Washington Hospitality Industry Raises A Glass To Moët Hennessy During 2012 Winemaker Tour!

Moet Hennessy Vice President Michael Pelissier and Mark Barnes, owner of The Park at Fourteenth.

Be sure to check out all 28 of our photographs from this event HERE!

NORTHWEST -- Most connoisseurs of fine food and drink are naturally familiar with beverage giant Moët Hennessy’s flagship luxury brands, such as Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, and, of course, Hennessy itself.


Yet the company also produces fine wines from nearly a dozen perhaps less known estates scattered about the globe, from Argentina to New Zealand to Australia to the United States’ own Napa Valley.


And on Wednesday afternoon, Moët Hennessy brought many of these special ‘Icon Wines’ to the District, during a special event designed to familiarize many of the city’s top sommeliers, beverage directors, and restaurant owners with the company’s full portfolio of beverages.


The latest stop on what was dubbed the ‘2012 Winemaker Tour’, yesterday’s industry tasting saw close to a hundred guests from the hospitality and media industry crowd the upper rooms of the historic Occidental Grill & Seafood restaurant.


A well-attended seminar briefed the curious about everything from grapes varietals to the correct way to sample and judge a given vintage of wine, with platters of oysters, tuna, and sliders liberally scattered about as well-planned food pairings.

Moet Hennessy’s Michael Pelissier and Icon Estates’ Michelle Desrosiers.
Among the estates in attendance were Mendoza, Argentina-based Terrazas de los Andes, Marlborough, New Zealand-based Cloudy Bay, Chile’s Lapostolle, Napa Valley’s Newton Vineyard, and the Loire Valley’s Chateau de Sancerre.


As Robert Louis Stevenson might have said, “An afternoon of bottled poetry!”

Be sure to check out all 28 of our photographs from this event HERE!