Soil to Sip Cumières Champagne Masterclass in NYC

Soil to Sip Cumières Champagne Masterclass in NYC

A still red Coteaux Champenois Meunier will sit beside four Champagnes at Pier Sixty on October 17, 2026. Champagne from Soil to Sip brings five wines from Cumières to New York, tracing all three principal Champagne grapes through Joseph Perrier and Geoffroy.

Sacha Geoffroy and Benjamin Fourmon will present the wines, with Champagne writer and La Fête co-founder Peter Liem moderating. If you collect or drink Champagne with an eye for origin, book this for the side-by-side view of vineyard sites, grape varieties and cellar choices, with the producers in the room to explain their cuvées.

Soil to Sip Champagne masterclass details

The individual Cumières masterclass is a one-hour seated tasting at Pier Sixty, separate from the New York Grand Tasting and Gala Dinner package. If your priority is the five-wine Cumières flight, confirm that your ticket is specifically for Soil to Sip.

• Date and time: Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 11:00am to noon ET.
• Venue: Pier Sixty, 60 Chelsea Piers, New York, NY 10011.
• Ticket price: $125 plus tax for the individual masterclass.
• Access: Eligible American Express Platinum Card® and Centurion® Members only.
• Producers: Joseph Perrier and Geoffroy.
• Moderator: Peter Liem, Champagne writer and La Fête co-founder.

The masterclass runs before the New York Grand Tasting at Pier Sixty. Admission to the masterclass is separate from the Grand Tasting and Gala Dinner package below, so choose the individual ticket if the Cumières tasting is your main reason to attend.

Member package discount for the New York Grand Tasting and Gala Dinner

Members planning the larger La Fête du Champagne day can use the New York City Magnum Package discount for the Grand Tasting + Gala Dinner. Book this package separately from the Soil to Sip masterclass if you want both experiences.

• 18% discount on the New York City Magnum Package, Grand Tasting + Gala Dinner
• Members price: $1,350 + tax (regular package price: $1,650 + tax). Save $300 per package.
• What you get: One ticket to the New York Grand Tasting and one ticket to the Gala Dinner.
• Discount code: PEARL. The booking link includes the code.
• How to book: Book the New York City Magnum Package.

This offer applies to the Grand Tasting + Gala Dinner package. Other events are ticketed separately, so book the masterclass separately if you want the one-hour Cumières tasting as well. Availability and applicable fees are shown at checkout.

One Premier Cru village, two producers, five wines

This masterclass focuses on Cumières through five announced wines from Joseph Perrier and Geoffroy. Many Champagnes blend grapes from several villages and harvests; here, the useful exercise is to taste individual plots and producer decisions within one Premier Cru village.

The selection brings Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier together. Two Pinot Noir wines offer different producers’ interpretations of Cumières. Two Meunier wines show the grape in sparkling and still red forms. The Chardonnay adds another comparison, with its own vineyard origin and cellar treatment.

These are different vintages as well as different cuvées, so several factors will influence what you taste. Listen for Geoffroy, Fourmon and Liem on harvest conditions, fermentation vessels and length of aging, then follow those details in the glass.

The five announced Cumières wines

The announced lineup gives you the tasting map before you arrive. Note the two Pinot Noir wines, the two Meunier bottlings and the Chardonnay, then use the flight to compare grape, site and cellar treatment.

• Joseph Perrier La Côte à Bras 2016
• Joseph Perrier Les Chalmonts 2020
• Geoffroy Empreinte Pinot Noir 2018
• Geoffroy Lieu-dit “Tiersaude” Meunier 2020
• Geoffroy Coteaux Champenois “Moulin à Vent” Meunier 2022

Exact wines and vintages are subject to change.

Geoffroy’s Moulin à Vent is a still red wine from Champagne. Its name refers to the Cumières site; it is separate from the Moulin-à-Vent appellation in Beaujolais.

Why Cumières matters in the glass

Cumières is a Premier Cru wine-growing village in the eastern Vallée de la Marne, near Épernay in France’s Champagne region. Its vineyards rise above the Marne in an amphitheater of slopes. The soils include clay over limestone, while differences in slope and exposure affect how the grapes ripen.

Premier Cru is a classification associated with the village’s vineyards. A lieu-dit is a named vineyard site, a more specific origin within that village. If you usually drink broader regional blends, a site-labeled bottle is the detail to watch here.

Cumières grows Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier. It also has a tradition of still red wine, represented here by Geoffroy’s Coteaux Champenois, so the five wines give you several ways to read the same place.

How to taste the five Cumières wines

Joseph Perrier La Côte à Bras 2016 is a Blanc de Noirs made entirely from Pinot Noir. Blanc de Noirs means a white wine made from dark-skinned grapes. The producer lists 108 months of aging and no added dosage, the sugar adjustment made after disgorgement. Joseph Perrier describes floral, citrus and spice notes, giving you a clear marker for the style before you taste it.

Joseph Perrier Les Chalmonts 2020 is 100% Chardonnay from a Cumières parcel. This is the Blanc de Blancs in the lineup: white Champagne made from white grapes. Joseph Perrier lists 60 months of aging and an Extra Brut dosage of 3 grams per liter, and describes pear and citrus notes. Compare it with La Côte à Bras for grape variety, vineyard origin and aging time.

Geoffroy Empreinte Pinot Noir 2018 comes from three mid-slope plots in Cumières and is fermented and aged in wood. It provides a second Pinot Noir wine to compare with Joseph Perrier’s. The vintages and sites differ, so use it to hear how both producers work with the grape, rather than as a simple test of producer style.

Geoffroy Lieu-dit “Tiersaude” Meunier 2020, also written Les Tiersaudes, is a single-plot, 100% Meunier Champagne. Barrel fermentation and no added dosage are part of its production. If you usually encounter Meunier in a blend, this bottling gives the grape a more focused showing.

Geoffroy Coteaux Champenois “Moulin à Vent” Meunier 2022 is a still red wine. Coteaux Champenois is the appellation for still wines from the Champagne region. Alongside Les Tiersaudes, it offers a different view of Meunier: red-wine structure and texture, without the bubbles that usually accompany a Champagne tasting.

The masterclass format gives you five wines and three speakers in 60 minutes, so arrive ready for guided comparison rather than a walkaround tasting. Good questions to bring: why a plot is bottled separately, how wood is used during fermentation, and how the producer decides on dosage. You can also follow the differences between the two Pinot Noir wines or compare the two Meunier bottlings.

Tickets, booking and cardholder access

The masterclass takes place on Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 11:00am to noon ET at Pier Sixty, 60 Chelsea Piers, New York, NY 10011. Tickets cost $125 plus tax and are exclusive to eligible American Express Platinum Card® and Centurion® Members. Tickets are available through La Fête du Champagne.

To unlock tickets, enter the 10-digit Customer Service phone number from the back of an eligible card. Omit spaces, dashes and the initial “1.” Payment must be made with an eligible Platinum Card® or Centurion® Card. Prepaid cards are not accepted.

Tickets are sold and fulfilled by third-party sellers and are subject to their terms, fees and availability. Purchase limits and blackout dates may apply. All sales are final, non-refundable and non-transferable; resale is prohibited.

Attendees must be 21 or older. Bring ID and the eligible card used to purchase the ticket: the terms allow organizers to request that card at admission and deny entry without a refund if it is not presented.