The best part of La Fête du Champagne in New York was getting out of our seats. The gala had an extravagant dinner, winemakers at the tables and remarkable bottles within reach, but the room became most exciting when people started circulating. Guests brought wines they wanted to share, carried them over to other tables and offered a pour. A familiar label or an unexpected vintage became a reason to meet someone.
On October 17, 2026, Pier Sixty hosted both the Grand Tasting and the Gala Dinner, closing the city's four-day festival. For us, the combination was the draw: an afternoon meeting producers and exploring their wines, followed by a night of dinner, older bottles, live music and dancing. It was an especially good place to find people who share an enthusiasm for Champagne and are happy to talk about it.
The Grand Tasting at Pier Sixty
The New York Grand Tasting ran from noon to 3 p.m. at Pier Sixty, on the Chelsea waterfront. The program brought together more than 100 Champagnes from participating houses and growers, with food alongside the wines. Having so many producers in one place made it possible to move between familiar names and discoveries over the course of an afternoon.
It was also a social tasting. Meeting other wine lovers was part of the pleasure, and the shared interest made conversation easy. You could spend time with a producer, then move a few steps and find another group discussing the wines. For anyone whose usual Champagne experience is choosing a bottle from a list, that contact with the people behind it adds a different dimension.
Rare’s table brought together Millésime 2013, 2012 and 2015, alongside Rosé 2014. The 2012 was creamy and saline, with white flowers and brioche; the 2013 was richer, with honey, marzipan and blood orange; the 2015 was silky, with baked apple, almond and a smoky edge; and the Rosé 2014 was plush, with strawberry tart and a kirsch and pink-pepper finish. The afternoon’s program also included Salon 2015, a warm year that came out ripe but chalky, with notes of chamomile, pineapple, beeswax and pastry.
At the New York tasting, we found Salon's table particularly crowded. We were glad to be there, but reaching a highly sought-after wine sometimes required patience. Chicago's smaller edition, which we attended the following week, felt much easier to navigate. New York had the breadth and the big-event energy; Chicago gave us more breathing room.
A gala built around sharing
By evening, Pier Sixty was set with long white-clothed tables, rows of wine glasses and a stage carrying the festival's name.
La Fête was founded by sommelier Daniel Johnnes and Champagne writer Peter Liem. Their festival's focus on the wines and people of Champagne came through particularly clearly at dinner. Winemakers were distributed among the tables, bringing their wines directly into the conversation. Sitting alongside the people responsible for a bottle, with large formats being poured, made the evening feel unusually close to the region despite being in Manhattan.
The Gala Dinner's format explicitly invited guests to bring Champagne from their own cellars, alongside the special bottles supplied by participating producers. That invitation shaped the evening. A table was a place to return to for the next course, while the wider room offered more people to meet and more bottles to discover.
There was a generosity to it that we loved. The excitement came from opening something and letting others experience it, too. Collectors had a setting in which to share wines they had held onto; enthusiasts had a reason to introduce themselves beyond a name and a handshake. It made the gala feel participatory, even with all the formality of the table settings.
Some of the bottles shared that night
The gala’s wines were a separate experience from the afternoon’s organized tasting. Mature Cristal, several vintages of Krug, Pierre Péters and a large bottle of Billecart-Salmon were among the evening’s highlights, with far more circulating around the room than any single table could capture.
Pierre Péters Les Chétillons 2008
Les Chétillons 2008 brought Le Mesnil-sur-Oger into the lineup. Pierre Péters makes this blanc de blancs from Chardonnay grown in three old-vine parcels within Les Chétillons. Those parcels sit on chalky soils. The 2008 was tight and chalky at first, then opened to citrus zest, smoke and iodine over baked bread and nougat.
Krug Clos du Mesnil 2009 and mature Krug vintages
Krug Clos du Mesnil 2009 offered another expression of that same village. Krug's Clos du Mesnil is Chardonnay from a single 1.84-hectare walled vineyard in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The 2009 had lemon oil, candied citrus and white peach, with an oyster-shell salinity that turned to brioche and ginger in the glass.
Elsewhere in the evening’s lineup were Krug 1988, Krug 1996 and a magnum of Krug 1990. The 1988 had toasted nuts, citrus and a hint of raspberry, softened by age but still precise. The 1990 was deep gold and generous, with roasted nuts and a trace of honey, and the 1996 was dense and high in acid, with citrus, apricot, toast and a savory depth.
Cristal 1982 and Billecart-Salmon 1998
Louis Roederer Cristal 1982 was another striking sight: a Champagne from a harvest more than four decades before this dinner. It showed butterscotch and toasted grain, with enough freshness left to stay lively.
The Billecart-Salmon was Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart 1998 in a three-liter bottle. In Champagne, that format is a jeroboam, equivalent in volume to four standard bottles. The 1998 had mandarin, apricot and hazelnut over warm biscuit, with dried flowers and a toffee note from age. It was a particularly vivid expression of the gala's spirit: something special brought out in a size suited to sharing. The rare labels were exciting, but the willingness to pass them around was what made the experience memorable.
A multi-chef dinner worthy of the wines
The evening began with a reception featuring Domaine William Fèvre Chablis, before the Champagne-centered dinner. The gala's chef collaboration brought together Daniel Boulud, Arnaud Lallement of L'Assiette Champenoise in Tinqueux, near Reims, Fredrik Berselius of Aska, and Helen Nguyen of Saigon Social and Cô Lạc.
The dinner was extravagant and carefully presented.
Having a full multi-course meal gave the night a rhythm. There was time to sit down together, then get up again and explore what was happening elsewhere. It brought a welcome sense of occasion to the bottle-sharing, with the food and the people at the table giving us reasons to stay engaged throughout the evening.
The band, the dancing and the after-party
Street Beat Brass Band provided live music, and dancing became part of the celebration.
Then there was the secret after-party. It extended the night's feeling of discovery, taking the celebration beyond the seated dinner. The combination of a grand meal, extraordinary shared bottles and a late-night gathering was a large part of what made the New York gala so exciting. We would leave room in an evening like this for more than the printed dinner schedule.
Pearl at La Fête
It was a pleasure to see Pearl showcased alongside the festival. Our display invited attendees to learn about the winemakers, save tasting notes and find bottles at restaurants and bars after the event.
For this completed 2026 edition, the PEARL partner offer brought the Grand Tasting and Gala Dinner package to $1,350 plus tax with code PEARL. That was the offer for the October event; future editions will have their own dates, pricing and terms. Pearl's program page preserves the weekend's lineup of dinners, tastings and hosts.
What we would return for is the room itself once the evening is underway: winemakers pouring, guests making the rounds with bottles, a proper dinner and music drawing everyone together. La Fête gave us an unusually rich way to spend time with Champagne and the people who love it.
