bubbly and it was delicious. The dessert was my least favourite course, just because the first two courses were amazing. I have no idea who the chef was (I know it was a lady), but she and her brigade did a great job. The food was paired perfectly and really complimented the champagne (usually I prefer to the food to the liquor!), but not his time.
I’m not a big champagne person as I always end up with a headache after 20 minutes, but at last night’s occasion we had champagne all evening and I felt GREAT! 😀 I had a really lovely time and I’d like to extend a sincere thanks to GH Mumm for including me in this evening. Thank you.
