Fit for a King…and The Donald

The recent State Dinner that was hosted at Windsor Castle was not only a fascinating window into Anglo-American relations, but also into the changing worlds of wine. It featured some of the finest and unsurprisingly French wines in existence, but also had a strong showing from English and American contingents. Something that once would have had ambassadors and statesmen alike dropping their Ferrero Rochers in horror. 

If you feel like recreating your own state banquet then some handy and rather fabulous suggestions have been made and you don’t even have to wear a MAGA hat to enjoy them.

The banquet started with an English sparkling wine, which perhaps says it all about the leaps and bounds that English sparkling wine has made in the last decades. Members of the Foreign Office would not have dreamt of serving anything other than Krug or Pol Roger in years past, but for this banquet it was West Sussex and the Wiston Estate. Did Melania pick up the floral notes one wonders? 

Gussborne Blanc de Blanc 100% Chardonnay

Esteemed guests were then treated to some of the finest white Burgundy available from the royal cellars, what must have been a great treat, a Corton Charlemagne from 2018. Were the tech bros wowed by the rich, buttery wonders of Burgundy Grande Cru? One can only hope. 

Bouchard Pere et fils, Grand Cru, Corton Charlemagne

If a livery clad footman filled your glass with the red wine then you were given one of the greatest wines in the world, indeed the very wine that caused the great Judgement of Paris controversy of 1976, where the Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello defeated the five finest First Growth wines of Bordeaux to garner the title in a blind tasting as the best wine in the world and leaving the French wine establishment in a state of shock disbelief. Sacre bleu. Monsieur Macron was notable by his absence. 

Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs 

With the wonderful sounding Bombe Glacée Cardinal for pudding, guests were served an exquisitely aged champagne, a Pol Roger Extra Cuvée de Réserve,1998. An interesting choice to serve vintage champagne with pudding, but if it works in international relations, it surely must be worth having with your Angel Delight. 

Pol Roger Cuvée Winston Churchill

After dinner drinks were a port from 1945 and a 1912 cognac, not a bad way to wrap up an evening, even if you were stuck next to the Chancellor. Donald Trump reportedly drank Diet Coke. 

Warre’s 2000 Vintage Port 

Frapin XO Cognac