Piper-Heidsieck & Cameron Mitchell Restaurants Exclusive Blend

PIPER-HEIDSIECK AND CAMERON MITCHELL RESTAURANTS CREATE EXCLUSIVE CHAMPAGNE BLEND ‘ESSENTIEL BY CAMERON MITCHELL’

Piper-Heidsieck creates a custom blend with the nationally recognized restaurant group as a testament to the shared values of the famed champagne house and award-winning hospitality company.

When the most awarded champagne house of the century, Piper-Heidsieck, came to Cameron Mitchell Restaurants (CMR), including its Ocean Prime brand with an opportunity to redefine the art of food and champagne matching through the “Essentiel By” program and create a proprietary champagne blend, the CMR team was exuberant about the possibilities of a collaboration.

Launching October 10, 2023, Piper-Heidsieck Essentiel By Cameron Mitchell will be available at 34 CMR restaurants, including 17 Ocean Prime locations coast-to-coast. Two thousand five hundred bottles of Essentiel By Cameron Mitchell have been produced, and will be available for $30/glass or $120/bottle.

Members of CMR’s team, including Andrea Cornwell, director of beverage, Zach Montgomery, regional director and Mike Davis, regional director, traveled to Reims, France to meet with Piper-Heidsieck CEO, Benoît Collard and Chief Winemaker, Émilien Boutillat, to taste and select this exclusive blend. Piper-Heidsieck is the first Champagne House in the world to open its winery doors, offering its partners the unique experience of crafting their own Essentiel Cuvée to suit their menus.

The champagne boasts a bright golden color with an elegant and fine bubble. The nose reveals a bouquet of pears and acacia honey with a touch of brioche, grilled hazelnuts and blackberries notes. Complex and balanced, this wine offers a beautiful finesse and length in the mouth. The blend is: 45% Pinot Noir, 36% Pinot Meunier, and 19% Chardonnay.

Collard explains, “Thanks to partners like Cameron Mitchell Restaurants we were able to take into account the emotions carried out by their fantastic restaurants into the experience of our winemaking, enjoying one of our most iconic cuvées, Essentiel Extra Brut. As part of the collaboration, a blind tasting technique was used to elaborate the Essentiel By liqueur of dosage, with our Chief Winemaker guiding our partners’ senses through the entire experience.”

Boutillat adds, “Selecting the liqueur of dosage in the same way you select the best spices for the perfect dish enables you to best match wine to food. In the case of the Essentiel By Cameron Mitchell, we chose a 6 g/L dosage with a Meunier base liquor to bring delicacy, fruitiness and freshness to the Essentiel base wine.”

Piper-Heidsieck has only partnered with a handful of on-premise venues and sommeliers around the world because it is a very unique process that requires deep expertise and creativity. These venues include Riley Huddleston at The Lido House in California, The Atlas in Singapore and the Michelin-starred restaurant The Coach, headed by Chef Sarah Hayward, in the UK.

Cornwell of CMR states, “I knew from the moment I met Benoît Collard that we had made the right decision to partner with Piper-Heidsieck. He, much like our associates, is a fabulous representation of ‘great people delivering genuine hospitality.’  I knew the quality of their wine was second to none; but was amazed to find out it was only surpassed by their care for their people. During our visit to Reims, we enjoyed blind wine pairings while sharing stories of our mirrored philosophies.”

The exclusive champagne will be available at Ocean Prime locations coast-to-coast (except New York), and the following Cameron Mitchell Restaurants: Cameron’s American Bistro, Cento, The Guild House, Martini Modern Italian, The Barn at Rocky Fork Creek, Del Mar SoCal Kitchen, Del Mar Naples, Prime Social, Hudson 29 Kitchen + Drink, Valentina’s, The Pearl, The Avenue Steak Tavern and Lincoln Social. It will be available at future locations opening in 2024, including Big Rock Italian Chophouse, Birmingham, MI, Butcher & Rose, Columbus and Ocean Prime Sarasota.