The Cellar x Dom Pérignon: Inside The Exclusive New Dining Experience Hidden Beneath Gleneagles

Fresh trout, Highland venison, oysters packed in ice, and magnums of Champagne stacked high. As passengers travelled up from London to Gleneagles 100 years ago – eager for a summer of countryside pursuits and glamorous evenings at one of Scotland’s finest country hotels – it was this precious cargo that rode alongside them. From the train, the passengers would alight, bustling off to their rooms to pull on their tweeds and snatch up their golf clubs. Meanwhile, their evening drinks were snuck downstairs, lowered by hand through a service hatch into the cellar below.

The Cellar x Dom Pérignon

For almost a century, Gleneagles has been synonymous with grand Scottish hospitality, countryside pursuits, and championship golf. A favourite with celebrities and sportsmen alike, the prestigious hotel boasts three golf courses, a spa and a two Michelin star restaurants. And now it’s expanding its culinary offering even further, with an exclusive dining experience.

Hidden beneath the hotel’s grand Edwardian façade, the Cellar has safeguarded Gleneagles’ finest wines and spirits for more than a century – from Burgundy and Bordeaux to Super Tuscans and, of course, Champagne. But now it enters its next chapter. Relaunched in collaboration with Dom Pérignon, this new partnership sees the Cellar transformed into an intimate dining destination for up to 12 guests, nestled amongst one of Scotland’s most remarkable wine collections.

Opened this month, the new collaboration between the Perthshire hotel and the storied Champagne house centres on a five-course tasting menu paired with a curated selection of Dom Pérignon cuvée. Inspired by Scotland’s natural larder, the menu is designed around the principle that Scotland and Champagne, for all their geographical distance, share a preoccupation with place. Both are landscapes that encode themselves into what they produce – in the minerality of a wine, in the salinity of a langoustine, or the earthiness of a Highland mushroom.

The interiors, too, are rooted in history. That same service hatch, last used in the 1920s and 30s, was recently called back into service to deliver the centrepiece of the new dining room: a custom-made travertine table so vast it arrived by crane, in two pieces. The stone was chosen deliberately – its chalk, clay and limestone composition mirroring the soils of Hautvillers in Épernay, the Abbey where Dom Pérignon first drew breath. The Champagne cabinets, meanwhile, are fitted with bespoke wooden cabinetry to ensure that Dom Pérignon is kept at just the right temperature.

For those eager to try, the signature Dom Pérignon Experience begins with King’s Golden Oscietra Caviar, plus accompaniments, alongside the Vintage 2017, before moving through a five-course sequence of dishes (not to mention the pre-dessert and an amuse bouche) and Dom Pérignon pairings, including the Dom Pérignon Rosé 2010 and the 2008 Plénitude 2. Or, alternatively, you can opt for the slightly cheaper Cellar Experience which opens with the Dom Pérignon before pairing the tasting menu with wines from Gleneagles’ own list.

For those not committed to a full evening of food, a Dom Pérignon and Canapé Reception – two glasses of the Vintage 2017 with four canapés – offers a lighter introduction to the space. A five-vintage tasting with matching canapés is also available. In addition to the full dining experience, guests can also explore the Cellar’s unique library that features more than 40 Dom Pérignon rarities, either through a vertical tasting or sampling vintages from landmark years in the Maison’s history.

The Cellar x Dom Pérignon is now available to book via gleneagles.com or 0800 704 705. Guests must pre-book the full dining experience at least three weeks in advance, while tastings can be reserved up to three days ahead. Prices begin at £150pp, up to £695pp for The Dom Pérignon Experience.