Debate a Bubble - Champagne News and Reviews

Plastic Corks in Champagne?

Last week a lady from New Zealand stayed at our Bed & Breakfast -  www.bedandbreakfastinchampagne.com 

Now, in New Zealand and in many other countries, more and more wine, even very high quality wines, are sealed with screw caps. Perhaps this explains why the lady in question told me she'd heard that the people in Champagne were thinking of introducing plastic caps instead of corks.

Personally I can't ever see this happening and certainly not for years and years and when you think about it this isn't surprising.

 Unlike most wines that are sold young so that the consumer ages them at home, champagne is aged in France before sale.

Sometimes the ageing period can be  5, 6, 7 years or even longer, so even if the champenois were to test plastic corks to see if they might be suitable, the tests would have to last at least 7 years to be sure that the results were reliable over the entire ageing period of champagne.

Then of couse there's the prestige image of champagne to consider. Who'd want to buy Dom Pérignon with a screw top?

Last but not least, the question of cost, which might be crucial for some wines that  sell at bargain prices, hardly comes into the picture when you're talking about champagne. The savings of a extra few pence per bottle for a plastic cork might be useful for the accountants, but it's not going to transform the results of the entire company.

So, seeing that they're with us for the foreseeable future, I thought we'd have a closer look at the humble cork, which we all take for granted, but without which champagne would hardly be the same.

Cork is a natural product made from the bark of a cork tree and over the centuries nothing, (until recently some would say), had been found that was better for sealing wine bottles. That's because the structure of the cork allows just the right amount of air to pass between the wine and the outside atmosphere. If no air at all could pass in to and out of the bottle the wine could not develop and mature properly - too much air, on the other hand, and the wine  would rapidly turn to vinegar

The problem with corks however is that they are susceptible to a type of fungus and if this gets into the cork it will impart an unpleasant musty smell to the wine. That's what is meant when a wine is said to be 'corked'.

To reduce the pecentage of 'corked' bottles wine makers have always sought to improve the quality of the corks they use and that  is what has driven the development of alternative closures for wine bottles.(There is a cost consideration too because cork is not cheap to buy).

There are many makers of corks and many different types

When you open a bottle of champagne the cork has the characteristic mushroom shape that you know so well, but the cork didn't start out that shape.

When it's inserted into the neck of the bottle the cork is a straight-sided cylindrical shape and it has to be heated slightly (to make it  maleable) before you can get it into the bottle. Either that or a thin film of wax is applied to the cork . Here's a bagful of new corks so you can see what I mean

The  part of the cork that is inside the neck of the bottle stays compressed, whilst the part that is sticking out above the neck of the bottle expands and the bit in between is squeezed by the rim of the bottle and that where the mushroom shape comes from.

People will never stop experimenting with corks and indeed with other stoppers for champagne.

Here are a couple of more conventional types:

The first one's an aglomerate. What's that?

Well, the main part of the cork is made of little bits of cork all compressed together. This is relatively cheap, but on the end of the cork - the part that's in contact with the wine - you need something of better quality, so you'll see that there are two circles of solid cork.

The second picture shows a type of cork that's made with with much smaller bits of cork dust, tightly compacted

And now for something completely different....

It's called the Maestro and you see  what it's all about on the link. It hit the headlines about a year ago as being the way forward. It's ingenious because it's a device that retains the sound of a genuine cork popping even though the stopper is only plastic.

Inventive though it may be, the Maestro hit difficulties when it ran up against the legislation - there's lots of that in Champagne. The official definition of champagne is that it must be made by a certain method, within a given geographical area and sealed with a cork stopper.  Until and unless that changes, plastic stoppers would seem to be a 'No No' even if they ever pass the rigorous, long-term quality tests that would be required.

Next time you open a bottle of champagne, take a second to look at the cork and see if you can tell what type it is.

 

A Rare Glimpse Into The Elegant World of Champagne

I've just had some great news for champagne lovers and especially anyone who adores fine cuisine and would love a privileged glimpse inside the elegant world of a champagne maison.

In the world of elegance and luxury there's nothing much to compare with the style of the great champagne houses and there's no name in champagne that carries more prestige than    Moët & Chandon: 

- Spectacular old residences where guests are received - by invitation only.

- Outstanding food prepared by dedicated brigades of chefs whose skill equals, or even surpasses,   the Michelin starred restaurants open to the public.

- And above all a savoir faire when it comes to entertaining in real style.

Would you like to have a rare glimpse into this world?

Well now you can.

A couple of weeks ago I made a request to some of my former colleagues at Moët & Chandon to film some interviews inside La Grande Maison and yesterday I had confirmation that it's been approved. Yippee!

It was touch and go whether or not I would be allowed to do this. Not many people get this chance, even former Moët executives , like me, with  connections inside the company, so this is great news for me and for you too!

First I'll be interviewing Yuka Gansser.

Yuka is a lady of great style who is Moët & Chandon's Heritage and Hospitality Director. What Yuka doesn't know about the art of entertaining with champagne is simply not worth knowing and we'll be sharing some of her amazing experience during the interview.

Next I will be with Pascal Tingaud, the chef at  the Château de Saran, a  sublimly elegant residence belonging to Moët and located in the vineyards just outside Epernay.

Pascal has been creating dishes to die for at Saran for many years, all matched with just the right bottle of Moët & Chandon or Dom Pérignon.

We'll discover from the man who knows better than anyone, just what are the secrets of matching food and champagne and you'll be able to pick up some advice that you will be able to put into practice at home - imagine what you'll be able to do for the next dinner party you host.

The interviews and many more too will be available to everyone who enrols on the Prestige course in MONICA which stands for the 

Madaboutbubbly ON-line Internet Champagne Academy  

Click on the link to find out more and to enrol NOW .
The first 10 people to enrol will receive a special free give sent to them direct from Champagne, so dont delay.

This is just a part of what you'll discover when you enrol on one of my on-line champagne courses so whether you're a relative champagne novice who wants to gain more confidence and feel more stylish when it comes to champagne, or whether you are already fascinated by champagne and want to really understand everything about it, you'll find the course for you

Go there now and check it out

Stay Bubbly

Champagne Appellation - No Second Chance

One of the weird things about champagne is the tangle of rules and regulations surrounding the production of this world-famous wine.

You probably know already that In France they have a system of what is known as Appellations, which broadly speaking, define the geographical area in which each type of wine can be made.

Wines that have been approved under this system can put the letters AOC on the label  (Appellation d'Origine Controllée) or similar. Here's a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine and you'll see the label says Appellation Touraine Contrôlée

( Yes I do occasionally drink something other than champagne.... but not that often)

The AOC system seems all very logical and easy to understand. In fact many other countries have a similar system.

Now here's the first thing that's odd about champagne - you'll never find the  letters AOC on a champagne label, not because the wine in the bottle has been made outside the designated area, but because the word Champagne itself (which must by law appear on any genuine bottle of champagne  is considered enough on its own to prove where it came from.

But it gets weirder, as was vividly demonstrated to me only yesterday....

In Champagne (capital C for the Region and small c forthe wine, by the way) the appellation covers about 34,000 hectares of vineyards from which grapes can be used to make champagne (That's around 84,000 acres).

In fact the vineyards are spread out in an area that measures about 120 kilometres square so you can understand that the majority of the land in this area is not planted with vineyards.

But why not when it's clearly so profitable to plant vines, grow grapes and make champagne?

Well, some of the explanations are obvious: there's a town there already, there's a river, a road, a railway line, a forest etc running right through the middle.

Next you can consider what's called the micro climate: this particular area is prone to frost and would be too cold for vines; another area is too elevated and would also be too cold.

So you gradually whittle down the area that is just right for growing champagne grapes, but even then there are still dozens of anomalies.

The fact of the matter is that you can have two plots of land right next door to each other and on one you'll find a vineyard whilst next door - where you have exactly the same conditions - vines are not permitted. I think  you'll agree that this could be pretty annoying for the guy who owns the  plot where you can't plant vines.

The whole saga goes back to 1927 when the rules were laid down and, to cut a long story short, the area that was defined then, has, to all intents and purposes, never been altered.

Back then mind you, it was tough being a vigneron and growing grapes.

In the very early 1900s an aphid called Phylloxera had wiped out pretty much all the vineyards in Europe, including Champagne. The industry was on its knees and then there was the Great War, so by 1927 the prospect of growing grapes for a living wasn't all that attractive to a lot of people, so when asked to register their plots of land as part of the new Champagne appellation, they simply didnt bother.

What went in the books in 1927 has never been altered, so there has never been a second chance for those who missed out.

They  (or rather their descendants) will be kicking themselves now,  - at between 500,000 and 1,500,000 euros per hectare of vines this is valuable land we're talking about - but at the time it was more understandable and that's one reason why you can find two pieces of land, right next to each other, and one's in the Appellation whilst the other is not.

Here's a picture taken in a small vineyard belonging to Bollinger which will show you what I mean.
 
This is a very special plot indeed and here the grapes are grown for some of the most rare and expensive bottles of champagne of them all. Yet you can see that the vines stop two thirds of the way down the slope.

If these grapes are so precious, why not plant the entire plot? After all, the soil and everything else must be the same, it's all enclosed within the same garden wall for goodness sake !

Alas No.

In 1927 the unplanted area in the foreground formed part of a garden belonging to a house that has since been demolished, so the garden was never registered as being in the Appellation and now it's too late.

Even for a champagne house with the prestige and influence of Bollinger those rules and not for breaking.

There must be a moral in here somewhere. Perhaps "He Who Hesitates Is Lost"?

There's lots more to discover about champagne than you'd ever imagine. To make sure you don't miss out on these and many other gems go to www.madaboutbubbly.com and leave your first name and e-mail address.

Stay Bubbly

Jiles

Pinot Meunier - What Is It And Why Use It?

If you’re already an enthusiastic champagne drinker then you’ll probably know that only three grape varieties are allowed in champagne.

Well, if you want to be absolutely precise there are more, but the others are hardly ever used.

The three most common varieties are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir – both of which you may have heard of already – and a third called Pinot Meunier which is another matter entirely.

So what is Pinot Meunier and why is it used in the Champagne region?

The word Meunier comes from the old French word for miller (as in flour miller) and the name was given to the grape variety because of the white down on the leaves that makes them look as though they’ve been coated with flour – it’s stretching the imagination, I agree, but that’s where the name comes from anyway.

Whilst Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are considered to be noble ‘ grape varieties, Pinot Meunier is considered, by some, to be something of a poor relative.

To illustrate this point there’s not a single village in Champagne that has been given either Grand Cru or Premier Cru rating for the quality of their Pinot Meunier grapes – only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir can claim this distinction

That means that a champagne that contains even a small amount of Pinot Meunier is not allowed to use either Grand Cru or Premier Cru on the label. Now you can understand why you’ll search in vain for these words on the label of any of the well known brands – they’ve almost all got some Pinot Meunier in them.

If you ever get to try a still wine made from Pinot Meunier or a champagne made entirely with Pinot Meunier, you’ll immediately notice it’s main characteristic – it has very little length in the mouth. You take a mouthful and one moment you taste the fresh fruity flavour and all of a sudden it’s gone

This is a generalisation, of course, and there are some champagne makers who rate Pinot Meunier very highly and produce marvellous results with it, - Krug use it a lot, Moutardier is committed to Pinot Meunier as are many others down the Marne Valley, such as Christian Briard for example - but the statement broadly holds true.

So why use it at all?

Well, in fact Pinot Meunier has a lot of positives for a champagne maker:

A ) Pinot Meunier buds slightly later than the other two varieties so it is less prone to damage by late Spring frost than the other two grapes. This is a really important consideration in Champagne where frost in early or late April can wipe out the crop. In 2003 the Chardonnay vineyards (this is the grape that buds first) were extremely badly affected by frost with up to 85 % of the vines ruined in some areas

B) Pinot Meunier needs only two years ageing, or thereabouts, to develop whilst the other two varieties need a lot longer to reach their full potential – that’s why most older, vintage, champagnes have little, or no, Pinot Meunier in the blend – it’s not necessary because the Pinot Meunier would be past its best before the other two grapes were ready to drink.

C ) Most champagne makers would tell you that Pinot Meunier is a vital element in blending because what it does is bring together the other two varieties.

It brings freshness and fruitiness and makes a champagne pleasant and easy to drink. Some people find it helpful to think of a ladder with the Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir being the two uprights whilst the Pinot Meunier provides the rungs and of course the uprights can’t stand without the rungs .

There are a couple of other reasons to use Pinot Meunier which are both business related.

D ) In total Pinot Meunier accounts for well over a third of the vines planted in Champagne. Most Pinot Meunier vineyards are found in the Vallée de la Marne where the heavier soil and the higher risk of frost do not suit the other two grape varieties. So, when you’re making tens of millions of bottles every year like Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and other big names it’s simply not possible to do without Pinot Meunier. There aren't enough Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes out there.

 

E) Using all three varieties produces what some houses call a more 'complete ' champagne. This is certainly the philosophy at Moët & Chandon where the objective is to produce a champagne that reflects the diversity of the Champagne region and also appeals to a wide range of consumers

 

F) There's a cost advantage in  using Pinot Meunier: it generally costs less per kilo to buy Pinot Meunier and it needs less ageing. Looked at on a cost per bottle basis or even on a cost per kilo of grapes basis, Pinot Meunier is not much cheaper, but if you accumulate the saving over the entire production then these factors really can reduce costs and / or push up profits according to which way you look at it.

All this goes to show what I’m always going on about when you’re buying champagne: you really need to know what blend of grapes has been used.

If there’s a high proportion of Pinot Meunier – I reckon that anything over 25% is high – then it’s likely that the champagne has been aged for a relatively short time and may not have much of a finish. Mind you it will probably be deliciously fruity. It all depends what you like

Pricewise you shouldn’t expect to pay top dollar for a champagne of this style.

A Few Champagne Discoveries

The last few weeks have been full of champagne discoveries and a lot of fun so I thought I'd share some of them with you.

First off was a trip back to the U.K. for a week where I was hosting a few champagne tasting events, both in Liverpool as chance would have it.

Then a quick train journey down to Brighton and Hove to the inaugural Hove Champagne Festival where I was giving a talk on champagne and helping friends on their champagne stand.

We were serving a whole range of small grower champagnes but the favourite proved to be

Christophe Mignon which was available on special offer for the ridiculously low price of £20 a bottle.

'Christophe' as most of the customer called it, is unusual in that it is  100% Pinot  Meunier. Most champagnes are a blend of two or more grapes varieties and even when you do find a mono-cepage champagne, (just 1 varietal) it's usually made from Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, so a pure Pinot Meunier is something of a rarity .

This seemed to add a point of interest for the folk at the festival rather than the opposite. They loved the fresh fruity taste and the price as well

Needless to say it was going fast, 17 cases of it in fact and judging by the way people kept coming back for more I'd say there isn't much of a recession in Brighton

It was a great event and well worth a visit next June - lots of great champagnes to taste, good food, music, dancing and sunny weather in a lovely setting right by the seafront.

By the way, if you're in Brighton and want to try Christophe Mignon, then take a trip to Drake's Hotel  - Brighton's finest boutique hotel - where it's their specially selected champagne ( don't you just hate the term 'house champagne'?)

Then it was back home to Champagne for appointments with a couple of champagne makers I hadn't met before

Both these makers are in the village of Villers Marmery which is just two miles from where I live. They are Arnaud Margaine and Henriet Bazin. Probably names you haven't heard of before but well worth discovering for all that.

To get the low down on both these fantastic champagnes and another Grand Cru rosé that's an absolute steal at £22.97 take a look at my June newsletter.

Then, to ensure you receive the newsletter every month and much more besides,  visit my web site and just leave your first name and e-mail address in the box in the top right-hand corner.

There's always something new to discover in champagne and I hope you'll let me show  you around

Stay Bubbly

Jiles

Low Dosage - A New Trend In Champagne

Unless you’ve been living on Mars for the past couple of years, it won’t come as a surprise to know that world finances have been in a bit of a mess. We’ve been living in what the old Chinese proverb euphemistically calls ‘exciting times’.

But what one person sees as a problem is an opportunity for another and this is very much true in Champagne.

After experiencing over 30 years of uninterrupted growth, sales of champagne decreased in 2008 compared to the previous year. The same happened in 2009, but when you look at the figures more closely you find something interesting.

True, the sales of the well-known international brands have slumped and they represent a very large part of the entire market, but on the other hand, sales by the many hundreds of small champagnes – sometimes called grower champagnes - have increased. Why is this?

Well, for one thing the smaller brands are usually less expensive than the famous ones and so, if you have a budget to stick to – and  who doesn’t ? - these less expensive brands have tempted more customers.

 Some people would say that they’re cheaper because they are not such good quality. This may be true in a few instances, but there are more and more small and medium-sized champagne makers who are producing quality that is every bit as good as the brands you are more familiar with.

What this means is that the smaller growers offer you great quality and more approachable prices and when you put these together you get terrific value for money.

There’s another thing however that makes the smaller champagne makers attractive and that’s the fact that the best of them are being very innovative in what they do and nowhere is this more in evidence than in the move towards champagne to which very little extra sugar has been added.

These are called low dosage champagnes, dosage being the French word for the process of adding the extra sugar.

Let me explain....

By the time champagne has finished the fermentation process, it is bone dry; all the sugar that was in it has been used up to produce alcohol.

At this stage champagne is so dry that it was assumed that few people would actually enjoy it – at least that is the traditional point of view – so a little sugar was added to make it more appealing to the average person’s palate. 

Somewhere around 95 % of all champagne that is made falls into the category of sweetness called Brut – not too dry and not too sweet. In technical terms Brut has between 6 and 14 grams of sugar added per litre of champagne

Now, one of the claims to fame made by all the big brands is that their champagnes are of a consistent taste and quality year in, year out. This can be good news for the consumers, but the downside is that it’s very hard for the big brands to change their style of champagne without confusing, and perhaps losing, their loyal customers and that includes making any changes to the amount of sugar added.

The smaller makers don’t have such a huge following so they are free to experiment and more and more of them are making champagne with little or no added sugar.

You can recognise these champagnes from the words Zero Dosage, Brut Nature, or Extra Brut. that you’ll find on the label.

 These all have less than 6 grams of added sugar per litre and, judging from the sales figures, lots of people enjoy what they are tasting.


If you’re already saying to yourself “Oh, that would be too dry for me” or “That’s not what I like at all”, keep an open mind for just a while.

The most skilful of the smaller champagne makers produce champagnes that don’t come across as too dry at all, despite having little, or no, added sugar in them.

These people have good business brains as well as being good champagne makers and they know that they can’t offer the public something that is just too dry to enjoy. In fact the best of them make well balanced champagnes with lots of flavour and a softness in the mouth that more than compensates for the lack of sugar. Sure, there’s a crisp, clean taste to them, but nothing too extreme.

Perhaps the main  attraction of these low dosage champagnes is that they allow the makers to express much more clearly the local differences between one champagne and another, one grape and another and even between one plot of vineyard and another because these subtle nuances are not masked by too much sugar.

Getting to know these champagnes is like a guided tour round the entire Champagne region whereas the big brands offer you a reliable, but more standardised experience.

There are so many of the great little champagnes  to choose from that it’s almost unfair to mention just a few, but some worth trying are, Tarlant, Penet-Chardonnet, Francis Boulard, Agrapart, Pascal Doquet, Corbon and Arnaud Margaine, but these are just the tip of the iceberg.

The real proof of the pudding is to try some of them for yourself. I think you’ll enjoy the experience.

Champagne Labels - Inside out by Louis de Sacy

The champagne industry has been around a long time. The oldest champagne house of them all is Ruinart, founded in 1729 and there are several other houses that have been in business for over two hundred years. 

It's not surprising then that the world of champagne is steeped in traditional, so much so in fact that it's sometimes criticised for being too set in its ways and too slow to  innovate the way some other wine regions have.

 Still, this is not a criticism that can be levelled at Louis de Sacy which has come up with a new label design that turns a lot of pre-conceived notions on their head - or I should say, inside out.

Louis de Sacy is a medium sized champagne maker based in the Grand Cru village of Verzy, which is where I live.

It's not short of a bit of history itself and the family roots in Champagne go back to 1633, although they weren't champagne makers back then.

It's not a brand that's shy about putting itself forward either and it has painted a huge sign on the side of its office that can be seen from way across the vineyards. Some of the locals find this a bit vulgar but, I suspect that the people at Louis de Sacy aren't too bothered about that and just get on with it - they just do their own thing.

In fact that's exactly what they've done with a new rosé champagne called Cuvée Nue or Naked Cuvée.

I guess the people who objected to the big sign will raise their eyebrows even more about Cuvée Nue, but not because of the name so much as the label - you see there isn't one, at least not in the usual sense of the term.

Take a look first at the back label.

Nothing unusual there really - the usual blurb, but not a great deal more.

The intriguing thing though is that when you turn the bottle round you see that what you usually expect to see on the front label is in fact printed on the inside of the back label so that's it's visible through the transparent bottle.

This is certainly a novel gimmick but I'm not convinced that it really works.

Reading the 'front' ( I suppose that's what you should call it although it's part of the back label), is not easy and not very clear.

 

In fact a lot of the statutory text has been put on the collar, presumably so you can actually read it. 

Whether you like this innovation or not, it sort of overshadows something else about this rosé that's potentially much more interesting.

The real reason for the name Cuvée Nue is that there is no dosage, that's to say no added sugar.

This is very unusual for a rosé which people usually drink for the rich red fruit flavours which often give the sensation of being slightly sweet, so an absolutely bone dry rosé is definitely an innovation.

The minimalist bottle and label design was intended to compliment the fact that the champagne is, if you like, naked, no added sugar leaving nothing but the champagne to speak for itself.

So what's the verdict on Cuvée Nue ?

I give it 10 out of 10 for innovation, but only 8 out of 10 for the design itself. For me it's just too difficult to read.

As for the champagne itself, again I found the bone dry rosé too astringent to sit happily on my tongue and I felt that it lacked a balancing softness in the mouth which I always look for.

If the idea of a brut zero rosé sounds tempting to you then I'd suggest Tarlant about which I'll be writing in a short while, so... watch this space.

Champagne and Seafood - How To Put On A Very Special Dinner

If you've ever fancied bringing some champagne style to your dinner table, here's a post that will show you how to put on a very special dinner that's not hugely complicated and that will really give your foodie friends something to talk about

It was last Wednesday evening that I was invited to go along to a special champagne and seafood dinner in Reims.

We parked outside what looked like just a fishmonger's shop - a pretty impressive one it has to be said, but just a shop nevertheless.

Little did I realise that behind the scenes is a small 30 seater restaurant that I imagine is a mecca for lovers of fish.

It's called Le Bocal and the owner (in her spare time??) is in charge of the kitchen at Laurent Perrier's hospitality mansion Le Château de Louvois, so she knows a bit about cooking

But tonight it was simple meal.

The theme was to taste and compare 3 mono cepages champagnes with a variety of seafoods.

What does mono cepage mean? Well, these are champagne made with just one grape variety instead of being a blend of different grapes, so with mono cepage  you have a true impression of each grape variety's characteristics. So there was a Blanc de Blancs( 100% Chardonnay ) and two Blanc de Noirs, one a 100% Pinot Noir and the other 100% Pinot Meunier.

Of course there was another champagne for the aperitif - we're in Champagne after all - and this was a classic blend of all three grapes.

It was Cuvée Brut Réserve from Bérèche

Premier Cru from Ludes, Ormes and Mareuil Le Port, this is a blend of equal parts of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier with 9 gr/litre dosage and at least 2 years ageing.

I have to say it was a little disappointing. Lacking in depth and body for me.

When we sat down to eat all the champagnes were served blind so it wasn't until later that we found out exactly who had made them and which was which - that was the challenge for the evening: to identify the champagnes and see how they matched up with the food - and gorgeous food it was too.

A dozen bio-dynamically raised crevettes from Madagascar of all places - apparently the world's most sought-after source.

Two very generous strips of Red Label smoked salmon from Scotland. The thickness and texture were amazing and there was an amazingly bold  smokiness to them.

Red Label is the topmost quality category and is a far cry from ordinary scotch salmon. The Scots went to great lengths to meet the rigorous standards needed to obtain the Red Label tag and much of the production now finds its way to France

Last but not least, home made taramasalata made with cod eggs and cream and no colouring at all.

You needn't go to quite these extremes at home to put on a great meal, but if you're going to serve good champagnes, they deserve good food to accompany them.

Talking of the champagnes, we enjoyed:

Cuvée Carte d'Or Blanc de Blancs from Champagne Doyard Mahé in Vertus

Cuvée Réserve from Champagne Trudon (100% Meunier- sometimes called a blanc de meuniers)

Blanc de Noirs from Champagne Patrick Soutiran in Ambonnay (100% Pinot Noir)

Personally Ithought the Trudon was the best match across the board with the various dishes.

The Pinot Noir from Patrick Soutiran was just too heavy with fish and the Blancs de Blancs was pleasant without being outstanding

I was in a minority though and most people felt that the Blanc de Blancs took the honours

So here's the thing. Why not do the same thing at home with 6 or 8 friends?

The food is relatively simple to prepare, the champagnes made need a bit of tracking down, particularly the 100% Meunier, but you don't have to use the same brands as we did as long as you get one champagne of each style.

Serve the food with simple fresh bread, then sit back, taste, sip and chat.

Notice the  different shades of colour across the different champagnes, then look for different aromas and tastes

I bet you'll have a lot of fun and learn quite a bit into the bargain

Let me know how you get on

Champagne Glasses - Choose Your Weapons

Have you ever seen any of those black and white films set in the Victorian era when men would sometimes challenge each other to a duel to defend their honour?  Before the duel could start the essential thing was to choose the weapons: would it be swords, pistols or some other device? The choice of weapon made all the difference

When it comes to enjoying champagne, it's the glasses that make all the difference and although the stakes are not quite so high it's important to make the right choice for you. So what are those choices and why does it matter?...

Broadly speaking you have two choices. You can:

•    Go for something that you find beautiful, or
•    Choose a glass that will bring out the best in the champagne.

Sometimes you can achieve both objectives with the same glass, but not always.
Here are some suggestions:

A good glass really does change your experience of the champagne, so treat yourself to some thing of decent quality. What do I mean by that?

Well, champagne glasses should be fine and elegant. Above all the glass shouldn’t be too thick.

Think of it this way: it’s like drinking tea. You can enjoy tea from a fine bone china tea cup or from a porcelain mug, but the choice of cup or mug gives a different experience.

The worst things are those thick, dumpy flutes that you sometimes get in hotels and  at large functions. (right)

They simply don’t bring out anything in the champagne and certainly not its best.

This is a pity because caterers should know better and you can be sure they won’t offer you any reduction in the price to compensate for using awful glasses!


Light, not too heavy when you pick the glass up.
Champagne is a light, bubbly drink that lifts the spirits and the glass should complement this.

Personally I find cut lead crystal glass too heavy. For me, the lighter the better, almost as if the glass doesn’t exist.

(the glasses on the right are too fussy, in my view) 




Fairly tall with a long stem.
The stem is for holding so make sure there is something to get your hand around. A tall glass is also more elegant, as befits champagne



Not too narrow
To release the aromas in any wine you need to swirl the wine around a bit in the glass, so don’t choose anything that’s too narrow, or you just can’t get any movement in the wine.
 (see left)

The right shape

Equally the top of the glass should ideally turn in slightly so as to concentrate the aromas towards your nose when you drink. Glasses that splay out at the top allow the aromas to dissipate, (see right). 

The history of the champagne glass 

If you go back a few hundred years, champagne makers hadn’t worked out how to remove the sediment from the bottle, so champagne was cloudy and slightly muddy-looking. To disguise this, the surface of the some champagne glasses, especially the tall and slim ones, was often left deliberately rough and semi-opaque. This was called a barley grain effect.

Another trick was to have hollow stems to the glasses so that the sediment sank down into the stem leaving the rest of the liquid fairly clear.

Then around the start of the 19th century, Veuve Clicquot, so the story goes, invented the process of remuage or riddling to remove the sediment, so the problem of murky champagne was solved, allowing totally transparent glasses to be used.

Sometime later in the 19th century and right through into the 20th century, the saucer-shaped glass called a coupe came back into fashion again, only to be superseded from about the 1970s onwards by the tall, slim glass that we call a flute.

Flute versus coupe

 Flute is the word used to describe the tall, narrow, tulip-shaped style of champagne glass whereas coupe is the term for the shallow, saucer-shaped glass.

The flute has several advantages if you really want to appreciate the champagne you’re drinking.

First you can see the stream of bubbles rising up the length of the glass and the bubbles, after all, are one of the main pleasures of champagne.

Second and more important, the tall, narrow shape focuses the aromas so that when you raise the glass to drink you can also smell and enjoy the full concentration of the aromas.

For this reason the most effective flutes curve slightly inwards at the top (like the shape of a tulip - see left), whilst those that open out at the top (like the shape of a lily) allow some of the aromas to escape.

Coupe glasses can be a lot of fun. For me they evoke images of decadent cocktail parties in the 1920s with people doing the Charleston, but they go back a lot further than that because legend has it that the shape was modelled on Marie Antoinette’s breasts.

I think coupes are great for serving champagne cocktails, but equally some people can’t get the less flattering connection with the 60’s drink Babycham, out of their minds.

The main drawback of the coupe is that the aromas of the champagne dissipate rapidly and you simply don’t get the concentration of aromas that you can appreciate with a flute.

Another story you often hear about coupe glasses is that the bubbles disappear more quickly than in a flute. This is another old wives’ tale which for all intents and purposes is of no practical value.

The bubbles in champagne just don’t disappear in a few minutes, even in a coupe glass – it takes an hour or much more for champagne to lose its sparkle.

I don’t know how long it takes you to finish a glass of champagne, but in my case it’s a matter of minutes, not hours, so I shouldn’t pay much attention to this particular myth about coupe glasses.

Remember, if you are at all interested in enjoying good champagne, then do get yourself some good champagne glasses.

Champagne brands – How to find the right one for you

Champagne – for many people just the very mention of the word conjures up images of luxury, elegance and romance.

Many people believe that there are just a hand-full of famous champagne brands, but in fact there are almost 5,000 different champagne makers. They’re all unique in their way and many of them produce superb wine that rival better known champagnes, but faced with such a wide choice, how to you decide? Here are some quick pointers to help you make the right decision for you.

There are four things that determine the quality and style of a champagne and that you should know before you choose a champagne:
•    What grapes were used and in what proportions?
•    What was the quality of the grapes used?
•    How long has the champagne been aged?
•    How sweet is it?

Some of this information can be found on the label. For the rest you’ll have to ask the people in the shop – they should be able to tell you. If they can’t, go to another shop!

Grapes
Champagne can be made with 3 grape varieties: one white, Chardonnay, and two black, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The grapes can be blended together in whatever proportions the wine maker chooses, but this choice makes a big difference to the end result.

It’s common to describe grapes in terms of smells and tastes, but for some people it’s helpful to think of them as colours in an artist’s palette or instruments in an orchestra. When you mix colours and sounds together you often get something that is more than just the sum of the parts.

Chardonnay:  generally light in style ( this doesn’t mean lacking in flavour ). It’s sometimes described as ‘ elegant’, or ‘feminine’ and is characterised by flavours and aromas of citrus fruit and floral notes such as blossom.

If Chardonnay were a colour it would be bright yellow or vivid white. It’s the flute or violin of the orchestra.

Pinot Noir: brings more body and power to the champagne together with flavours and aromas of red fruits such as cherry, blackcurrant and strawberry.

Pinot Meunier: brings aromas of apples and pears together with a fresh fruity quality that makes a champagne easy to drink and soft in the mouth.

These two black grapes are the bass notes – the trombones and drums of the orchestra, or the rich reds, blues and greens of the artist.

Quality
Any good chef will tell you that to make a great dish you must start with great ingredients – it’s the same with the grapes in champagne.

There are 3 grades of quality:
The top 5 % of the vineyards are called Grand Cru ( you‘ll see this on the label if it applies )
The next 15% are designated as Premier Cru ( also on the label)
The rest are classified as Cru ( if you don’t see Grand or Premier Cru on the label, then the blend is an ordinary Cru )

When different qualities are mixed together the quality of the overall blend is determined by the   lowest quality element, even if there’s only a tiny amount of that lower quality ingredient. So a blend of 98% Grand Cru, 1% Premier Cru and  1% Cru, is not entitled to be called either Grand Cru or Premier Cru. It all has to be called just plain Cru

 Ageing
 Almost never mentioned on the label but nevertheless one of main factors determining quality.

The critical thing is the time the champagne spends ageing on the lees ( yeast sediment ) in the cellar in France before it is sold.

15 months is the legal minimum ageing on lees for a champagne, but this is barely time enough for the round rich flavours to develop and for the champagne to loose it’s young, acidic edge.

In practice 2.5 years, or 3 is better and if you can find a champagne that is aged even longer, so much the better.

N.B  this is not at all the same thing as the time you keep the bottle after you have bought it and the best thing, unless you have a superb cellar in your home, is not to keep champagne longer than a year or two at most after you buy it.

Sweetness
By the end of the champagne making process the champagne in the bottle is bone dry – too dry for most  people’s taste - so a small amount of liquid sugar is added to make the champagne more acceptable to the consumer’s expectations. The more sugar you add, the sweeter the champagne.

Depending on how sweet a tooth you have, what the occasion is and what food you may be eating with the champagne, you’ll want a champagne with a different level of sweetness. Fortunately this is always indicated on the label if you know what to look for.

Most champagne is fairly dry – this style is called Brut and you’ll see this word on the label

 If you like something sweeter, look for the words Demi-Sec on the label.

On the other hand if a really dry champagne is your favourite then you should look for the words Extra Brut or Brut Nature.