Celebrity Apex: Veuve Clicquot Dinner

Last night's dinner was a bit out of my comfort zone. I am not a big fan of sparkling wine or champagne. I will usually only drink it when it is made available for a toast, take a sip and give the rest to my wife. At last week's chef's table dinner, the sommelier made us aware of a special Veuve Clicquot dinner on this week's cruise. Angie loves champagne and I was intrigued how they would decide to pair it with food so we decided to book it. We attended last night and it was very impressive. 

Started with an amuse bouche which was caviar on a bellini. Salty and briny!! They paired that with Veuve Clicquot Rich. This is a sweeter champagne which they recommend you serve over ice to balance the sweetness. They offered you cucumber slices or pineapple depending on which flavor you wanted to highlight. I went with pineapple. It was very refreshing and the sweetness went well with the briny caviar. 

Next was a poached pear salad paired with Veuve Clicquot Rose. This was drier with fine bubbles and went well with the sweet pears. 

Next was a sea bass crudo. Great combination of flavors, especially the ginger. This was my least favorite of the champagnes. It was way to dry for my taste so Angie got most of it. 

The sommelier for the dinner was Adrian who we had first met on the Celebrity Equinox in 2014.

The sea scallops were cooked to medium rare which I prefer, but needed more sear. The dish was just overall too sweet, even with a parsnip puree which is usually a bit spicy. The brussel sprouts helped with some bitterness but there need to be more of them. I would have liked some pea tendrils for freshness and crunch. This was paired with a deliciously buttery unfiltered chardonnay. I had never had such a wine before.  

You could order the filet to order and I went with 

with rare and it came out the way I expected. It was well seasoned and the mushrooms were very earthey which went so well with the Malbec from Argentina. Definitely my favorite pairing of the dinner. 

Dessert was a creamy tiramisu which had lots of great espresso flavor. This was served with perhaps the list famous Veuve Clicquot champagne, the demi sec. It was a good pairing since it cut the richness.