Dom Perignon at Versailles

Liquified oysters
Liquified oysters served as canapes in the Oeil-de-Boeuf salon
(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Coming together this autumn to put on an exhibition of the life and art of Louis XIV in the place he called home, Dom Pérignon and Versailles marked the opening of Louis XIV, The Man and the King with a series of dinners that recreated a typical Table du Roi. And we were invited.

Dom Pérignon and its Chef du Cave, Richard Geoffroy were joint hosts, cracking open the 1976 Oenothèque for our pleasure. Served throughout the meal in fine flutes of a conical, barley grain design typical of the Sun King’s era, the 1976 lived up to expectation.

Unravelling and reaffirming heritage has become a familiar exercise to the more mature purveyors of luxury in the West. Few, however, have as much past to explore as Dom Pérignon the House that founded Champagne, nor find such rich context for its birth.

Dom Pérignon’s founder, a Benedictine monk called Père Pérignon was born and died in the same years as Louis XIV, and while their worlds were far apart - the king and the monk’s lives did collide at the extravagant dinners Louis XIV threw regularly at the palace. The sparkling wine made by Père Pérignon is believed to have made it to these occasions, if the man himself didn’t.

Following an after-dark tour of Versailles, proceedings began in the Oeil-de-boeuf Salon with Chamber music, DP Rose vintage 1995 and liquified oysters. It was here that that the banquet also ended with DP vintage 2000 and edible chocolate truffle candles.

Having meticulously researched the traditions of the Grand Couvert with the help of a leading historian, Richard Geoffroy and the Michelin-starred chef Jean-François Piège brought new light to the proceedings. The table groaned with elaborate decorations of whole pheasants, candelabra and tiered stands of ‘hors oeuvre’.

Three courses each with four or five dishes apiece followed – ‘Les Potages’ included beef consommé, chestnut soup with truffles, pumpkin soup and bisque, ‘Les Rôts’ featured scallops, Wild duck balls, hare stew and wild salmon on salt, and ‘Les Entremets’, included an incredible morel soufflé, a pile of iced parmesan and to top it all off, a (somewhat molecular) hard boiled egg – the King’s favourite culinary concluder.

Louis’s reign, needless to say, was quite a defining moment in dining and the details of the recreation served as a lesson in the evolution of gastronomy – and perhaps more delicious than the privilege of walking and quaffing fine wine and food in the footsteps of the Sun King, was the fabulous lesson in culinary history.

Dom Perignon at Versailles

Invocation to dinner

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Dom Pérignon Oenothèque Vintage 1976

Dom Pérignon Oenothèque Vintage 1976, photograph © Michel Jolyot

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Shellfish bisque with infusion of cèpes

Shellfish bisque with infusion of cèpes

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Dom Pérignon Oenothèque Vintage 1976

Dom Pérignon Oenothèque Vintage 1976

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

scallops

Jean-François Piège behind the scenes, serving up the scallops

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Breaded Cromesquis à la Villeroy

Breaded Cromesquis à la Villeroy containing wild duck and rice are served

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

table decorations

The table decorations

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Wild salmon au sel, topped with gold leaf

Wild salmon au sel, topped with gold leaf

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Roast beef, carrots and smoked eel

Roast beef, carrots and smoked eel, in preparation

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Roast beef, carrots and smoked eel

Roast beef, carrots and smoked eel, in service

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Hare stew’s up

Hare stew’s up

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)

Richard Geoffroy and Jean-François Piège

The two masterminds of the meal, Richard Geoffroy and Jean-François Piège are toasted

(Image credit: Michel Jolyot)