Hotel Clicquot, a roving resort by the Veuve Clicquot champagne brand, review
“I’ve had more champagne than water!” To which sommelier Seamus Brandt replies: “You’re at Hotel Clicquot. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
We’ve borrowed Chris Hemsworth’s private chef and he’s preparing us a late-night snack. Sergio Perera is putting the final touches on a raw kingfish tartlet with local sea succulents in the kitchen behind a bench bearing a spotlit setting. It’s an unexpected treat after arriving on a delayed flight from Sydney; the other guests have already eaten and turned in for the night.
We may be staying in a sprawling Gaudi-esque mansion overlooking Sunshine Beach, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, but the mood is surprisingly intimate, as though the family has gathered for the holidays at the home of a rich aunt and tomorrow it’s Christmas again.
Like us, the Spanish-born Perera is just visiting Hotel Clicquot, although he’s here as part of a series of guest spots by celebrated chefs. Home these days is down the coast in Byron Bay where he not only cooks for Hemsworth but for the actor’s good mates Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon. “Thanks to Chris all these actors live there now,” Perera muses. “They all come over for dinner. They’re all friends.”
Perera worked at the renowned El Bulli restaurant in Spain and found his way into Hemsworth’s orbit when he was helping actors in LA to bulk up and lean down for film roles. But, as he reminisces with my fiancé (who cherishes his grandmother’s recipes for Italian peasant food), some of his formative moments were spent watching his grandparents prepare rabbit, and his mother make tomato stew with tripe, when he was growing up in Zaragoza in north-east Spain.
This waste-free, nose-to-tail ethos is apparent when he sets down delicate baby heirloom tomatoes, whose skins have been removed and dehydrated and now adorn a Davidson plum broth alongside a lightly cured snapper. This dish is followed by steamed Murray cod with crispy skin, then a cloud of almond sponge cradling toasted coriander seed ice-cream (made with a dash of olive oil and salt “because I’m Spanish”).
Our supper is one of the “money-can’t-buy” culinary experiences at Veuve Clicquot’s pop-up hotel, which is held for just three weeks each year and billed as a place to live the brand’s “solaire lifestyle”. It’s booking now for 2024 via “expressions of interest” taken on its website. The exact date – and location, whether a repeat of the Noosa address or elsewhere – will be revealed later this year, but an island location is the tip.
For us, though, it’s Queensland. This, the third incarnation of the hotel, which made its debut in the Byron Bay hinterland in 2021, is at the Domic residence overlooking Sunshine Beach, right next door to posh Noosa. With its dome-like contours, the six-suite property nestled into a hill reportedly cost Russian hemp industrialist Evgeny Skigin more than $20 million to build in 2019 and has internal walls made from his pioneering material “hempcrete”. Renting out Domic starts at $57,500 a week but Clicquot guests have paid $15k a couple for a three-night package.
And the French champagne institution has truly taken up residence; Domic has been stylishly decorated with all the Clicquot trimmings, from the vintage branded longboards and striped umbrellas to the logo stamped at the bottom of the pool. Sitting by the pool, you can gaze out at people snaking through Noosa National Park to reach the ocean.
Then there’s the Veuve itself. As one guest remarks at a morning champagne tasting, “I’ve had more champagne than water!” To which sommelier Seamus Brandt replies: “You’re at Hotel Clicquot. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
And so we dine like Hollywood A-listers, swim in the infinity pool and soak up some serious White Lotus vibes by de-robing for a massage at the in-house spa. At dinner, Brandt talks us through the pairings at a feast hosted by Quay chef Peter Gilmore, who personally delivers the dishes to our table. A highlight is his steamed coral trout with rare white asparagus from Tasmania – much like the hotel, its season is fleeting, with a harvest of just four weeks – matched with the gorgeous honeyed La Grande Dame 1998 champagne.
Throughout the stay staff are on hand to virtually pour champagne over you; a mere dial of the yellow phone in the bedroom will summon bubbles from the on-demand menu, from which we order a flourless chocolate and hazelnut torte to eat on the balcony before we go on an adventure.
A short trip in one of the hotel’s Teslas takes us to Settlers Cove at Noosa Heads, where skipper Jimmy Phillips is waiting at the end of the jetty to help us onto his classic 19-foot runabout. Sinking back in the cherry leather seats behind the boat’s polished mahogany flank, we take in the eye-watering real estate around Noosa Sound.
As the boat slows up to a sandy bank, there comes into focus a circle of cushions around a spread of ripe figs, strawberries, prosciutto and brie. The sight of a yellow ice bucket elicits a fizz of excitement. That picnic’s for me.
Checklist
Getting there: Hotel Clicquot is a roving “experience”. Its location will likely change in 2024, so keep an eye on the website for an update.
There may even be a new concept this year. On the occasion of this stay, the resort was at Sunshine Beach, a 30-minute drive from Sunshine Coast Airport.
Stay: Register interest for 2024 A three-night package is $15,000 and a two night package is $10,000) which includes airport transfers, meals, drinks, accommodation and select activities.
Must do: Eat, drink (Veuve), sleep, swim, indulge, repeat.