Debate a Bubble - Champagne News and Reviews

Holiday in Champagne

Hello again,

I'm off for a few days in Champagne soon, so, if you've never been, I thought I'd share a few pictures of what it's like...

Many of you may well be preparing to get away on holiday and I'm happy to say "Me too!"

It's a bit of what we in England call ' A busman's holiday' ( i.e. just the same as usual ) because I'm off to spend a few days at our home in Champagne.

Still I'm really looking forward to it and apart from the obvious pleasures of discovering lots of new champagnes to taste, there's more to do in Champagne than you might imagine - that's when I can get away from the painting and DIY.

To show you what I mean here are a few photos and a few ideas of what  you may like to try next time you're in Champagne.

The picture in the top right corner is a view I remember from years ago when these tree-lined roads were all over France. There seem to be fewer of them these days,  but this one near the village of Damery  is one of the survivors and is so typically French that just looking at it it make me feels as if I'm already on holiday.

I'm told that the trees were planted along the roadside by Napoleon to shade his soldiers when they were on the march. These days many trees have been chopped down because they're a 'traffic hazard' - funny how it's never the trees that jump out at the cars, but always the cars that run off into the trees. Sounds like the cars are more of a 'tree-hazard'.

Still on the subject of road safety, please don't drink and drive if you visit the Distillerie de Guillon to sample the local whisky.

Yes, amazing though it sounds, one enterprising man set up a whisky distillery in Champagne.

It's near the village of Verzy and, luckily, is within walking distance of my house. The whisky is not yet of the quality that will get the the Scots, Irish or Americans  too worried about the competition, but why not give it a try when you just can't stand the thought of drinking more champagne.

If you've had too much rushing around and just want to relax and let the world go by, you can always try a boat trip down the River Marne. The river's wide and peaceful and very leisurely it is too.

Trips leave from the village of Damery and you can also book a meal onboard.

For the more energetic amongst you, there's a terrific adventure to be had swinging through the forest at Arboxygène- only 15 minutes from Reims and right in the middle of the Montage de Reims.

Take a look at their web site at

http://www.arboxygene.eu/

Last but certainly not least, of course, you're almost certain to be surrounded by the vineyards, so why not take a stroll along the many paths and tracks that meander through the rows of vines. No one will mind where you wander as long as you don't damage the grapes or the vines.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave your name and e-mail address and I'll get back to you. Altenatively, you can e-mail me at  jiles@madaboutbubbly.com and sign up for my free Bubbly Bulletins by going to www.madaboutbubbly.com

WHICH ARE THE 'BEST' NON VINTAGE CHAMPAGNES?

I've always been a great advocate of making up your own mind and not being influenced by what anyone else says. So, when I see headlines like this I am reminded that the 'best' champagne in the world is the one YOU like best.

Neverthless, it's useful to see what other people think and a new classifcation by a Finnish magazine is a good case in point.

I've just subscribed to Fine, a newly released publication in Finland dedicated to champagne. Like many such magazines it's packed with glossy, and very tempting, adverts from all kinds of luxury brands, but in between these there are some interesting articles on champagne.

Their ranking of the 100 'best' non-vintage champagnes is a case in point.

Let's see the results they came up with, but first, a few comments to put things in perspective:

On the plus side, I like the fact that the list covers a wide range of famous brands and also brands that the majority of consumers will never have heard of, so this list is not the rather tedious parade of what I call  ' the usual suspects'.

On a slightly less positive note, the majority (62) of the champagnes were given a score of between 88 and 85 out of 100, which means that there's precious little difference between them, so little in fact that my guess is that 99 people out of 100 wouldn't be able to taste any difference at all, except simply what each of them likes, or dislikes, personally.

Anyway these were the top 10, so see what you think:

Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve

 Louis Roederer Brut  Premier

Taittinger Brut Réserve

 De Venoge Brut Blanc de Noirs 

Pommery Pop Earth Brut

Cattier Brut Premier Cru 

Pol Roger Brut Réserve 

Chartogne-Taillet Cuvée Sainte Anne Brut 

Laurent Perrier Brut L-P 

 Gosset Grande Réserve

Names that you may think are conspicuously absent from this top 10, such as Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Lanson and Bollinger do figure a little lower down the list. Interestingly though, Krug does not.

The full list of 100 also includes Blanc de Noirs champages as well as Demi-sec champagne and Zero dosage champagne, so the full spectrum of styles was included and it's great to see, at last, some recognition that there are lots of wonderful champagne experiences to be had outside the usual Brut, 'classic blend ' style that dominates the market.

There was also a classification of rosé champagnes which I'll tell you about in another blog soon.

It's very difficult, and even misleading, to regard any list such as this one as being the definitive ranking.

For example, although they didn't figure in the top 10, the two brands  which had the most entries in the top 100 (which you might say was a mark of  consistently high quality) were Champagne Mercier and Champagne Mailly Grand Cru - probably not the two that  would have sprung immediately to your mind.

So, as I mentioned at the beginning, use this list as a guide, but don't feel obliged to agree entirely. Make up you own mind and it's a great excuse to try the ones you haven't already tasted.

Jiles

To receive more in-depth articles on champagne and/or to grab a copy of my e-book 'The Insider's Guide To Champagne'  you can sign up at  www.madaboutbubbly.com

Beware of reverse snobbery around RM Champagnes!

There’s a lot of misleading talk about RM, or small grower champagnes, being THE ONLY thing to look for in champagne.This is a gross over-simplication....

Sorry if I sound a bit animated here, but there’s recently been a lot of poor information given out about what are known as RM champagnes, or grower champagnes, as they are sometimes called.

Don’t get me wrong; the increasing interest in lesser-known brands is wonderful and very encouraging. There is no one more pleased than I am. In fact I’ve been saying for years that since there are almost 5,000 champagne brands to choose from, it’s crazy not to try more of them.

Unfortunately, until fairly recently, many people mistakenly assumed that the handful of international brands you find everywhere were ‘the best’ champagnes around, or, worse still, that they were the only champagnes worth drinking at all. 

So, it’s great to see the smaller growers getting more recognition. The quality of their champagnes can be superb and the prices are often just as appealing as the quality.

However some people seem to be going over the top and there’s another trend that is now creeping in which is potentially just as misleading as big brand syndrome and that is to say that RM champagnes are ALL that you should be looking for. It’s a sort of reverse snobbery.

I believe that this stems from a misunderstanding of what RM means and I can’t help having a quick mini-rant which I hope will prevent you missing out on some great champagnes and some great bargains.

So, what does RM actually mean?

Well, it refers to the code to be found ( in very small letters) on the label of just about every bottle of champagne and which is used to identify the status of the champagne maker.

R stands for Récoltant ( the literal translation is ‘Harvester’) M stands for Manipulant ( literally ‘Handler’)

An RM champagne-maker harvests grapes from his own vineyards and handles, or processes, the grapes to produce his own champagne.

There are several other categories but the most common one is NM

N stands for Négociant (negotiator or ‘dealer’) M stands, as before, for Manipulant

This type of champagne maker may buy grapes from third parties as well as harvesting grapes from his own vineyard.

The NM category includes all the big, famous brands and is generally associated with large-scale production, whereas RM producers are, of necessity, much smaller companies. They rely on their own vineyards and so don’t have access to so many grapes as the NM. It's this 'boutique' nature of some of these champagne makers, that is giving rise to what can be a narrow-minded view of things.

But here’s the thing.....

There are plenty of very small-scale champagne makers who are NM and yet still have all the quality and very often the attractive prices of the RM as well. How can this be?

Let’s tale a couple of concrete examples to shown you what I mean...

Champagne Comte Audoin de Dampierre

Wow, the name’s a mouthful in itself and the champagne is just as amazing

The Comte is based in the village of Chenay and has a growing band of admirers for his champagne, but his company owns no vineyards so he has to buy all his grapes on the open market.This makes him a NM even though, size-wise, he fits into the RM category.

Still, he’s making a virtue out of this necessity: He proudly states that:

" You make good champagne with good grapes. So I buy only the best grapes.When you want the best, you don’t haggle, you pay the price."

You’ve probably gathered from this that his champagnes are not the cheapest you can find, but they’re not exhorbitantly expensive either and, for the quality, they’re excellent value compared with some, more famous names.

Champagne Pierson Whitaker

This is about the closest I’ve found to hand-made champagne.

I guess I’m biased because I have known Didier Pierson and his partner Imogen Whitaker for many years, but I’m far from being the only person who thinks their champagnes are fabulous. Plus they are criminally under-priced.

Pierson Whitaker’s own vineyard holdings are tiny, so they buy grapes on the open market too and that makes them NM. If you rejected Pierson Whitaker just because the supposedly magic letters RM don’t appear on the bottle, you’d be shooting yourself in the foot big-time.

The list of small, good quality NM champagne makers goes on and on which is a very good reminder to me not to do the same, so I’ll finish this post now just by asking you once again not to put on the RM blinkers.

Thank you – I’m a little calmer now.

Jiles

PS

Comte Audoin de Dampierre champagne is stocked in many places in the U.K. however, the only place I know that stocks Pierson Whitaker is MW2Wines at

www.mw2wines.com

Last but not least, don’t forget that if you really want the inside track about champagne, you can buy my e-book The Insider’s Guide To Champagne for only £19.97 at

www.madaboutbubbly.com

Mother Nature Steps In

Huge stroms have battered the Champagne vineyards, but as ever, there's a silver lining if you look hard enough.

If you read my blog yesterday you will have discovered that there's currently a big debate in Champagne about how big the harvest should be this year.

Sales of champagne are down, so logic says that there needs to be fewer grapes picked this year to avoid over-stocking. Those whose livelihood depends on growing and selling grapes however, aren't happy with that idea. So, how to resolve the debate?

Perhaps Mother Nature has the answer...

 Last weekend saw a huge storm pass over the region and in particuar over the villages of Aÿ, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Avenay-Val-d'Or. Torrents of rain and cascades of mud rushed down the vineyard slopes and the vines were battered mercilessly by hail. According  to some reports as much as 30% of the grapes in these villages were destroyed. That doesn't necessarily mean that 30% of the harvest will be lost, but some will be for certain.

If that were not enough, there's been a particularly bad outbreak of mildew in the vineyards this year and this too threatens to reduce the harvest even further. The great strides made over the last few years in reducing the use of harmful chemicals to treat the vines, seem to have left the vines more susceptible to disease.

Like it or not, it seems that this year's harvest will be relatively small and one wonders whether Mother Nature hasn't intervened to avoid mere mortals having to make the decision themselves.

Still, the champenois have seen this all before. Some of them are already saying that this year's harvest is a bit of a right off and, gritting their teeth, are setting their sights on better things in 2010.

As the great wine writer, Patrick Forbes once said, 

"It's not time, nor money, nor hard work, nor dedication that is needed most in Champagne, but courage"

I'd like to acknowledge the excellent blog Ad Vinum Eternam for the inspiration for this post and the photo

http://www.ad-vinum-eternam.com

It's written in French, so for all you French speakers/readers, it's worth a look

Jiles

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

To make sure you receive the Bubbly Bulletins just go to

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