A Champagne Breakfast for Mother’s Day

Some say Mother’s Day is nothing but a commercial invention, and others embrace the occasion to celebrate their mothers with a festive day. Fact is: all mothers deserve to be honored for the unconditional love, care, and attention they bless us with, and Mother’s Day is a yearly reminder to express our gratefulness to the special women in our lives. And what could say „thank you“ better than sharing a cozy breakfast and a bottle of champagne with your mother?

Of course, every mother has their own preferences and their very individual taste, but preparing breakfast or brunch for her and sitting down together to enjoy a glass of sparkling champagne over old memories and stories, is a hassle-free way yet a great gesture to say „Thank you for everything you’ve done for me“ and turn an ordinary day into something special for her. 

To make this champagne breakfast a beautiful surprise and delicious treat, we’ve prepared some inspirational champagne breakfast ideas and, of course, adequate champagne recommendations.

A joyful champagne breakfast

Start by creating an inviting atmosphere for your champagne breakfast. A bright, colorful bouquet of flowers or a few flowers and branches picked in your garden, revives the senses through sunny colors and perfumed scents, and sets the right mood for a cozy, extended breakfast.

You can arrange your breakfast on a beautiful tablecloth with elegant table- and stemware, or, if the weather allows, set up a garden table or a picnic blanket in the parc to create a less conventional setting. In the end, it’s all about spending time together, so Mother’s Day doesn’t require a big, fancy setup. 

 

The perfect champagne for breakfast 

It’s no secret that champagne is a great pick for many kinds of dishes and delicacies, but it also is the best choice for indulgent breakfasts or festive brunches to start a sparkling day. 

There are different approaches to picking the perfect Mother’s Day bottle. If you already know your mother’s distinct champagne taste, you can surprise her with a bottle of her favorite champagne that she indulges in way too rarely. Another idea is to pick a bottle you’ve once tasted together – for a special occasion or in a special place, for example –  to bring back all the lovely memories you share. 

Or you can pick a bottle that you think may resonate with her interests and passions: for example a bottle of Champagne Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque if your mother is an art lover, or a bottle of Champagne Pommery Cuvée Louise, Champagne Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame, or Champagne Duval-Leroy Cuvée Femme de Champagne to toast to femininity and the courageous women of Champagne, or a bottle of Champagne Deutz Amour de Deutz as a sign of your love.

 

Pastries and bread

In case you’re all about keeping it simple and delicious, or if you’ve planned a picnic outside, you may want to try these heavenly pairings that happen to be very lightweight and therefore easy to carry along wherever you want to surprise your mother: pillowy-soft artisanal brioche or flaky croissants. 

Grab a bag at the best artisan baker you know, slather them with salted butter, and pair them with soft-textured champagne such as Champagne Canard-Duchêne Cuvée Léonie or Champagne Leclerc-Briant Brut Réserve to transform these simple, buttery pastries into a five-star-breakfast. 

If you’re feeling a little fancy, add some lemon curd or any citrus fruit marmalade and pair a glass of champagne brut with this delicately salty-sweet pleasure. The soft-textured but complex Champagne Devaux Cuvée D, or the silky and lively Champagne Gosset Grand Blanc de Blancs Brut have just the right balance between structure and acidity to make this pairing exceptional.

 

Waffles and pancakes

Waffles and pancakes are the stars of our weekend breakfasts, and they also keep up with a special occasion breakfast with champagne. If you keep the sugar doses of your recipe a little lower than usual and skip the honey or maple syrup you can easily pair your favorite treat with champagne: top your pancakes or waffles with lots of fresh berries, a thin layer of icing sugar, a dollop of thick crème fraîche or Greek yogurt, and add a touch of freshly grated lime or orange zest and they’ll become an extra-ordinary match with a glass of Champagne Alfred Gratien Cuvée Paradis Brut or Champagne Devaux Cuvée Rosée.

 

Fish and seafood

Smoked salmon, trout, or haddock, luxurious caviar heaped on tiny blinis, fish egg snacks, seared scallops, shrimps, prawn skewers, or any kind of fresh seafood – a selection of these salty delicacies make a festive breakfast extra-special, just like champagne. 

Keep the seasonings of your food and seafood preparations light using sea salt flakes, a small dose of noble herbs like chives, dill, or chervil, and/or a hint of white or pink peppercorn only; or go creamy with mayonnaise, crème fraîche, ricotta, or cream cheese. And keep in mind that vinegar or citrus fruit vinaigrettes interfere with the champagne’s subtle aromatics, so they’re best avoided.

For the perfect pairing, choose a Champagne Philipponnat Royale Réserve Non-Dosé to enhance the purity of the fish and seafood, or a Champagne Henriot Blanc de Blancs to gently underline the creamy texture of caviar.

 

Eggs and champagne

What may be a surprise to many, is evidence to those who have already tried it: creamy eggs and champagne! Eggs Benedict, for example – covered in unctuous sauce hollandaise and sitting on a buttery slice of brioche or pan-roasted sourdough bread – or fluffy scrambled eggs, as well as savory omelets with bacon, speck, gruyère, comté, or mushrooms. All of those are shining examples of great champagne food. 

A glass of Champagne Bollinger Spécial Cuvée or Champagne Soutiran Perle Noire Brut, both blends with a majority of black grapes and aged on the lees for an extended time, have an extra-fine bead along with creamy complexity, and both blend in effortlessly with the unctuous texture of these simple egg dishes.

For an extra portion of luxury, you can step up your omelet or scrambled eggs game adding a particularly generous dash of heavy cream and black truffle slices. Accompanied by a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée or Champagne Henri Giraud Fût de Chêne MV16, the chances are high that your mother will ask you to repeat Mother’s Day more frequently!

Charcuterie and mature cheeses

The choice is as vast as your fantasy will take you: pick a selection of cooked and cured charcuteries – like Serrano or Parma ham, prosciutto, or salami – along with different kinds of goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, and cow’s milk cheeses in a range of different maturation stages to turn your breakfast table into a brunch table. Serve them with grissini, crackers, or sourdough bread, and the snacking will most likely continue until the late afternoon. 

Champagne AR Lenoble Cuvée Intense Mag or Champagne Moussé Fils Spécial Club Meunier les Fortes Terres are two Blanc de Noirs cuvées full of complexity and depth that work with a wide variety of matured cheeses and cured hams.

 

Sweet treats

If your mother is all about sweet and fruity treats, you can go all-in on sweet pastries, fruit tarts, or chocolate desserts. 

The most important advice for sweeter pairings, however, is to have an eye on the sugar levels of the dessert and match the champagne accordingly. Enjoyed with sugary dishes, zero dosage or extra-brut champagnes create a stark contrast that unpleasantly highlights their acidity and tonic, edgy character, whereas higher-dosed brut styles blend in more harmoniously because their sugar levels build a bridge with the sweetness of the treat.  

Delicate and fruity rosé champagne brut, like Champagne Delamotte Rosé or Champagne de Venoge Prince Rosé, is a lip-smacking match for light-hearted desserts with abundant fresh red fruit, such as raspberry tarts with vanilla custard, strawberry, or redcurrant cakes.

In case you and your mother are all about indulging in the sweetest side of life, you may want to try a more opulent sec or demi-sec champagne. In recent years, the demi-sec style has become slightly unpopular with the rise of gastronomical champagne pairings and the ongoing trend towards very dry wine styles, however, a generously sweet sec or demi-sec champagne is still the ultimate choice for passionate cake and dessert lovers. 

Champagne Billecart-Salmon Demi-Sec or Champagne Deutz Demi-Sec both are pure bliss when paired with delicately perfumed pavlovas covered in berries and exotic fruit, or abundantly sweet and zesty lemon or lime tarts.

And the abundantly rich fruitiness of Champagne Apollonis Cuvée Marie-Léopold Sec or Champagne Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Harmony Demi-Sec both embrace tarts with cooked fruit like blueberry tarts, cherry cakes, black forest cake, or even a gooey chocolate dessert.

After this whirlwind of culinary inspiration from buttery-salty to fruity-sweet, you’re now ready to start the preparations: pick your favorites, shop for the ingredients and champagne, and invite your mother.

With delicious treats and a special bottle of champagne in your hand, it is guaranteed that Mother’s Day will turn into a celebration for your whole family, or at least for the two of you.