Debate a Bubble - Champagne News and Reviews

Plastic Corks in Champagne?

2010-07-26T18:29:00+02:00

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

2010-07-23T09:54:05+02:00

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

Nothing to do with champagne

2010-07-15T21:15:26+02:00

Just for a change here's a post that has nothing to do with champagne - well, almost nothing - it took place in Champagne.

Last week a couple of friends came over to stay and one of them is a keen cycling fan so he persuaded me to go and watch the Tour De France with him.

It so happens that it was passing through Reims and Epernay this year so it was only a 30 minute drive away and off we went. Actually we went beyond Epernay to a village called Orbaye l'Abbaye to avoid the crowds and for a better view because there's a hill on the exit to the village and the riders would inevitably be going slower (a little) on this climb.

I had no idea what to expect, but I had a lot of fun and I think I could get quite interested in following the TdF in future. Got some good pictures too including one of Lance Armstrong - more by luck than judgement I have to say.

Before the riders come along there's a sort of procession by all the companies sponsoring the Tour. It's called 'La Caravanne'

They all send all sorts of weirdly decorated cars along, playing music, throwing out freebies and even spraying the crowd with water - that was the Vittel float. Here are a few photos to give you a feel of what it was like

Skoda are the official TdF car suppliers

Not this particular model, mind you.

It was really hot so a cool drink would have been good. At least this guy had a parasol.

A chicken-shaped car!

And now to the business end of things - the riders:

Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie

The Yellow Jersey

and last but not least, let's hear it for a courageous supporter from Australia who, on a sweltering day, was walking around in a koala outfit.

Still, coming from Australia, he probably thought it was a bit on the chilly side!

Champagne Appellation - No Second Chance

2010-07-14T11:20:54+02:00

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

Champagne Brands - The Real Way To Discover Amazing Small Brands - Part 2

2010-07-05T12:45:20+02:00

In my last blog post we looked at RM champagnes and saw that, despite what some people will tell you, just relying on finding these two letters on a champagne label is not going to make it much easier to discover new champagne brands that will suit your taste -there are simply too many RM champagnes out there and you’ll still be faced with a bewildering choice.

Fortunately there is another way of finding your way through this maze and when you do you’ll discover a whole new world of terrific champagnes that you’ve never tried before. Here's why...

The thing about RM champagne makers is that they are small and so most of their vines are in, or near to, the village where they are based.

The name of the village is always shown on the label. Some makers display the village loud and clear like Georges Vesselle in the village of Bouzy, but you'll always find the village somewhere, usually right next to the RM code.

When you know the name of the village you can get a reasonable clue as to the style of the champagne because different villages produce different types of champagne.

O.K. I admit that this is not a foolproof method that is guaranteed to identify the perfect champagne for you every time, but it certainly narrows the choice down a lot and it’s something that you just can’t do with the big brands because they source their grapes from all over the entire Champagne region and so their champagnes have a much looser connection with any one location - none at all really.

So all you have to do is get to know the names of some villages in Champagne.

You don’t have to memorize all the villages; that would be asking a bit much seeing that there are over 300 villages here, but a good start is to remember some of the more prominent ones.

After that, it’s like everything else: the more time you spend studying the subject the better you’ll get and if you decide to put in a little study time you’ll soon be an expert on RM champagnes

Here’s a list to help you on your way...

If you like the crisp, dry style of Blanc de Blancs champagnes made only from Chardonnay grapes, then look out for these village names in the Côte des Blancs area

Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Oger, Oiry, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, Vertus

If it’s bigger, bolder, more full flavoured champagne that you prefer then look for champagnes that have a high proportion of Pinot Noir in them. Here are some of the villages famed for their Pinot Noir vineyards:

Ambonnay, Aÿ, Bouzy, Mailly, Verzy and Verzenay. Also Ludes, Chigny-Les-Roses and Rilly-La-Montagne.

Finally, if you enjoy fresh, fruity champagnes for drinking at any time of day then you can venture down the Marne River valley to find villages that specialise in Pinot Meunier. Look out for

Charly-sur-Marne, Chatillon-sur-Marne, Crouttes-sur-Marne, Damery, Festigny, Fossoy, Oeuilly, Reuil and Vincelles.

So which ones will you try first and how many can you remember?

Champagne Brands - The Real Way To Discover Amazing Small Brands - Part 1

2010-07-02T11:49:36+02:00

Over the past year or two there's been a real surge in interest in the small, independent champagne makers.

That’s terrific.

There’s so much more to champagne than the handful of international brands that you find all over the world and if you can tear yourself away from these giant brands there are are some amazing champagnes to discover...

If you only know where to look.

And that’s the thing. Those big brands are everywhere and they're so reassuring aren’t they?

You feel that if you know the name, the champagne must be good.

It’s all too easy to just grab the old familiar label and go with it again and again:

The Moëts, the Taittingers,the Veuves etc. etc.

Sure, you’d just love to try those small champagne everyone’s talking about, but where do you look and what do you look for?

Well if this describes you then you’re in luck because in the next two blog posts I going to be giving you a few tips and pointers that will help you make a start on your journey of discovery and once you’ve started I’m sure you won’t look back.

But first I have some bad news:

Lots of writers on champagne are making out that it’s easy to find those amazing small brands. You can’t go wrong, or so they would have you believe.

What is this ‘magic bullet’ solution?

Well, each champagne maker has a registration code that must be shown on the label. It’s a string of numbers preceeded by two letters.

If those two letters are RM that means that the maker uses only grapes from his own vineyards to make his champagne and that means small, boutique-style production.

According to some writers on the subject that’s all you need to know. Just look for the letters RM., they say, and that will guide you unerringly to great quality and just the taste you are looking for.

Simple then, isn’t it? Get your reading glassses out, find the RM code and buy, buy, buy.

Hold on a minute.....

What these guys don’t tell you is that there are almost 5,000 champagne makers out there and that almost all of them are classified as RM, so that doesn’t exactly narrow the field much does it?

For another thing, several of the great little champagne makers aren’t classified as RM

Take a look at this picture for example.

A super Blanc de Blancs champagne from a smallish house called Legras & Haas.

Ever heard of it?

Probably not.

Is it a small producer?

Yes.

Is it an RM ?

NO . Look at the bottom of the label and you’ll see it’s classified as an NM, meaning that they buy grapes from other people as well as using their own grapes.

So if you followed the advocates of ‘RM only’ you’d miss out entirely.

Just looking for the letters RM is a start, but it doesn’t get you all that far and it may take you down the wrong path altogether.

Fortunately, wherever there’s bad news, there’s good news too and help is at hand.

For a start, here’s where you can discover more about what the various champagne producer codes mean

Second, there are some clues you can find on the label of the RM producers that will help you decide about which ones you're likely to enjoy and which ones may not be to your taste.

I’ll be writing about these in my next post, so do come back soon and to make sure you don't miss these useful tips that no one seems to have picked up on, just click now on the orange 'Subscribe' button that you'll find in the right hand border of this blog page.

Stay Bubbly.

Jiles

Pinot Meunier - What Is It And Why Use It?

2010-06-22T11:35:53+02:00

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

2010-06-17T22:33:49+02:00

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

2010-05-31T09:59:40+02:00

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

2010-05-30T15:12:15+02:00

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.