The Art Of Celebration
Let’s face it, we don’t celebrate enough in the business world. The other day I was part of a global pitch that went very, very well and afterward I wanted to go and have a drink with my colleagues to rejoice in all the hard work we’d put in and the incredible teamwork that had gone into delivering a winning world-class pitch. Instead, all my colleagues wanted to do was go back to the office to check for urgent emails or nip off home early to beat the traffic. Say what?
Contrast this with the professional athletic world where sportspeople realise the importance of positivity so well they even practice their celebrations at training. How else can you explain such choreographed dance moves or theatrical cradling the ball like a baby after scoring a goal or try? And with good reasons too: The English cricketers ‘celebrappeal’ to pressurize umpires into giving favourable decisions and a unique celebration can form the basis of a lucrative brand for any sportsperson. Gone are the dour days of players planting the ball over the tryline and trudging back to halfway suppressing any semblance of a smile. That doesn’t win over the hearts and minds of a paying crowd whereas the gymnastic exuberance of Aussie Matilda Sam Kerr’s celebratory cartwheel and backflip made her a superstar.
The traditional drink of success
But what if you don’t want to pull your shirt over your head and run around the office with arms outstretched every time you have a good meeting? Or your colleagues wouldn’t appreciate you dumping a huge bucket of ice over them at the end of a successful marketing campaign? Is there a more socially acceptable way to celebrate success? Of course there is and it is called; champagne. And you don’t have to shake it up and spray it all over the place like in Formula One or smash it on the prow of a new ship – you can just savour it like the gentleman you are. With the added bonus of it tasting a heck of a lot better than quaffing a bottle of milk after the Indy 500!
The ultimate champagne
Indeed, nothing says ‘celebration’ more than champagne – and nothing really says ‘champagne’ more than Dom Pérignon. Named after the 17 th century Benediction monk who played a crucial role in the production of sparkling wine, Dom Pérignon champagne is renowned for its distinct aromas and flavours, which often include notes of citrus, floral, and toasted brioche.
Even more importantly, Dom Pérignon is also a byword for ‘extraordinary quality’ as they don’t make it every year – only in exceptional years. Dom Pérignon is produced only when the grapes reach the highest level of maturity and quality, ensuring that each bottle is unique and offers a different flavour profile that reflects the specific conditions of that year. If the quality isn’t there in the grapes in any particular year, then neither is the vintage. So when you drink Dom Pérignon champagne you aren’t just ‘celebrating’, you are ‘elevating’.
Celebrating the celebration
Of course, this exclusivity also means that when Dom Pérignon release a new vintage, it’s a very big deal. Plus, as Dom Pérignon isn’t released until at least eight to ten years after bottling, everyone knows how good it is for a long, long time and has to wait patiently for it to be released. But, as all good things come to those who wait, the moment has arrived when one of the finest, the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013, has been released.
A cause for celebration? You bet it is. But not just any old festivity, this is to be a celebration of extraordinary quality.
An exclusive collaboration
In order to best celebrate the release of the highly anticipated Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013, it needs to be paired with partners of comparable premium craftsmanship and thus Dom Pérignon chose to combine with kingi, the award-winning restaurant in The Hotel Britomart alongside kingi co-founder Tom Hishon.
In an exclusive collaboration, kingi and its new private dining room kingi Private is the only place in New Zealand where diners can experience Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013 by the glass. Further, in the brand new kingi Private premium dining room, the champagne will be served alongside a curated five-course gastronomic tasting menu specially crafted by chef Tom Hishon to bring to life the sensory values of the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013: intensity, precision, tactile sensation, complexity and minerality.
The elegant clarity of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013 pairs beautifully with the minerality and freshness of seafood, which heroes in the kingi – short for kingfish – degustation. ‘Creating a tasting menu to match with the Vintage 2013 was great fun,’ says Tom, the tension and balance this wine holds is extraordinary and is a dream pairing for the style of food I like to cook.’
kingi’s culinary team also designed the gastronomic experience for Dom Pérignon to reflect the restaurant’s sustainable and seasonal ethos, as well as showcase their creative ambition and quest for captivating harmony in the same way Dom Pérignon is renowned for.
As businesspeople we may be a little less overt with our celebrations in that we rarely perform backflips, sick hand jives or fire machineguns into the air whenever we receive good news or achieve an unlikely success. But we do still know how to celebrate in enviable style – as evidenced by this incredible partnership between Dom Pérignon and The Hotel Britomart. All we – and I’m talking directly to my work colleagues here – need to do now is take them up on this exclusive offer!