By Jonathan Brown from Around Britain with a Paunch

Oysters and champagne aren’t a bad combination are they? Now imagine indulging in a flight of 8 champagnes and 9 oysters at a lavish venue overlooking Hyde Park on a gloriously sunny afternoon. Throw in some great company. And then pinch yourself. Surely this is a dream…

Fred Sireix, the general manager of Galvin at Windows, was the brains behind the event. The fantastic oysters were supplied by Wright Brothers of Borough Market; the champagne came from the good folk at Bibendum with Bruno Murciano as the sommelier. And all the action was filmed and broadcast on worldTV by the BBC’s Nigel Barden. And Trusted Places did a great job of bringing together the best of the foodie community.

The view from the 28^th floor of the Hilton Hotel is far more staggering than the snapshot below illustrates. It was a fittingly mercurial backdrop to an event that just kept on getting better.

After a brief but fascinating introduction about the ins and outs of oysters by Mr Wright from Wright brothers, our first task was to judge a flight of 5 oysters out of 10. They lay cool and serene awaiting judgement. I can assure you they tasted a lot better than they look here!

1. Cumbrae (Scottish)

2. Spéciale de claire

3. Carlingford (Irish)

4. Frenchman’s Creek (Duchy of Cornwall)

5. Helford Native (Duchy of Cornwall)

They were all so very different, ranging from intensely briny to almost sweet. All were imbued with a deep minerality and zingy freshness. You can see my score below on the plates! I just hope I haven’t inadvertently got myself blacklisted…

The final results of the oyster tasting were as follows:

1st – Special De Claire from France

2nd – Frenchman’s Creek – Wright Brothers, Duchy of Cornwall Oyster Farm

3rd – Helford Native – Wright Brothers, Duchy of Cornwall Oyster Farm

4th – Carlingford Lough – Ireland

5th – Cumbrae – Scotland

It pains me to say it but the Special de Claire from France was a worthy, if controversial winner. Their flesh was silky and their flavour was ever so slightly sweet. The next time I’m in Borough Market I’m going straight to Wright Brothers and ordering a dozen Special de Claires and then going to file for bankruptcy.

Having guzzled 5 oysters we were all now getting a bit thirsty. Luckily, 8 champagnes were then wheeled out to slake our parched palettes. We then rated each flute out of 10 and totted up our results. For what it’s worth here are my thoughts!

After much pushing of beads on the abacus the winners were announced by Bruno Murciano:

1. Celler Batlle Gramona Gran Reserva 2000 (Spanish)
2. Nytimber 2002 (English)
3. Beaumont des Crayeres Brut (Galvin label Champagne)

Having lost out to the French in the oyster battle, the English and Spanish triumphed in the battle for the top sparkler! Hurrah. The Nytimber and Celler Batlle Gramona Gran Reserva were spectacular. Embarrassingly, my notes seem to suggest the Cava smelled of posh carpets. But then again that is one of my favourite aromas!

Whilst the oysters and champagnes were the stars of the show the event it wouldn’t have been half as much fun without such great company. I was lucky to be on a table with Julia Parsons from A Slice of Cherry Pie, Lucas Hollweg from The Sunday Times, Dan Coward from Bibendum and Clinton Cawood from Imbibe magazine who were all on cracking form.

As children of the new media revolution, many of us broadcast our thoughts as we ate and drank across a range of social media. I’ve tried to gather them up below so you can get a feel for everyone’s excitement:

- Twitter search #galvinw for increasingly addled twitter notes

- Footage from worldTV

- Bibendum’s live blogging

It was great to meet up with so many brilliant people including so many fellow bloggers below:

Hermione Way
Krista
Niamh
Julia
Douglas
Chris
Oli Barrett
Renate Nyborg
Rob McIntosh
Denise
Helen
Dan Coward 

Thanks again to Fred, Trusted Places, Bibendum, Wright Brothers and worldTV for putting on such a memorable event. They even managed to orchestrate a perfect sunset for us.