Debate A Bubble

Ups And Downs In Champagne

There's a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment in Champagne and I thought you might like a peep behind the curtain...

One of the trickiest things for the champagne industry is to keep supply in line with demand. This makes sense in any business because you don't want stock on  your hands that you can't sell, nor do you want to turn customers away because you don't have enough stock.

This is never an easy job, but in Champagne it's even more complex  because, on average, you have to age the bottles 3 years in the cellars before they are sold, so you can't reduce, or increase, the stock quickly - it takes three years to see the effects of a decision you make today, so once a decision is made, you have to stick with it.

And so it happens that in Champagne there seems to be a crisis every few years.

In the early 1990s after several years when prices and consumption had been growing very heathily, perhaps too fast, the economy hit  a bad patch and suddenly people wouldn't pay the price they had found reasonable only a few months earlier. Result... lower sales, and more stock.

At times like this some champagne makers cut their prices so they can at least sell something and get some cash in, but the big brands don't like to get involved in this for fear of damaging the brand image

The same sort of thing happened at the Millenium when many people predicted that champagne would run out. Extra quantities were produced in anticipation of  demand being at crazy levels, but what happened???

It was all a damp squib and far fewer bottles were sold than had been predicted. Again the result could be seen in over-stocked cellars in Champagne for quite a few years.

Lo and behold! Champagne has hit the same problem once again.

Only last year it was announced that 40 villages were being added to the permitted champagne production area so as to meet the ever-growing demand worldwide.

How things can change in a year.

Now the talk is of cutting back on the harvest this year so as not to make the stock problem worse.

Inevitably there are some people in Champagne who are in favour of this -  usually the big houses - and some who are against it - at present that's mainly the smaller producers whose sales are holding up better that the 'Grandes Marques'.

So the scene is set for a battle royal between now and the harvest in September. Watch this space for some interesting debates over the next few months and I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, not all is doom and gloom. Prices are on a downward trend so there are some good bargains to be had.

If this peep into the workings of the champagne industry has intrigued you, I'll be covering it in more detail in my Bubbly Bulletins on www.madaboutbubbly.com where you can sign up to receive them in your in-box.

Jiles

Photos courtesy of Champagne Billecart-Salmon

The Best Place to Eat In Champagne?

Well, some would say it's Les Crayères  http://www.lescrayeres.com/ which is undoubtedly the swankiest restaurant in Champagne and worthy of a seperate blog some other day.

Some prefer Le Royal Champagne http://www.royalchampagne.com/which boasts what is certainly one of the best views in Champagne. Yet others swear that  La Briqueterie http://www.labriqueterie.fr/en/index.html  tops the lot.

To be fair we're splitting hairs trying to seperate them and of course there are hundreds of other restaurants large and small, expensive and cheap, and most of them with a unique atmosphere of their own. (All this talk about restaurants has got me thinking that a series of blogs about restaurants in Champagne would be a good idea. Let me know if you think so too).

But there is an alternative if you fancy something entirely different.....

Something you may not have thought of doing is to have dinner in the cellars (or caves as they're known in French), of one of the champagne houses. This isn't something you can just decide to do on the spur of the moment mind you - you need to book in advance -  and it's not for an intimate dîner à deux, but if you are travelling with, or organising, a group visit to Champagne then, for an experience that you can't get anywhere else, it takes some beating.

Not all champagne houses are geared up to offer catering in their cellars,  but many are and it's not just the big houses either. Take Champagne Vilmart at Rilly-la-Montagne http://www.champagnevilmart.com/  one of those 'great little' champagne houses that you really should try. Apart from their superb champagnes, Vilmart offers lunches and dinners in a warm, rather rustic setting ideally suited to their location in the heart of the vineyards.

If it's something a little grander that you're after, then go for one of the famous names. In Epernay the two most obvious venues are Moët & Chandon http://www.moet.com/site.php?lg=en for groups as small as 18 people, and Mercier

 http://www.champagnemercier.fr/anglais/home.htm

The picture shows Le Caveau Bacchus at Mercier which takes up to about 140 people, although they also take groups of 40, or even less.

In Reims, you can contact Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin ( to give the brand its full name), Mumm, Pommery and Ruinart, but hurry. The cellars at Ruinart are undergoing a major refurbishment next year and it's unlikely that they will be accepting any dinner bookings the entire year.

http://www.ruinart.com/#//index2.php

Ruinart is an excellent champagne with the added caché of being the oldest champagne house of them all, but their web site's not the easiest to navigate, I find.

I'm organising a conference and gala dinner in Reims for one of my clients and 150 of their guests this September. If you'd like to consider a similar event for your company or club, whether you're coming from the U.K. the U.S.A or Japan, just leave me a comment here or e-mail me at jiles@madaboutbubbly.com

You'l be surprised by the prices too. Probably far less than a similar event in a central city location and a lot more memorable too.

Changing Tastes In Champagne?

Strange how things change, even as regards such a traditional pleasure as Champagne.

Many years ago, and I'm talking about the early part of the last century and before, champagne tended to be sweeter than it is today. A sweeter style may have been used to mask the defaults of less than average wines, or it may have been the genuine preference of the consumers of that time.

Whichever is the case. sometime around the middle of 20th century what is known as 'Brut' champagne became more and more popular.

Brut is a dryer style of champagne and, I understand, was first introduced into the British market where something a little less sweet went down better with champagne lovers. ( if anyone can come up with some concrete evidence to prove or disprove this, I'd love to hear from you E-mail jiles@madaboutbubbly.com

Over the last couple of years however, a few, even drier, champagnes have been launched. Is this the start of a widespread trend, or just an interesting aside?  We'll have to wait and see; in the meantime I certainly recommend you give one of these champagnes a try, for reasearch if for nothing else.

The picture above shows Royale Réserve by Champagne Philipponat ( 40- 50% Pinot Noir, 30-35% Chardonnay  with the balance Pinot Meunier)

As you can probably read, it is  ' Non Dosé ' meaning that no sugar at all is added at the end of the production process.

Interest in this very dry style was revived a few years ago by Laurent Perrier with the promotion of  their 'Ultra Brut' ( 55% Pinot Noir, 45% Chardonnay - see below)  

I remember that there was talk of it being good if you were on a diet because of the lower sugar content. That's an ingeniuous marketing hook, but you'd have to be drinking gallons per day, or at least per week, for it to make any appreciable diference to your waistline.

Be that as it may, if you like your wine dry and crisp, then the chances are you'll enjoy these two champagnes, although there are others available. If you're tempted, then look for any of these words, on the label: they're all drier than 'brut'

Extra Brut, Brut Nature, Ultra Brut, Brut Sauvage, Brut 0 or Non Dosé

By the way, if you'd like to know more about the many styles of champagne, including the role played by ' Dosage' (adding sugar), then please visit www.madaboutbubbly.com and grab a copy of my e-book The Insider's Guide To Champagne

The Champagne Equivalent Of Screw-Tops?

Champagne is a traditional place and a traditional wine. Not for the champenois the new-fangled ideas about screw-top closures, wine in a box, wine in a can for goodness sake. No thank you; we'll stick to the tried and tested cork. Champagne just wouldn't be champagne without the cork.

But wait..... what's this? Is the establishment about to crumble after all?

Well, this is a new type of easy-open champagne stopper called Le Maestro and made by Alcan. It was launched about a month or so ago ( you may have read about it in The Timesand elsewhere) and combines the traditional-looking foil , covering a metal cap , rather like a beer bottle cap, and a lever at the side to open the bottle. More importantly, there' s no cork.

The first champagne maker to test Le Maestro was Duval-Leroy and by all reports the initial impression was good : no effect on the quality of the champagne and - critically - the sound of the bottle opening is almost identical to that produced using a cork. So, all looked good for Le Maestro being introduced more widely until.....

The local consumer affairs authorities refused to sanction the use of Le Maestro because, according to laws passed back in 1919, a champagne bottle must be sealed with a cork in the shape of a mushroom and bearing the word 'champagne' on the part of the cork which is inside the neck of the bottle.

For its part Alcan is appealing this ruling and is pressing forward with plans to increase production significantly. So perhaps we haven't seen the last of Le Maestro??? What do you think? Let me know by e-mail to

jiles@madaboutbubbly.com

To help you make up your mind here's a short video, courtesy of Marie Servagnat, to show you how it works

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ep6g_duvalleroy-maestro_webcam

Looking for cheap champagne?

The latest wheeze in one of the French supermarkets is champagne on sale for only 10.95 euros a bottle.

I haven’t had the chance to pop over yet and taste it – if there is any left at that price – but I have it on good authority that it’s really not bad.

When you consider that 10.95 includes VAT and that the supermarket will be making a margin too, it’s unlikely that the champagne maker will have sold the bottles for more than 8 euros.

Remember too that the price for a kilo of grapes is around 4.5 – 5 euros and that it takes 1.2 kg to make a bottle of champagne, and you’ll realise that the raw material alone cost 5 – 6 euros without taking into account any of the other costs, much less a profit.

All in all that’s not a very attractive situation for the champagne maker, but it does generate cash and it’s very much a sign of the times.

How things change.

This time a year ago prices were bouyant and all the talk was about how to keep up with the ever-growing worldwide demand for champagne. The plan finally approved was to include 40 new villages in the authorised production area, although this is a long-term project and won’t have an impact on the number of bottles produced until about 2020

Since last year you won’t be surprised to learn that sales of champagne have slowed down quite a bit and several champagne makers are resorting to cutting prices in order to generate precious cash.

Only recently there were reports in the French press that the Boizel Chanoine group, which owns Boizel as well as Lanson and De Venoge, amongst other brands, was planning on introducing a champagne at 10 euros a bottle as the entry point to its range of more expensive champagnes.

Whether or not that comes to pass remains to be seen and if the story does develop I’ll let you know.

Don’t hold your breath too much however. It’s unlikely that we’ll see quite the same prices here in the U.K. For a start, the duty on a bottle of champagne is almost £2 a bottle, then there’s the transport to pay for as well – not much, but it all adds to the price.

Still the price trend is definitely downward.

As I’ve said many times before, the big brands will try to keep out of this price war as much as they can, but that means you’ll be able to find some great champagnes and some great prices amongst the smaller growers, so watch this space.

Jiles

PS

The champagne industry is fascinating in many ways, but none is more intriguing that the thorny issue of pricing. I’ll be delving in more detail into this and the fascinating power struggles between the various players involved, in my forthcoming Bubbly Bulletins

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www.madaboutbubbly.com and leave your first name and preferred e-mail. Nothing to pay, but if you really want the lowdown on champagne they’re not to be missed.

Last but not least, I'd love to hear from you, so do please e-mail me with any questions and comments at

jiles@madaboutbubbly.com