Debate a Bubble - Champagne News and Reviews

Win a weekend in Champagne this Spring

We've just launched our competition to give away a free weekend at our luxury B&B in Champagne.  Imagine this - waking up to the smell of fresh croissants and bread from the local boulangerie, meeting some of the local champagne producers, taking a stroll around the fashionable shops in Reims, or a leisurely woodland walk.  It could be you! And all you need to do is enter the competition now.

Go to http://tinyurl.com/yb4wy6m now.  We'll be announcing the winner on Friday 12th March, so spread the word, tell your friends.  Hope you win!

 

Jiles & Yvonne

How Dry is Dry?

Lot's of you have told me recently that you are often unsure how sweet or dry a bottle of champagne will be and so you don't know whether or not it will suit your taste.

In fact this is one of the things about champagne that you should be able to find out with complete accuracy, but... surprise, surprise... it's not always quite as simple as that.

When champagne comes out of the cellars at the end of the ageing process, it is absolutely bone dry; too dry in fact for most people’s liking.

So, in most cases,  a small amount of liquid sugar is added to adjust the final taste before the bottle is sold.

This process is called dosage in French. The dryness/sweetness of the champagne depends on the amount of sugar added and there are several possible categories of sweetness which are measured in terms of grams of sugar per litre ( gr/l)

The various categories are
Brut Zero (sometimes called brut sauvage, ultra brut)         No sugar added
Brut Nature                                                                                  < 3gr/l  
Extra Brut                                                                                 0 – 6 gr/l
Brut (by far the most common)                                                  6 -14 gr/l
Extra Dry                                                                                 12 – 20 gr/l
Sec                                                                                          17 – 35 gr/l
Demi-sec                                                                                  33 – 50 gr/l
Doux                                                                                            >50 gr/l

One of these categories must, by law,  be shown on the label so that gives you a clue as to the level of sweetness, but the problem is that some of the categories are quite broad. A champagne with 6gr/l of sugar is a brut, but so too is a champagne with 12 gr/l – twice as much – and you can’t tell this by looking at the label.

Also, you'll see that some categories overlap which seems to me just another source of potential confusion. 

In fact the champagne maker can tell you precisely how much sugar had been adding during the dosage and it wouldn't be difficult to put this on the label.

I don't believe that there's anything confidential about this either so all in all I can't see any reason why the consumer should not get chapter and verse on this important detail instead of the broad categories that currently appear on the label.

Like I said at the beginning, finding out the exact sweetness of a champagne should be easy but the only way to find out exactly how much sugar has been added (short of contacting the maker) is to ask your retailer and as I've said many times before - he/she should know.

Next time you're buying a bottle of champagne why not ask the retailer what the dosage is and see what they have to say?

How To Choose Champagne

If you missed out on my recent Win A Weekend In Champagne competition, don't despair; all is not lost. There will probably be one more competition before the year is out so you'll have another chance.

All you had to do to enter the competition was to share with me the No. 1 question you wanted to ask about champagne or the No. 1 challenge you face when it comes to champagne.

There were stacks of entries and stacks of great questions but although they were all put in slightly different words the theme was the same:

"How to I know which champagne to choose when there are so many to choose from?"

 "I know that there are lots of different champagnes to try, but I just don't know where to look or what to ask for, so I end up sticking to the names I know or the ones I've tasted before"

I reckon that there are lots of you who feel the same way so I've put together a few tips that I hope will be help. Here goes:

There are  4 things you need to know to  give you a clue about what the style and quality of a champagne will be like:

•    The quality of the grapes  ( there are 3 classifications of quality and these can affect the quality of the champagne: Grand Cru, Premier Cru and then the third category which is simply Cru)

•    The proportion of the different grape varieties used in the blend ( more a question of taste than quality. Do you prefer a champagne with more Chardonnay, more Pinot Noir or more Pinot Meunier in it?)

•    The length of ageing ( In general the longer the ageing, the ‘better’ the quality, so knowing how long a champagne has been aged is crucial)

•    The degree of sweetness which in French is called Le Dosage ( again, this is a question of taste rather than quality, but very important to know so that you get exactly the level of dryness or sweetness you want)

If you know these things you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the champagne will taste like and you’ll know if it’s what you’re looking for.

If it is, then you can decide how much you want to pay to get what you want.

That may sound a bit technical, but it’s not really. Some of this information is shown on the label ( although sadly not all), but if you go to a good wine merchant he/she should know these things and should be able to tell you. If they don’t, then try another shop.

How do you know which type or style of champagne you prefer?

Well there no short cut other than to try several different champagnes and in this process you’ll no doubt get a few bottles that you like less than others. Try not to view this as a disaster, though. As long as you didn’t spend a fortune, and there’s no need to do that to find good quality, then with every champagne you taste you’ll be  narrowing down the field and learning as you go along. Then the time will soon come when 9 times out of 10 you’ll be able to try an unknown brand and you’ll get a pleasant surprise rather than the other way around.

Stay Bubbly

Where to Eat in Champagne

You're really spoiled for choice when it comes to good restaurants in Champagne and the problem can sometimes be making a selection amongst all the possibilities.

The other thing is that some of the best restaurants can be a bit pricey to say the least, so here's a suggestion that combines the best of quality and price.

If you're into good food you may well have heard of Les Crayères: the best restaurant in Champagne and one of the most impressive too.

Set in it's own private park and surrounded by a high wall to keep out prying eyes, Les Crayères was brought to fame and 3 Michelin stars, a few years back by chef and owner Gérard Boyer.

M. Boyer passed on the reins some years back but the hotel ( yes you can stay there as well ) and restaurant are as sumptuous as ever, but there is a cost and the price tag at Les Crayères is enough to put off all but the most dedicated foodies.

In addition the atmosphere can be a bit formal too. Fine dining is a serious business in France and a proper respect for the food and wine seems de rigueur at Les Crayères.

Perhaps that's why a more relaxed and far more accessibly priced offshoot of the main restaurant was launched not so long ago.

It's called Le Jardin and not surprisingly, you can find it in a corner of the 'garden'  at Les Crayères

 The decor is clean and modern as you can tell from the outside.

There's a whole band of waiters waiting to welcome you as you go in ( wonder what the correct collective noun for waiters is) many of whom seem be to fluent in several languages. the standard of the service doesn't falter after you've taken your seat either.

All is all a very slick operation and the staff seem to be kept on their toes at all times by the manager who I saw  give a real ticking off to one poor waitress for what seemed like a very minor slip up.

 Anyway, on to the food.

 There's a reasonably priced menu for 28 euros giving you a choice of two dishes out of three: starter and main, or main and dessert. Plus of course an extensive à la carte selection.

Lots of imaginative food combinations including a dish of poached egg, butternut squash, tomatoes, cheese and ham - sort of rustic but it tasted very good indeed. The portions are quite generous too.

 As you can imagine the champagne list was extensive and it was good to see plenty of smaller growers' champagne included, notably Frank Bonville and Domaines Leclaire.

The only possible shortcoming is that there were not many champagnes available by the glass - only two that I could see: Bruno Paillard and Paul Goerg

Still for a good meal at a price that won't spoil your appetite and in an atmosphere where  you don't feel out of place having a jolly good laugh out loud, then Le Jardin is worth a visit

Back in The Swing In Champagne

Well here I am back in Champagne and this is what the vineyards look like at the moment.

I've been back here for about 2 weeks now and I'm lucky to be here for all sorts of reasons. First the vineyards are about 100 yards from where I live and I popped out to take this picture one lunchtime when I had a few minutes spare.

Then of course the weather is wonderful. Not that warm yet, but beautiful blue skies and crisp air.

I've also been lucky enough to taste quite  a few interesting champagnes already and to have a private visit to Krug - not bad for just 2 weeks.

To catch up with my full newsletter follow this link 

http://bit.ly/MABNewsletterMarch2010

and to read about Krug you'll need this link

http://halling.typepad.com/ChampagneLibrary/Krug.pdf

I've also been re-acquainting myself with some of the local champagne makers in Verzy where I live.

I started with Etienne Lefèvre, a maker that I already know well, but since I was last here they've launched a new champagne which I wanted to try.

I've always enjoyed Etienne Lefèvre's champagnes. As you'd expect from a Grand Cru village in the Montagne de Reims, they're big on flavour and big on Pinot Noir. My favourite has always been the Réserve a classic Brut non-vintage which has the kind of rich, biscuity aromas that you'd expect from a much more expensive champagne. 

The new arrival is a Blanc de Noirs, and I opened it to drink as an aperitif before dinner with  2 Bed & Breakfast guests. I wouldn't normally have chosen a Blanc de Noirs as an aperitif, but since  I'd only been back in Champagne 24 hours, this was the only bottle I had in the house (a mistake that has subsequently been put right).

Anyway, it was very good. Fruity, with a touch of acidity and a fairly long finish to round it off. Perhaps not a champagne to shout about from the rooftops, but a great example of the solid quality the smaller champagne makers can produce.

With dinner we opened a bottle of Louis de Sacy Grand Soir Vintage 2001 

Louis de Sacy is the largest producer in Verzy and the huge sign on the side of their premises can be seen from the main Châlons-Reims road a couple of miles away. The bottle my guests has kindly and unexpectedly provided promised to be a treat.

In fact I was a little disappointed. There was something a little too much on the sharp side for my taste and I felt it didn't really deliver the flavour and body I had hoped for from a vintage.

Having said this, 2001 wasn't a good year in Champagne and perhaps it wasn't the right choice with Fillet of Pork, Prunes and Parsnip Purée, so I'll reserve judgement and try another bottle soon - we should have had the Blanc de Noirs with dinner and the Grand Soir as aperitif, but I hadn't planned on my guests suddenly producing the Louis de Sacy,  so all in all I'll put this one down to my poor organisation and to my having only just arrived back in Champagne.

On the other hand I did enjoy a bottle of Lanson  Ivory Label with dessert.

I'd never tried Lanson's demi-sec before but it was a nice surprise. It didn't seem as sweet as many demi-sec champagnes I've tasted and I put this down to the fact that there is no malolactic fermentation done at Lanson.

Still there was enough richness in taste and texture to go well with a dessert of Meringue, Mascarpone Ice Cream and Raspberries.

For anyone who thinks they don't like sweet wines and couldn't possibly contemplate drinking demi-sec champagne, Ivory Label could be just the right introduction to the demi-sec style.

In the weeks to come I'll be going round visiting several local producers for a very exciting project I'm working on, so they'll be plenty more to tell you about.

Meanwhile

Stay Bubbly

First stop Krug

What do you do when you have an invitation to visit Krug? You drop whatever it is you're doing and you say 'Yes please'.

I hadn't been back in Champagne 48 hours when I got exactly that opportunity, so unpacking boxes and putting up pictures had to wait whilst I went off to Rue Coquebert in Reims last Friday morning.

Despite it's huge reputation Krug is not a very large champagne house. Annual production is only around  half a million bottles, which is small compared to the many millions produced by the largest houses.

There's no imposing mansion in Rue Coquebert, just a modest, although very elegant, building tucked away down a quiet side street - you could easily drive right past without knowing it.

It was 10.30 by the time we arrived and it was encouraging to see that a bottle of Krug Grand Cuvée was all ready cooling in an ice bucket on the table in the reception room. I suspect there is one there permanently.

Since your tatste buds are at their most receptive in the late morning it was the perfect time to open the bottle and our hostess, Julie-Amandine, was not slow to do the honours.

There are a number of things that set Krug apart from most other champagne houses

Grand Cuvée is Krug's main brand and unlike most other cuvées de prestige, Grand Cuvée is not a vintage champagne. In other words it contains reserve wines from previous years, just like any other non-vintage champagne (or multi-vintage as Krug prefer to say).

It's precisely these reserve wines that contribute to Krug's distinctive character and depth. The reserve wines are kept for many years, 15 years or more in many cases, and always represent a minimum of 40% of each year's blend. That's unusually high and the result can be tasted in the amazingly long finish and powerful flavours.

Another secret to the Krug style is the fact that all the first fermentation of the grape juice (or must) is done in oak barrels as opposed to stainless steel vats.

Not that Krug is looking to add any over-powerful woody, vanilla-like flavours to their champagne.

The new barrels are conditioned for several years by being used to store wines from the second (lesser quality) pressing of the grapes and these wines are then sold off to third parties.

By doing this most of the excess tannin and woody characteristics are eliminated from the barrels before they are used in earnest to ferment juice destined to be part of a Krug champagne.

A third factor in the unique Krug style is the use of  Pinot Meunier. Whilst most of the famous prestige cuvées are blends of the two so-called 'noble grapes' Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with no Pinot Meunier, Krug takes an diferent view and Pinot Meunier always figures prominently in their blends.

The result is quite unique.

I may be shot down in flames by avid fans of Krug, or Krugists as they are called, but I have to say that Krug is something of an acquired taste.

The first thing that struck me is the amazing balance between on the one hand the powerful aromas, rich flavours and extra long finish that rolls around your mouth long after you've swallowed and on the other hand, the striking freshness, almost austerity, that you feel when  you take a mouthful.

It's a combination that's difficult to describe and no doubt volumes have been, and will be, written on the subject. All I can say is that Krug leaves an impression that you've certainly drunk something remarkable, but it's not a champagne that's leaves you with a warm glow, eager for another generous glassful.

Perhaps it will grow on me and I certainly hope I have the chance to put the idea to the test again in the near future.

Back To Champagne - Come And Visit

Next week I'm off back to Champagne to live, at least for a couple of years.

I'm working on a really exciting project which I shall reveal over the coming months as it progresses, but if you like champagne then I promise you'll like this.

I'm looking forward to being in the thick of things in Champagne again and of meeting lots more of the small champagne makers who are attracting ever-more attention these days. So there'll be lots to tell you in the weeks ahead.

If you've ever thought of visiting the Champagne region then now's your chance. We'll be running special Champagne Discovery weekends several times this year  ( the first one is in March)

 http://www.maboffers.com/Champagne-House-Party-Weekend.pdf

and of course if you come during the week you'll be welcome too.

Personal guided tours, tutored tastings, great food, very comfortable accommodation  and a very warm welcome - all waiting just for you in Champagne.

You'll find more details here

http://www.madaboutbubbly.com/home-in-champagne.html

See you soon, I hope

Jiles

 

Champagne - Putting the Romance in Valentine’s Day

If you're planning a romantic evening on Valentine's Day à deux, à trois, à quatre or more (who knows?) champagne seems to be the obvious choice of wine, but where does the link between romance and champagne come from?

Here’s a short run through of champagne’s romantic history and a few tips for making this year’s Valentine’s Day that extra bit special.

In fact champagne has been linked to love and romance for centuries. Back in the mid 18th century a certain French cardinal, of all people, by the name of de Bernis used the imagery of a champagne bottle popping open to make very thinly-veiled erotic suggestions in a poem to his would-be mistress the Marquise de Pompadour.

She’s the lady who famously said that 'champagne is the only drink that makes a woman more beautiful after drinking it than before'  which is a pretty good line to remember for romantic occasions in any day and age.

She must have been quite a beauty because she soon became the mistress of King Louis XV, presumably much to the disappointment of Cardinal de Bernis, but at least he had champagne to drown his sorrows.

By the late 1700s in France the connection between seduction and champagne was well and truly established. Legend has it that the saucer-shaped champagne glasses called coupes were modelled on the the breasts of another famous French royal : Marie-Antoinette, who was the wife of king Louis XVI
 
They were a saucy lot back at the court of kings Louis XV & XVI, but in fact the earliest reference to the magical seductive qualities of champagne was by an Englishman called Sir George Etheridge as long ago as 1675, so perhaps the French don’t know everything about the art of seduction after all.

There is a good reason why champagne can make you feel merry quite quickly, loosen your tongue and perhaps your inhibitions too. Unlike still wine which you have to take into the stomach before the alcohol is released into the bloodstream, with champagne the alcohol starts being released into your system when the bubbles burst in your mouth.

Champagne is also the only wine you can appreciate with all of your senses: you can see the bubbles rising in the long, slender glass, you can smell the rich aromas, taste the flavours and feel the cool sensation of the wine if you run your finger down the outside of the glass and, if you raise the glass to your ear, you can even hear the bubbles dancing and bursting - so champagne is certainly sensuous as well as sensual.

The effect was beautifully summed up in the novel ‘Madame Bovary’ by Gustav Flaubert

“Iced champagne was served, and the feel of the cold wine in her mouth gave Emma a shiver that ran over her from head to toe.”

You’re probably going to want something to eat with your champagne, so what’s it to be?

Well, strawberries and chocolate are two delicacies that spring immediately to mind and, apparently, scientific tests have shown that all three have a clear beneficial effect on your state of mind.

If you saw the movie Pretty Women you’ll remember that Julia Roberts used to love to drop a strawberry right into her champagne glass. Champagne purists might turn their noses up at this but, if you enjoy it, go for it, but I’d recommend using rosé champagne rather than white champagne.

For one thing the colour of rosé is enticing and romantic in itself, but the other reason is that rosé is a better complement to the strawberries.

This is partly due to the matching colour, but also because rosé champagne often contains a higher proportion of red grapes, particularly Pinot Noir, than the equivalent white champagne and it's these grapes that give the champagne those lovely aromas and flavours of red fruit, including strawberries, so the two together are a  match made in heaven.

What about chocolate ? Well, I hate to be a kill-joy, but chocolate and champagne really aren’t that great a combination. It’s down to you of course, but I think you'll get much more pleasure if you eat and drink them separately.

The reason for this is that chocolate is rich and creamy in texture and can be quite sweet to the taste. On the other hand, most of the champagne we drink is brut meaning that it has a low sugar content and is fairly crisp and fresh on the palate. These two opposites are best enjoyed on their own.

If you're absolutely set on eating chocolate with champagne here are a couple of tips that are well worth trying:

•    try white chocolate instead of dark chocolate with champagne

•    try a demi-sec champagne rather than a brut champagne

Demi-sec is richer in sugar and makes for a much more satisfying, smoother combination with the sweetness of the chocolate. You’ll find demi-sec champagne on sale in most good wines stores

Whatever you chose, have a romantic Valentine's Day and remember what another Frenchman said about champagne. This time it was a famous gourmet from the19th century by the name of
Brillat-Savarin

“Burgundy makes you think of silly things; Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them.”

A New Way To Judge Wines

I've always been wary of relying too much on recommendations by 'wine gurus'. It's useful to have some pointers, but when all is said and done, we are all individuals with different tastes and so no one really knows what you like except you.

I wrote a blog post about this last year 

http://bit.ly/Experttasters

 and it seems that I was not the only one thinking the same thing.

That's why I was excited to read an article in the Wall Street Journal explaining about a new type of wine tasting competition.

The project is the brain child of a gentleman called Tim Hanni a Master of Wine who wants to change the way things are done.

No more 'gurus' doing the tasting, just regular wine drinkers. After all they are the ones who are going to be buying and drinking the wine.

No more taking notes and confering afterwards. In fact the whole thing will be a lot simpler and the results may well  reflect more accurately what most amateur wine drinkers enjoy.

Says Mr. Hanni:

"experts 'do things no normal human being would ever do' in a social setting, including slurping, gurgling and 'creating metaphors about place, fruit and vegetables' while writing tasting notes."

Unfortunately that's all too true and the result is that most amateur wine drinkers find the gurus' comments confusing and that can make the amateurs feel inferior or inadequate. Of course this applies to champagne just as much as to any other wine.

So a change is long overdue and it looks as though the time has finally come thanks to Tim Hanni and no doubt to a few others involved in the project.

You can read the whole article here  http://bit.ly/5TEcuc 

and it really is a breath of fresh air

 

Getting Greener In Champagne

Over the years Champagne has had some poor publicity as regards environmentally friendly practices, or rather the lack of them, but all that is changing rapidly.

Apart from the growing number of champagne producers who use organic, or bio-dynamic methods, there are many other initiatives in place to go easy on our planet and the latest concerns the weight of champagne bottles....

Let’s set the scene  with a few facts and figures – better take a note of these; they are sure to come up in trivia quizzes before too long.

Everyone will have noticed how much heavier champagne bottles are than other wine bottles. This is because the bottles have to be thicker, and therefore heavier, to withstand the pressure inside. All that’s fairly clear and obvious but here are a few things you probably don’t know

An ordinary still wine bottle weighs between 450 – 500 grams (1 – 1.1 lbs) compared with 900 grams (2lbs) for a bottle of champagne – almost twice as much. Back at the start of the 20th century champagne bottles weighed even more at massive 1.2 kilograms (2.5 lbs)

Here’s another amazing fact; the packaging used in the champagne industry accounts for a whopping 30% of all the carbon dioxide emissions of the entire Champagne region; half of this is down to the bottles alone.

Anyone who is concerned with green issues will be pleased to hear that a new and lighter version of the traditional champagne bottle has just been approved for use. In fact a few houses, Veuve Clicquot and Mumm being the biggest two, have already decided to use the lighter bottles this year meaning that they’ll be hitting the market in about three years time after ageing in the cellars.

The new bottles weigh 840 grams and whilst that’s only 60 grams lighter than the normal bottles, the cumulative effect is huge. Veuve Cliquot reckons that their overall CO2 emissions will be cut by 450 tons per year, that’s equivalent to pulling 140 vehicles off the road.

They also calculate that they’ll need 48 fewer delivery lorries as well because you can pack 24 pallettes of the lighter bottles on a lorry instead of only 22 at the moment.

For the time being however you won’t be able to see any difference. For a start the bottles won’t be on the market at all for a few years, for another thing champagne houses are not obliged to use them, so I suppose that some will and some won’t and even if they do you may be hard pressed to spot the difference since it’s only 60 grams

 Still, I imagine that, in time, the lighter bottles will entirely replace the current version and just think what an impact that will have.

There are roughly 1 billion bottles of champagne in the cellars at any one time; that's going to reduce the CO² by a lot but I'll leave it to you to calculate exactly how much!

Champagne Sales Haven't Lost All Their Fizz

Well, after all the doom and gloom earlier this year about champagne sales and prices falling through the floor, http://bit.ly/thepriceofchampagne

the year didn't end quite as disastrously as was first feared.

According to the information I'm getting, the official figures show that 294 million bottles of champagne were sold last year. That sounds like a lot of bottles but in fact it's 12% down on last year.

Still, back in Spring when sales were 30% + down on last year it looked as though the year was going to be a lot worse than it's actually turned out

Total champagne sales last year were back to the level they were in 2002 and I would think that, all in all, champagne makers will be satisfied with the way the year has ended.

Mind you, that figure of -12% versus last year is the total for all champagne makers' sales around the world and I haven't yet seen the figures for  the U.K.

Within those 294 million bottles sold, sales of the smaller houses held up much better than those of the bigger brands; many smaller houses actually increased their sales.

Is this because the smaller brands are generally cheaper than the big brands and consumers are merely driven by price?

Or is it because smart consumers are realising more and more that the big brands rarely offer the best value for money and that you can find great quality and lots of variety amongst what are popularly called the Grower Champagnes, not to mention better value?

Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see if 2010 sees the return in force of the grandes marques or  whether grower champagnes will continue their steady progress

Watch this spaces and in any event,

Stay Bubbly