It was a great honor to be invited by Krug this July on their Ambassade Voyage. Spending time with other Krug lovers from the industry—mostly Michelin Star chefs—and learning about Krug was a highlight of my career. It is the second time I have had the opportunity to travel with this group, but the first time that the destination was Krug’s own facilities in Champagne. My mind is still blown—it was the experience of a lifetime.

Cinnamon and I wait impatiently every year for Krug to drop their ingredient—a program that has now been going on for 10 years now. While this is meant as a challenge to the Michelin-starred chefs and their sommeliers in the world of haute cuisine, we love to take it up as home cooks and inject a little simplicity into the mix. When we found out that this year it was carrot, we were fired up to try again. You can check out some of the past pairings that we have done here.

On Tuesday evening, Lilia from K&L Redwood City and I were lucky enough to be invited to a dinner at the Sea by Alexander’s Steakhouse by Naomi Smith, the director of sales for Laurent-Perrier in the U.S. It was a marvelous night with two of my favorite women in the wine business, and the fantastic seafood went perfectly with the elegant wines of Laurent-Perrier.

Every year, Krug announces an ingredient of the year to inspire the chefs of the world to create dishes to go with their spectacular champagne. Not wanting to be left out, Cinnamon and I make something for the home kitchen as well—it is an excellent excuse to drink Krug on a weeknight. This year, the ingredient is flowers, and luckily for us, nasturtiums grow wild in the Willows neighborhood of Menlo Park where we live. It only took a short walk to forage a little bag of these edible flowers—in June they practically pour out onto the sidewalk!

Today is the worldwide release for one of the best of the great 2012 vintage in Champagne, and we are lucky to have an allocation. We had a preview of the 2012 Billecart-Salmon "Cuvée Louis" Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne before today’s release, and. after tasting it in the morning with Clément from Billecart, I knew that I had to make something special to have with it at dinner. This is a Blanc de Blancs that has it all—and promises to develop well for at least a generation.