Searcys shakes up Champagne menu

Published: 28 February, 2012

Searcys is sexing up its Champagne list by ditching the "boring old" traditional categories.

The radical shake-up will see lists ordered by style and is to be revealed in detail at the Harpers Champagne Summit today (February 28) at Chiswell Street Dining Rooms in London.

It will use terms like "refreshing" and "elegant", and reject descriptors such as NV in favour of ones like "bling bling" and "the joy of secs".

The changes are scheduled to be introduced in April at the St Pancras site as a trial measure, before a potential roll-out at its other four Champagne bars.

Michelle Cartwright, concept development manager at Searcys, told Harpers: "We want to inject some fun. We'll be using our own categories, ones that make way more sense to consumers."

Simon Fender, bar manager at Searcys' St Pancras site, said: "We don't want serious facts. Most of our customers don't understand them. We want to keep it light and bubbly."

Back in January, the group relaxed its rules and put cava on its menu for the first time.
Carolyn D'Aguilar, Grupo Codorníu UK brand manager, said: "Cava has been performing really well in the UK in 2011. We are very proud to be present in a key venue such as Searcys - to be the first cava brand listed is a great recognition of our expertise."

The bars will offer a different style of Codorníu's cava every month, with the newly launched Anna de Codorníu Blanc de Noirs listed from next month. Searcys also serves English sparkling wine.

Other panellists at today's Summit include Mitchells & Butlers' Joan Torrents, Zuma's Kelvin McCabe and Jayne Powell aka Champagne Jayne.

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