It’s tradition: Champagne days in the rain at Flemington

Key points

• The Melbourne Cup traditionally heralds the start of the champagne season in Australia. 
• GH Mumm plans to serve more than 2,700 bottles of champagne and 15,000 canapes in its main marquee across Cup week with the event kicking off the festive and party season for the brand.
• Australia is the sixth largest consumer of champagne globally.

From sparkling breakfasts in Flemington’s car parks to Mumm in the Birdcage, champagne is the traditional drink of choice at Melbourne Cup – although hot toddies were also welcome on Tuesday.

Chelsea Matters, 33, had a plastic glass of bubbles in hand as she sheltered with friends under a mini marquee in the Victoria Racing Club members’ nursery car park.

Caroline Knipe, Jasmine Ryan-Watson and Chelsea Matters crack open a champagne in the rain at the Melbourne Cup.Credit:Chris Hopkins

“Of course, starting the day with champagne is a Melbourne Cup tradition,” she said.

Matters, who was celebrating completing her psychology degree, was undeterred by the rain and hail.

“My hot tip for the day is shoes that are not stilettos, so you don’t fall in the mud, a coat, and we have some of those little handwarmers that you put in your pocket,” she said. “We’ve got heaters as well – we are all type-A personalities here.”

Keeping dry in the G.H. Mumm marquee in the Birdcage, Mumm’s chef de caves (cellar master) Laurent Fresnet was visiting from France to attend his first Melbourne Cup.

As a “champagne child”, Fresnet said he wanted to share with racegoers his passion for the drink, which he said was enjoyable in any weather.

“The best way to drink champagne is for pure pleasure and to share moments,” he said.

Mumm plans to serve more than 2700 bottles of champagne in its main two-storey marquee during Cup week, which kicks off the party season for the brand.

“Australia is the [number one] export market for Mumm, so it’s an important business for us,” Fresnet said.

Australia is the sixth-largest consumer of champagne globally, and Fresnet said that since the pandemic, “people are drinking more and more champagne”, undeterred by the rising cost of living.

While the champagne was free-flowing on Cup Day in the Mumm tent, the champagne house was no longer practising sabrage, where bottles are opened by slicing along the neck with a sword.

“I broke a bottle [once], [and] the bottle broke in front of me, and the glass [landed on] people, so I said, ‘It’s finished – we have to stop sabrage’,” Fresnet said.

Instead, long-distance runner Nedd Brockmann led a “tap tap” moment, sending a shower of champagne high into the air by tapping the neck of a three-litre jeroboam with a sabre.

“We shake the bottle now,” Fresnet said.

The Kennedy marquee didn’t serve champagne from sponsor Mumm, instead opting for Perrier-Jouet champagne.

“The champagne is a favourite of James and Jaimee Kennedy to be shared with clients,” a spokeswoman said.

The marquee was also serving champagne cocktails in the form of limoncello spritzes made from a combination of limoncello, lemon, prosecco and soda.

Out at the Rails car park, sheltering from the rain, Julie Gemmell was taking a more practical approach to what she was drinking after the main race had ended.

“We’ve just about finished the champagne, so we will move on to beer,” she said. “We’re just trying to keep warm.”

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