Portfolio, the pioneering Champagne venue bringing top-class bubbles to Manchester, opens an ambitious restaurant next week as it completes a staged launch that began before Christmas.
Billed as the UK’s first ‘Champagne boutique’, the city-centre venture is the brainchild of a quartet who want to change perceptions of the world’s most famous fizz: Cameron Foster (centre left) of importer Deux Six Wines; chef Julian Pizer (right), formerly of Another Hand and the Edinburgh Castle; wine expert Wayne Baxendale (centre right) and general manager Nikolai Kuklenko (left), ex-head sommelier at Mana in Ancoats.
“This is all based around being able to enjoy amazing Champagnes and wines,” says Julian. “It’s all super-relaxed, like the best bits of a tasting menu – it will range from having a bottle of wine and a couple of snacks, to an 18-course feast alongside a few bottles.
“We want to take away the stuffiness. You hear ‘Champagne’ and you think it’s going to be all suits and white tablecloths, but it’s just a group of us that love Champagne and good food and being able to serve it in a friendly way.”
Cameron admits he was a late convert to the delights of Champagne. “I’m from Wigan, I should be selling pies or rugby balls.
“My now wife and I went to France and fell in love with Champagne as a place – the people, the culture, the history. And now with this, we’ve really immersed ourselves in the region and brought that to Manchester.
“We want to strip back the snobbery of Champagne and make it a wine for everyone, whether that’s a quick glass after work, a special celebration, or discovering grower Champagne for the first time. For five years now I’ve had a business that imports small artisan growers,and that started from a passion, really – Champagne was the first wine I tried that I actually liked.
“We also want to showcase the similarity between the two places: the food, the sport, the football, the wine, even the weather – it rains more in Champagne than it does in Manchester.” (Harden’s fact check: it does apparently rain on more days a year in Champagne, at 175-177 days to Manchester’s 152-170, although Manchester downpours are heavier, dumping up to 1,200mm of water a year compared with 810mm in Champagne).
Portfolio has a ‘no-flutes’ policy and serves Champagne in Lehmann glassware imported from Rheims, capital of the Champagne region, with 10 different glass styles. Bottles are kept at the correct temperature in electronic coolers imported from Denmark, so there are no messy ice buckets.
The venue has one of the largest and most diverse lists of Champagne in the UK, with a choice of 250 from 70 different producers, costing between £50 to £600 per bottle and also available on a retail basis, while the bar serves 10 Champagnes by the glass, including one at £12. In addition to well-known names, guests can sample rare cuvées including Jacques Selosse, Ulysse Collin, Jérôme Prévost, Cédric Bouchard, Larmandier Bernier and Egly Ouriet. There are also vintage prestige cuvées from Cristal, Philipponnat, Pommery, Jacquesson, Pierre Peters and Bollinger, some dating back to the 1990s – and for diners who would prefer a still wine with their meal there is a strong selection from northern Italy and the US.
Cameron says: “We want it to be relaxed here, shoulders down, no dress code, just come in and hang out with us. People might see it as stuffy but actually it’s £12 for a glass of some of the best grower Champagne in the region and you can take home a bottle for £50.
“I’ve had friends come in for the launch, just pals from football who’ve never tried Champagne in their life, and they’ve gone ‘Bloody hell, that’s brilliant and it’s cheaper than a cocktail’.“
