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Cheers to the men of the hour! Matthieu Yamoum & J.R. Barbier, NYC’s Hottest Champagne Influencers

If there’s one way to drink in style during times of uncertainty, it’s with these two experts in the luxury wine business that hail from Champagne,France.

One thing that is certain, is the breadth of knowledge that these dapper gents have tucked away in their designer cuff -linked sleeves. The two industry professionals gave the audience a swift and memorable history lesson of Baccarat Crystal and Louis Roederer's old world-legacies and milestones last Thursday 5/14, live on Instagram. The virtual tasting room was lead by J.R. Barbier, Brand Specialist at Maisons Marques & Domaines, domestic holding of Champagne Louis Roederer in the US, and Matthieu Yamoum, Wine Director of Baccarat Hotels NYC, aka @champagnebreaker. It was exciting to witness a hour full of rich topics surrounding all things Champagne.

During this time away from normalcy it’s also refreshing to see our favorite champagne influencers bring their true authentic selves to still enjoy the essence of sipping Louis Roederer.

The two that were topic of discussion were the Cristal 2012 vintage and the Brut Premiere. It was indeed informative to get tasting notes from the guys and what to look for when we as consumers want to compare vintages upon deciding what to buy at the wine shop or at www.drizly.com. (which Cristal goes for $300 online)

The fact that these two fine gents know everyone and everything under the sun regarding this rich region it just takes us to asking, “may we have some more please?” as they were genuinely entertaining. Whether it’s a fun tid bit about the Tzar dynasty and it’s interesting connection to Baccarat as well as Maison Louis Roederer, it’s safe to say, it’s sexy to nerd out about champagne. Matthieu even talked about Baccarat Hotel's $5K cocktail served in a stunning Tzar crystal stemmed glass created by Bar Director, Antoine Hodge which was his version of the Last Word. We can all use a history lesson and an up close & personal look at the eye catching, enchanting glassware.

Last Thursday the audience got to experience the true craftsmanship of Baccarat crystal from Matthieu’s eyes as he showed off the Baccarat Hotel’s executive team’s gift to him,

which was a stunning Grand Bordeaux wine glass as he sipped his Premiere Brut and gave his impressions of it as it was his first time tasting this one in particular, shocking right?! Meanwhile, J.R. was sipping his Brut Premiere in a Lehmann stemware from the Arnaud Lallement & Philippe Jamesse collection. We got to find out a little bit about Arnaud Lallement, a famous 3 Michelin Star chef of L'Assiette Champenoise, very close to Reims. Another sweet thing was having Papa Barbier, J.R. ‘s father tune in and participate half past midnight, in France time. We saw the comments and witnessed the cute banter. A little fun fact: Monsieur Barbier was the head of Comite Champagne (CIVC) for many years and he's still involved, so it's wonderful to have him interact with the guys. Surely it is a breath of fresh air to witness these industry pros be proud representatives of their region and country in a tenacious city like the Big Apple as they have earned their title to be our "go-to-luxury wine and champagne guides".

The audience will enjoy the discussions about the particular vintages Matthieu and J.R. are drinking because we want to know first hand from them. Not only do these two have true potential to land a Netflix deal,

they are the best resources in educating the newfound generation simply because they they bring their A -game in educating and interacting, along with their charm. In addition, Matthieu runs the show at the Baccarat Hotel’s Grand Salon as it’s the closet experience you’ll get to the simultaneous clinking of dancing champagne flutes and the sound of popping corks going abuzz. It's without a doubt a show to watch him in action. The key take away here when it comes to knowing the guys behind champagne knowledge is this! They’re quite young, fresh and well, kind of a big deal because they’re from there. Matthieu gave us a little history on how he became @champagnebreaker on Instagram, as it was requested by his VIPs from the hotel to keep a curated record on what was being sabraged. @champagnebreaker became an overnight sensation because of what Matthieu was doing, the art of sabrage. (slicing the top of a champagne bottle with virtually anything.) With a truck load of followers and more accumulating before our very eyes, it’s clear that he’s got star quality status & some bottles to show for it. For example, the guys spoke about the 2002 Orfèvre Jeroboam from Louis Roederer. This talk of 2020 goes for $50k a pop, as the 24 karat gold cage is just the icing on the cake; it is a mere example of the action that goes down at the Baccarat Hotel. Matthieu said that he can’t wait to crack one open as a call for celebration after this pandemic is over. I know I’ll be there at the bar when that happens as I pray it’s like the good old days; a line to get in.

When all this is over we have many things to look forward to. As we can see, we may not be sure when the Baccarat Hotel will open to the public here in NYC, but for now we can definitely tune in at home as we practice social distancing in style.


Thanks to J.R. & Matthieu we will have reasons to drink along.

I hope we get to see more of these two aficionados as I’m ready to place my www.drizly.com order for next time.



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