Grower Champagne Dinner at The National

If you know me in the very slightest, you know of my obsession with sparkling wines. So when I dined at The National in Athens recently, I was excited to see that they are having a Grower Champagne Dinner.

A terrible iPhone pic of a dinner I had at The National.
Please note my glass of prosecco to the left!

"Grower Champagne Dinner
Wednesday, December 10, 7:00pm
at The National
$95 per person

oyster soup with fideos and saffron
Pierre Peters, blanc de blancs, grand cru, Mesnil

salmon "slider" with avocado, fennel,
roasted tomato-mayo and romaine
Alain Soutiran, perle noir, blanc de noir, grand cru, Ambonnay

fried Cornish game hen, chopped watercress,
caramelized onions and apricot aioli
Gaston Chiquet, tradition, 45% meunier, 35% chardonnay,
20% pinot noir, premier cru, Hautvillers

braised pork shoulder, crispy prosciutto and sofrito
Aubry, rosé brut, 60% chardonnay, 40% pinot noir
and meunier, premier cru, Jouy les Reims

French cheeses with toasts, lavender-honey and almonds
Jean Milan, tendresse, blanc de blancs, sec, grand cru, Oger"

What is Grower Champagne, you ask? Here is a site with more information on Grower Champagne and an excerpt from that site is below:

"The biggest problem in Champagne is that there are 15,000 growers in the region who do not make their own wine. If more growers produced their own wines instead of selling their grapes to the houses and cooperatives, the power of the houses would diminish and quality would rise due to competition. But it’s very easy for the growers to sell their grapes to the houses and so the majority of the growers choose this route."

The National
232 W Hancock Ave
Athens, GA 30601
706.549.3450
www.thenationalrestaurant.com

By the way, my other obsession is taking pics in the mirrors of restaurant bathrooms. Please to behold the picture I took at The National.