In a triumphant moment in June, Vitalie Taittinger, President of Taittinger, one of the few grandes marques Champagne houses that’s still family owned, cut the ribbon on a dining destination in Reims where Champagne is the real star of the show. At her new interactive restaurant, Polychrome, food plays a supporting role to Taittinger’s ten distinct cuvées.
“Polychrome has been in my head for years and it’s surreal to see it come to life,” Vitalie announced, looking effortlessly chic at a preview lunch for visiting press. “We at Taittinger are best known for our precise blending. I wanted to give diners all the ingredients to create their own custom experience, just as a Champagne blender creates a cuvée.”
Diners add their own accents to dishes through a selection of condiments, working to create the optimal match for the perfect Champagne. The concept will remain constant but to add a new burst of creativity, a new chef will be appointed every year.
Opening chef Charles Coulombeau—a winner of the Taittinger Signature Culinary Prize in 2020—spent more than a year testing out recipes. “It was a delicate balance,” he said, “working to create delicious food that wouldn’t overpower the wine.” The visuals were a priority too. Coulombeau plans to change his color palette with the seasons.
Our lunch featured a beautiful procession of monochrome plates—a white-on-white composition of cauliflower and brill, a green-toned roast duck encrusted in pistachios. We added our own accents from an offbeat array of ingredients that included kumquat miso, smoked yogurt, and Earl Gray mustard. We were told to have fun with our food.
And the cuvées kept on coming. To start there were tulip glasses of Prestige Rosé, fragrant with wild raspberry, cherry and blackcurrant, and Prelude Grands Crus, with notes of elderflower and white peach. A cheese course brought Brut Millésimé 2016, an energetic blend of pinot noir and chardonnay perfumed with hawthorn, honeysuckle, citrus and peach. At dessert—a choice of Floating Island or Pavlova—there was sweet “sec” Nocturne, in rosé and blanc varieties (both with 17.5 grams of dosage).
Vitalie’s brother Clovis, managing director and head of international development for the house, charmed the dining room, regaling us with stories of the famed chalk caves just beneath us, descending six stories underground. Alexandre Ponnavoy, who is the Cellar Master and has been with Taittinger for the last twenty years, talked us through the Champagnes as we sipped.
The chef, we learned, offers customized three and four course menus, designed around specific Champagnes. For the ultimate splurge he’ll match every course to Taittinger’s top-of-the-line Comtes de Champagne, the most prestigious cuvées (starting at 260 euros a bottle and up).
You might also opt for a vertical of Taittinger’s Brut Millésimé—the “DNA” of the house. Ponnavoy suggests starting with the 2016 as an aperitif (“young, fresh and fruity”), moving on to the 2012 (“elegant and perfectly balanced”) with the starter course, and then the pinot-dominant 2006 (“structured and energetic”) with meat, before finishing with 2003 (“a solar vintage with ripe fruit”) with cheese. Advance notice is needed to arrange this spectacular vintage Champagne lunch.
Polychrome’s floor-to-ceiling windows overlook a beautiful park. The restaurant is part of a striking complex, designed by Reims-based architect Giovanni Pace, that also includes tasting rooms and exhibition spaces showcasing collectible bottles and contemporary works of art (from the likes of Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, and Arman).
Vitalie took over Taittinger from her father a few years ago, continuing a long-running tradition of women-run Champagne houses (including, historically, Veuve Clicquot, Bollinger, and Pommery, among others). With its 712 acres of proprietary vineyards, including Grand Cru sites in the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims, the Taittinger estate is one of the largest in the Champagne district. They were the first house to release a Blanc de Blancs (in 1952) and are today known as one of the most important chardonnay-driven Champagne producers.
Taittinger’s new restaurant opening is part of a big new push in the Champagne region to attract more visitors. It’s an easy day trip from Paris, after all, just a 45-minute train ride. Taittinger offers a particularly rich visitor experience that includes a tour of its historic caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site first excavated in the 4th century (and in the 13th century transformed into the wine cellar of the Abbey Saint-Nicaise). Today the vast network of tunnels houses some 25 million bottles of Taittinger Champagne, waiting to be riddled and disgorged for the world. After the tour, a perfect day on the property would continue with a Champagne tasting, before heading to Polychrome for a beautiful, offbeat and delicious lunch.