It is the most versatile thing on the list and we keep serving it in the first ten minutes and then putting it away. A case for keeping the bottle on the table.
Champagne arrives, everybody raises a glass, and then the bottle goes away and the evening starts properly. We would like to argue against the second half of that.
What it is actually good at
Acid and bubbles cut fat, which is why champagne is the best thing in the building with oysters, with the plateau, with anything fried, and with a cheese course. It is one of the few wines that can go the whole way through a dinner without ever being the wrong answer.
On the list
We keep the classical houses, including Gosset, which has been making wine since 1584, and a Laurent-Perrier tête de cuvée for an evening that deserves it. There is a crémant by the glass too, from Limoux, which is where sparkling wine in France was written down first.
If you are two and cannot agree, order champagne. It is the diplomatic bottle.
Written at L'Étoile, the historic Snouder's Building, Oyster Bay.
