Gault&Millau UAE can today unveil the country’s first-ever Champagne Index in a bid to bring improved transparency and value to the burgeoning local wine scene.
Covering the wine lists of 42 of the country’s finest restaurants – all of the licensed venues that received a toque-rating in the inaugural Gault&Millau UAE 2022 guide – the Index seeks to examine the true state of the local restaurant scene’s Champagne offering.
Designed to be regularly updated according to industry tracking, the Index marks the first time in Gault&Millau’s 50-year history that a country’s Champagne scene has been examined in such detail. The Index was compiled using wine lists provided by each restaurant over a two week period between September 29 and October 13 2022. The lists were all requested directly and, where none was supplied or made publicly available, the restaurants were visited and their menus photographed. Every bottle on each of the 42 lists was then logged according to producer and vintage, and ordered according to price.
With restaurants each facing their own individual rent, produce and staffing costs, as well as differences in licensing regulations between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, some variation was expected. However, the differences uncovered within the Index are surprisingly vast.
In one example, the same bottle of Champagne available for AED665 in DIFC cost a staggering six times more – AED4,100 – just 13km away in Dubai Festival City. Elsewhere, a vintage bottle that costs AED9,950 at the top of the Burj Khalifa costs AED13,500 at the bottom of the very same building.
The index thus aims to provide diners with access to all of that information in one place, allowing them to consider the cost of beverages as well as food when making a restaurant reservation.
In order to use the list, diners can scroll through every producer available in the cellars of Gault&Millau’s recommended restaurants to compare like-for-like prices, or can seek out their desired vintages according to personal preference. Every comparison table has been built to allow for regular price updates, and bar and restaurant managers alike are encouraged to get in touch to update vintages and prices as availability and costs change.
For 50 years, Gault&Millau has helped readers in France make their dining decisions based on access to information about the finest food, the best service, the most interesting wine lists and, crucially, the value for money offered. Now, six months on from its launch, Gault&Millau UAE is seeking to do the same for the Emirates, bringing a new sense of clarity, competition and fairness to the country’s wine scene.
Do you see a price or a bottle on our Index that needs to be updated? Get in touch at champagneindex@gaultmillauae.com