Our new tradition in #ThisRuffHouse is to host a fancy Friendsmas dinner party complete with overdressed guests, a beef Wellington, and tons of Champagne to wash it down. It has become a festive tradition where we can raise a glass of the finest bubbles, nosh on some tasty tidbits, and enjoy the holidays with good friends for a truly special night in. We set up a beautiful Champagne dinner party to enjoy our favorite Champagne Taittinger in style. Here’s how to set the right ambiance at home to host your own fancy champagne dinner party.
How to Host a Champagne Dinner Party at Home
Tip One: Dress it up
If you’re going to do a champagne dinner party, make it really special. Provide a unique experience and make sure everyone is ready to participate. Our friends always look for a way to wear a grandmother’s fur or their velvet blazer, so give them that excuse by making your dinner a jackets and formal-wear required event.
Tip Two: Get moody
Set the mood to match. We load the table up with candles and dim the lights to channel a swanky NYC-style bar for our fête.
Tip Three: Use the good glassware
Gather the proper equipment like champagne coupes (better for letting the aromas of the wine develop once poured) and a chilled champagne bucket. You don’t have to spend a fortune on these items; you can typically find great quality (and highly stylish) versions on secondhand sites or at estate sales.
Tip Four: Spotlight on Champagne
Make champagne the focal point décor of the evening with a special place that highlights that evening’s featured bottle. We set up this bar car adjacent to the dining table so that guests could see what was being poured for the evening. It also became a great place to store the empty bottles when we were finished.
Tip Five: Choose the right food pairings
Serve a full champagne dinner with ritzy dishes like Beef Wellington and macarons, chicken cordon bleu and tiramisu, or go all out with caviar and cream puffs.
Tip Six: Work your way down
If you’re featuring a few varieties of champagne, start with the nicest bottle first and work your way down. This way your taste buds are the freshest and most receptive to the delicate flavors you will find in a Grand Cru or reserve bottle of Tiattinger. As you continue to drink, your taste buds slow down a little bit and prohibit you to taste the finer elements in each bottle.
The right environment mixed with the right champagne can turn a regular dinner party into a fancy champagne banquet in a flash. We can always rely on Taittinger to wow our guests during the evening and create special, memorable moments at the end of the year.
