I wonder how many champagne brands you can name off the top of your head?
Some of the big brands immediately spring to mind: Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Cristal and Dom Pérignon for example. If you can name 10 more brands then I'd say that's pretty good. 20 more would mean you know quite a bit about champagne, but did you know that there are almost 5,000 makes of champagne?
With so many to choose from how on earth do you tell one from another?
Well in fact the answer lies in the question because one thing that makes a big difference is the earth in which the grapes grow. The earth (actually soil is a better word) is one part of what the French call Terroir : a word that is almost impossible to translate directly but which includes all the elements that make each vineyard unique. The soil, the microclimate, the grape variety, the exposure to the sun and also the skill and experience that the local vine growers have acquired over the years.
If you think that most champagnes are very similar then that's perfectly understandable because most of the biggest selling brands are made with a blend of grapes sourced from all over the Champagne region so that when they are blended together you have a good quality, pleasant champagne that is designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Of course there are differences between one brand and another but they're relatively subtle and there's nothing that gives you any insight into any specific terroir.
However when you go beyond the big brands and try champagnes from small growers you'll find that they harvest their grapes from a much more limited area, sometimes from just two or three villages, sometimes from one village only and occasionally from just one single plot of vineyard.
That's when you can really discover the terroir of a specific village or an individual plot of land and the differences between them. So if you're intrigued to learn more about how different one champagne can be from another, a great way to start is by trying the lesser-known names.
Below is a short video of David Pehu of Champagne Pehu Simonet to tell you more about this
Come back soon for more videos on this any other topics.
Meanwhle, Stay Bubbly
Jiles
So what's the last remaining thing you need to know before you buy a bottle champagne?
In part 1 of the series we discovered why you need to know which grapes have been used.
Part 2 was all about the quality of the grapes and in part 3 we talked about how the length of time the champagne has been aged also has a major impact on the taste
Armed with those pieces of information which your retailer should be able to give you, you'll have a pretty good idea, before you buy the bottle, of whether you are going to like what's in the bottle. The last piece of the jigsaw is how sweet or dry is the champagne.
You may or may not know this, but by the time a bottle of champagne has got to the end of the production process there is no sugar left in it at all – whatever sugar there was in the wine has all been used up during the fermentation leaving the champagne bone dry
Conventional wisdom has always said that this would be too dry for most wine drinkers, so to make the champagne more appealing to a wider range of drinkers, champagne makers simply add some cane sugar, in liquid form, to the bottle before it is labelled up and sent off to be sold. I am sure you can easily understand that the decision about how much sugar to add is going to make a big difference to how the champagne tastes.
This practice of adding sugar is called 'dosage' in French and is measured in grams of sugar per litre of champagne ( gr/litre). There are several categories of sweetness which you can choose from according to whether you prefer a very dry style or a sweeter style. Here are the main ones:
Extra Brut 0 – 6 gr/litre ( As dry as you can get)
Brut Nature Less than 3gr/litre
Brut Less than 12 gr/litre ( Brut accounts for 90% or more of all champagne made)
Extra Dry 12 – 17 gr/litre
Sec 17 – 32 gr/litre
Demi-Sec 32 – 50 gr/litre
Doux Over 50 gr/litre
The category of sweetness must, by law, be shown on the label, so you'll always have this guideline to help you in your choice, but as you can see, there are several categories that overlap each other especially at the dry end of the scale and that's not very helpful, to say the least. To make things even more confusing some champagne houses have come up with their own name to describe their very driest champagne: Ultra Brut, Brut Zero, Brut Sauvage are just a few of them.
So what do you do now?
Well, the more enlightened and customer-focussed champagne makers have started to put the exact dosage in terms of grams per litre on the back label so look out for this because it will give you a precise idea of the dryness or sweetness of the champagne and you'll be able to compare one champagne with another.
Can't find anything about the dosage on the back label? Not to worry, ask your retailer because he or she should know – this is crucial information.
One last thought before we finish. It really isn't worth spending too much time listening to marketing people who tell you that there are fewer calories in drier champagne and that the really dry stuff is better for your figure. Sure, you can taste the difference when you drink the champagne, but for there to be any real impact on your weight you'd have to be drinking gallons of the stuff daily and if you were, then you'd have other things to worry about rather than a few calories saved.
Stay Bubbly and if you have any questions send me an e-mail at jiles@mymaninchampagne.com
We're now officially into La Veraison : the final ripening period before the harvest. Now's the time when the black grapes start turning black - up until now all the grape varieties, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier have been the same green colour
La Veraison will last about one month so it looks as if the forecasts made earlier in the year of an ultra-early start to the harvest, perhaps as early as August 16th, were a bit over enthusiastic.
From now on the grapes will be analysed on a regular basis to check how they are coming along and the harvest won't start until everyone one is satisifed that the grapes are just right, but what does that mean exactly?
Well, it's mainly about getting a good balance of sugar and acidity.
Without a good level of acidity the wine will be dull and flabby, certainly not suitable for transforming into champagne which always has to have a refreshing zest and liveliness to it. What's more, a good level of acidity means that the champagne will have good ageing potential, another essential ingredient for top quality champagne.
The sugar in the grapes is needed to turn into alcohol during the fermentation.
During the first fermentation the grape juice will be turned into still wine with an alcohol content of about 10% abv ( alcohol by volume). Any less than this and the wine will lack body and won't have the potential to be turned into champagne at around 12% abv during the second fermentation in bottle.
On Monday the reading for the samples taken from the vineyards showed that the sugar content of the grapes was only around 60 grams of sugar per litre of juice.
It takes 16.8 gr/litre to produce 1% alcohol so to reach 10% alcohol the sugar reading needs to be up around 160-170 g/litre.
Quite a long way to go, then, and the vignerons will be hoping that the hot sun that we had in Spring comes back for a few more weeks. Right now though it's distinctly cool here in Champagne.
More news soon so do come back and check it out
In parts 1 and 2 of this series we looked at two things that affect the style and quality of a champagne. They were
The third factor that has a crucial influence on the champagne is the length of time it’s aged.
Before a bottle of champagne can be sold by the producer it is aged in the cellars for a period which, by law, must not be less than 15 months. Any less than this and the champagne would probably be sharp and acidic (what’s often called ‘Green’), and too much of that sort of poor quality champagne on the market would give champagne in general a bad reputation, hence the regulation about the minimum ageing period.
During the ageing time the yeast sediment (this is what you often hear called the lees) inside the bottle releases natural enzymes and proteins which react with the wine causing it to develop the complex mix of aromas and flavours which contribute to a great champagne.
In general, the longer the period of ageing, the better the champagne. As we have just seen, 15 months is the legal minimum, but very little champagne is sold as young as this. Any champagne maker with the ambition to produce a good wine will leave the wine ageing for at least two years and preferably more
But why is ageing champagne so important?
Well, as champagne ages the aromas and flavours evolve and develop. After 3 or 4 years the fresh fruity and floral aromas that you find in younger champagnes give way to that lovely biscuity smell that so many people love about champagne; you also get touches of dried fruits, of cinnamon and other spices. After 6 years or more the champagne takes on even more intense flavours and aromas: coffee, toast, truffles and honey to name just a few.
So you can understand that according to what you’re looking for – fresh, fruity and easy to drink at any time, or richer, more complex and worthy of more attention to really appreciate it - you’re going to need to find a champagne that has aged the corresponding amount of time.
The question is however,
How do you know how long the champagne has been aged ?
Unless the champagne is a vintage champagne ( in which case the date of the harvest is on the label) you rarely, if ever, get any clues about the age from just looking at the label. Besides, by far the majority of champagne sold is non-vintage – a blend of wines from several harvests, so that’s another reason there’s no date on the bottle.
However things are changing slowly and that’s especially true amongst the smaller producers who don’t have a well-known brand name and need to make a greater effort to give you more information about the wine itself.
What you can find from time to time on the back label are a couple of lines that will tell you (for example) that the champagne is made mainly from the harvest in year 20XX with a smaller amount of wine from years 20YY and 20ZZ
When you come across a champagne maker who has had the good sense to put this sort of information on the back label you can tell that he or she is someone who is thinking about the customer so it’s a good sign and a recommendation in itself.
Nevertheless that’s not common and in most cases you’ll have to ask the retailer.
If you buy your champagne from a supermarket the staff are unlikely to have been trained about this stuff - let’s face it, you don’t go to a supermarket for expert advice, you go there for cheap prices and a wide selection of goods.
If you want to get some advice you need to go to a specialist wine store and they should be able to tell you about the ageing. If they do then stick with them – they know their stuff. If they don't, keep looking for another store.
I hope that this brief introduction into the subject of ageing champagne has been useful. If you have any comments or want to know more then just e-me at
jiles@mymaninchampagne.comMeanwhile, look out for the fourth and final part of this short series all about how to choose champagne; coming soon and Stay Bubbly
Jiles
Here’s part 2 of my 4 part series about how to tell what a champagne is like before you buy the bottle
Lots of people are unsure about how to choose one bottle of champagne over another and simply buy a name they know.
In fact when you’re thinking of buying a bottle of champagne you really need to know four things about it that will give you a good idea of what it will taste like and avoid you wasting your money on a bottle that you don’t like, and may not be of the best quality.
The first part of this series was all about which different grapes varieties had been used to make the champagne
Well, the second is all about the quality of what’s gone into the bottle in the first place. Let me explain.
Making champagne is a bit like cooking : start with the best possible ingredients and you’ve got a better chance of producing a meal that’s memorable. It’s not a guarantee mind you, because you can still mess things up, but it’s a great place to begin. The same sort of thing is true in Champagne too.
In Champagne there are some 320 different villages where grapes are grown, but they don’t all produce the same quality grapes. In fact there are three levels of quality and each village has been placed in one of these three categories meaning that any of the grapes grown in the vineyards surrounding that particular village are also given the same quality rating.
The classifications date back to the beginning of the 1900s and even though, in theory at least, the classifications can be changed, in practice that almost never happens because the ranking depends mainly on what’s called the microclimate.
The microclimate is all about things such as the exposure of the vineyards towards the sun, the type of soil, shelter from the wind etc. and as you can tell, these don’t alter from one year to the next, not even from one decade to the next.
Only 17 villages are ranked as Grand Cru – the cream of the crop – 41 are Premier Cru, the second rank and all the rest are Cru.
The better the grapes, the higher the demand, so in general the grapes from a Grand Cru village will cost more than grapes from a Premier Cru village and those from a Premier Cru village will cost more than those from a simple Cru.
So what does this mean for you?
Well, finding the words Grand Cru or Premier Cru on the label is a very useful pointer and it’s one of the very few things about champagne that you can learn just by looking at the label.
A champagne made entirely from Grand Cru grapes will have the words Grand Cru on the label. If you see the words Premier Cru on the label this means that the grapes came from no lesser quality vineyards than Premier Cru. If you can’t find either Grand Cru or Premier Cru on the label that usually means that the champagne contains some proportion of grapes from the third ranking Cru vineyards.
In that case you can’t tell from the label if there’s a lot or a little of the Cru rated grapes in the blend because as soon as you include any grapes at all from a lower category, the entire blend gets classified as being in the lower category.
It's not impossible of course to make very good champagne using grapes that are neither Grand or Premier Cru – for example, almost none of the better known brands are either Grand Cru or Premier Cru – so don't rule out a champagne just because you can't find these magic words on the label.
On the other hand, if you're just learning about champagne, then the words Grand Cru and Premier Cru are useful and easily-understandable points of reference to help you gain some experience and confidence before you start getting into the finer details.
Stay Bubbly,
Back, by popular demand, is a series of 4 short articles on how to choose champagne, especially a champagne that you've never tried before.
These 4 tips will
Let’s face it; buying a bottle of champagne is usually going to cost you more than buying a bottle of wine and if you don’t even enjoy the champagne after forking out at least £20/$30 and probably quite a bit more, that’s a bit of a disappointment – to put it mildly.
No one likes to waste their money, so how good would it be if there were a way to find out if you’re going to like the champagne before you buy it?
That way you wouldn’t have to keep going back to the same old brands whose name you know and which you may have tried before. The Moët & Chandons or the Veuve Clicquots of this world. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a disaster, but it’s not exactly adventurous either, especially if really you’d like to try something different.
Well, in fact there are four key things you need to know about a champagne before you buy it and if you know about those you’re well on your way to understanding what the champagne will be like when you open it and whether, or not, it will suit your taste.
In this short series of 4 articles I’ll let you into these secrets so you can discover what most champagne producers don’t explain and what many retailers don’t know.
Part 1
The blend of the grapes
When I do one of my champagne tastings the first questions I always ask people are
“ How do you choose a bottle of wine?”
“When you’re standing in front of a shelf full of wines – how do you decide which one to buy?”
Some people say they just buy on price; some say they look for a pretty label, but most people say that they start by looking at the type of grape/s used to make the wine. This is a simple and really helpful guide to tell us roughly what the wine is going to taste like. And fortunately on many, many wines these days, the grape variety is prominently displayed on the label.
But what do you do when it comes to champagne?
Most people don't know which grapes are used to make champagne and often there's no mention of this on the label, so that already makes champagne something of a mystery compared with wine.
In fact, as some of you may already know, in Champagne they use three grape varieties. (Actually you can use others. People rarely do these days but that’s a story for another article).
The 3 most common varieties today are
Chardonnay (White grape)
Pinot Noir (Black)
Pinot Meunier (Black)
When champagne makers are making their champagne they can blend together wines made from these three different grapes and they can do this in whatever proportions they want depending on the supplies they can obtain.
There are umpteen possible combinations and the “recipe” that the champagne maker decides upon has a crucial influence on the style and taste of the champagne when it’s finished. So, depending on what style of wine you prefer - light and more delicate at one end of the scale, to powerful and full-flavoured at the other, you need to look out for different combinations of grape varieties
Each grape variety brings different characteristics:
Chardonnay makes a champagne more crisp and light in style. It tends to have citrussy and floral aromas and tastes, plus it often has a slightly minerally, acidic edge to it ( nothing too sharp mind you, just enough to wake up those taste buds and that’s why a champagne with plenty of chardonnay in it makes a great aperitif before a meal).
As a hint, think of Chablis wine – it’s also made with chardonnay and I always think it’s very similar to chardonnay in Champagne
Wine gurus may use the terms feminine, elegant, and fresh to describe chardonnay-based champagne.
The ultimate chardonnay-based champagne is made with no black grapes at all – just chardonnay. These are called Blancs de Blancs, so if this is your preferred style, look for these words on the label.
Pinot Noir grapes bring more power and depth to a champagne.
Typically the flavours and aromas tend to be of raspberies, strawberries, cherries and other red fruits, but what Pinot Noir really brings is a bit more oomph and weight to the champagne and a fuller, less delicate style. This quality is often referred to as 'structure'. These champagnes are fine before a meal, but can also go well with many foods too.
To give you a clue, Veuve Clicquot and Bollinger are heavy on black grapes, particularly Pinot Noir, so if you prefer something with a fair amount of body, then look for a champagne with a significant proportion of Pinot Noir in it.
You can buy champagne that is called Blanc de Noirs. If you see this on the label it means that only black grapes have been used so it will be an altogether different style to a Blanc de Blancs
The only slightly tricky thing about Blanc de Noirs is that as well as containing Pinot Noir it can also contain Pinot Meunier which is another black grape used to make champagne, so let's take a quick look at Pinot Meunier.
Pinot Meunier is the third grape variety.
It adds real fruitiness, typically of white fruit such as apples and pears and this makes a champagne easy-to-drink and very more-ish at any time and on any occasion.
Most champagnes are a blend of all three grape varieties, often around 1/3 of each variety. This is what I call a ‘classic blend’. If it’s well made this style of champagne will appeal to most people, offend very few and suit most occasions – a sort of ‘can’t go wrong’ champagne.
To take just two examples, I would put Moët & Chandon and Mumm into this category, but there are hundreds more.
Apart from the words Blanc de Blancs and Blancs de Noirs there’s often not much more on a champagne label that’s very helpful, as least not as far as the grapes are concerned.
Sometimes you may find the exact blend of grapes written on the back label and that's always a big help, but more often than not there’s some blurb that’s normally so vague as to be pretty useless. So you have to ask the retailer for more precise information about the blend of grapes. In my view the retailer should know this information and if he doesn’t then I’d seriously think of going to another one.
Hope that’s given you a few clues about buying the right champagne for the right occasion.
There are more tips coming up in the next 3 parts of this series and to make sure you don't miss out - just click the RSS feed logo on this page
Stay Bubbly
Jiles Halling
Stay Bubbly
I'm not entirely sure that what happens in the champagne market in France necessarily reflects what is happening, or is going to happen, elsewhere, but it's intriguing to watch the way sales are developing here in France and fortunately the statisticians at the good old CIVC can be relied upon to generate mountains of data to look at.
Don't panic, I'm not going to bombard you with figures, but here are just a few that caught my eye from a recent article in the local newspaper L'Union all about champagne sales in supermarkets
The first thing that was highlighted is that the average sales price for the first quarter of 2011, compared with the same period last year, has gone up by 1.7 % to 18.38 euros
That includes sales tax at 19.6 % so the price is still on the low side if you strip out the tax, but the trend is defintely on the up.
When you delve a little deeper there are more interesting data to discover...
You've aways been able to find really cheap champagne deals in French supermarkets - much like supermarkets everywhere - and this year is no exception.
You can still find champagne at 11 euros or even below, and in fact 591,000 bottles were sold at this price level in the first quarter of 2011.
Whopeee you may think, I'm jumping on the first boat or plane to France that I can find, but if that's what you're thinking, then you'd better hurry because even though half a million bottles is a lot of champagne, the number of bottles sold at below 11 euros fell by a whopping 19.7% versus last year and now accounts for just 7.5% of all champagne sales in supermarkets
What I found even more interesting is that at the other end of the scale, the number of bottles selling at above 20 euros ( the most expensive category in this survey) increased by an equally huge 21.2%
Champagne at above 20 euros now accounts for 29% of all supermarket champagne sales
Does that mean that 11 and 12 euros champagne is a thing of the past? No I don't think so.
Does it means that prices are going up? Well clearly the answer is Yes and personally I think this is a good thing.
Champagne costs a lot to produce - on the open market you'd have to pay around 6 euros just to buy the grapes to make a single bottle, before you'd done anything with the grapes, let alone made a profit - so my view is that if you want to drink champagne you should be prepared to pay a reasonable price for it. Otherwise go for Cava or another sparkler
Besides, the champagnes you find in supermarkets are rarely anything to get excited about and that's even more true if the price is a rock bottom, so even if you do pay a pittance you often don't get much in the way of the quality and value.
That's not to say that you have to pay a fortune for good champagne either: there are hundreds of great champagnes to discover amongst the smaller producers at sensible prices and that's where you'll find real value.
The Best Chardonnay In The World? How on earth do you choose?
Ask 100 amateur wine lovers and you'll probably get 100 different opinions, so for once it might not be a bad idea to rely on the professionals.
You may not know this but there is in fact a competition held in France every year to decide this very question: the Chardonnay du Monde competition.
Each year they award bronze medals, silver medals and of course gold medals, just like at The Decanter awards or the IWC awards or any other. But at Chardonnay du Monde there's something else a little special. Actually that's a bit of an under-statement. In fact this prize is so exceptional that in the 18 year history of the competition it has been awarded only twice.
What is this accolade? It's La Grande Médaille d'Or and in 2009 it was awarded to Champagne Henri Mandois for their Blanc de Blancs Vintage 2004 - the one with the gold label in this picture
Champagne may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of great chardonnay wine. You might assume it would be a great white Burgundy for example, but Claude Mandois, current head of Champagne Mandois, is convinced that the further north you go, the more Chardonnay shows it's real quality: lots of depth and a wonderful minerality that only shines out in northerly vineyards such as Chablis and Champagne.
The 2004 vintage is all gone now and it's been succeeded by an equally gorgeous vintage 2005 which is certainly worth discovering. For that matter the entire Mandois range offers excellent quality and value.
Mandois is in the village of Pierry, just outside Epernay and if you pop along during your next visit to Champagne, and ask very nicely, who knows? They might just find one more bottle of the 2004 for you to try
Well, first of all a big apology for being very quiet over the past month or so. All down to technical issues with domain names and such like, so please note that my blog can now be found at www.debateabubble.co ( not .com )
Anyway, here we go again with lots of news and information from Champagne starting with a quick rundown on what I tasted last week that I think you too would enjoy discovering
One of the great things about running a Bed & Breakfast in Champagne is that I get to meet all sorts of people and chat about champagne. ( actually it's my wife that runs the B & B but I get to enjoy the rewards)
Each guest has his or her own favourite champagnes and that gives us a chance to sample all sorts of champagnes and compare notes. This last week has been a bumper week for tasting; here's what we've sampled
Mandois Brut Nature
Zero dosage, lots of zingy citrus-style aromas and flavours yet not in the least sharp; quite the opposite in fact thanks to 4 years ageing. Really refreshing and somehow uplifting. A fabulous way to start any event, party, or meal. www.champagnemandois.fr
Pierre Deville Brut Grand Cru
Made by our next door neighbour, the Mayor of Verzy
This is a typical Verzy champagne by which I mean lots of Pinot Noir ( this is a mainly Pinot Noir village), full flavours and altogether heavier and less delicate than the Mandois.
Which style you prefer is just a question of individual preference, but the ridiculously reasonable price of Pierre Deville does help. Not available outside France I fear and no web site either so you'll have to come and visit us to sample it.
Christian Briard Vintage 2005
From the Vallée de la Marne Christian Briard specialises in Pinot Meunier-based champagnes, so very fruity with quite a lot of weight in the mouth.
The 2005 is beginning to develop the yeasty biscuity flavours that many people so enjoy. This is a fine champagne as an aperitif but in my view, better with a meal
The bottle too is worth mentioning since each one has a hand-painted gold motif on it. A Vietnamese design I believe – Christian's wife in Vietnamese
Alexandre Penet Extra Brut
This is a brand new range from Penet-Chardonnet. In fact so new that this bottle only has a temporary label on it
There are three champagnes in the new Alexandre Penet range. The extra brut has just 3grs of sugar per litre so it has the same fresh, crisp style as Penet-Chardonnet and also has the same rich and complex flavours and long finish.
Alexandre Penet will be available in larger quantities than Penet Chardonnet so offers you a great chance to try this house's unique style. Here's what one wne expert thought of this new release
Mailly Grand Cru, Blanc de Noirs
Mailly Champagne is another village in La Montage de Reims and is even more synonymous with Pinot Noir than Verzy.
This champagne is made by the local cooperative, also called Mailly, which produces champagnes of consistently good quality
To appreciate this at its best I'd suggest you enjoy it with a meal. It has the body and flavour to take it
Aspasie Vintage 2006
Only just released, this new vintage from Aspasie is super ( as are all Aspasie champagnes, in my view)
Aspasie is based in the village of Brouillet in an area to the west of Reims called La Vallée de l'Ardre. Not a well known area, but one with a distinct character all of its own.
All three champagne grapes thrive there in a somewhat sandy soil full of fossils of all shapes and sizes – an archaeologist's paradise.
This champagne is deep and rich both in colour and flavour with a slightly smokey taste that makes it even more memorable
I presented two Aspasie champagnes at a recent champagne tasting in London and you can see the video here
So there we have six of the best from this week – all worth getting to know better
More coming soon, just as fast as I can taste them!
Meanwhile, Stay Bubbly
Jiles
Learning about the more obscure terminology to do with champagne is not everyone's cup of tea, but when it has a direct bearing on the price of champagne it's worth discovering the basics, so here's a brief explanation of what 'vins sur lattes' are and what that has to do with the price of champagne.
The 'lattes' are the thin batons of wood placed between each layer of bottles when they are stacked in the cellars for ageing. The lattes are there partly to stabilise the stacks, to seperate the bottles and make them easier to handle, but more importantly they are there to prevent too much damage if a bottle were to explode and that does occasionally happen.
There is about 6 atmospheres of pressure inside a bottle of champagne, enough to put a strain on even the strongest bottle but if there is the slightest fault in the glass the bottle can quite easily explode.
When this happens the vibrations are passed on to the next bottle and the next so you could end up with a chain reaction and dozens of broken bottles. The lattes act as a dampener and they prevent this chain reaction so that if one bottle goes, the ones next to it aren't affected.
Usually a champagne maker will leave his or her bottles many years 'sur lattes' whilst the bubbles form and the flavours develop. However, it's an expensive business to have all that stock tied up and not selling, so in times of financial crisis, such as we've just gone through, champagne makers sometimes sell off lots of 'vins sur latte' before they normally would do, just to get some cash in.
Don't forget that these champagnes are not yet ready to be sold. So the buyer still needs to disgorge the bottles, have the dosage added, and have them corked and labelled before they can be sold, so there is quite a bit of work to do on them.
Nevertheless, even with this work to do, buying 'sur lattes' can be a good way to buy up inexpensive lots to sell on at bargain prices and many of the supermarket champagnes or other champagne bargains that you have seen in the shops probably come from this sort of deal.
The down side is that when you buy a job lot of vins sur lattes it's a one-off deal and there's no guarantee that there will be any left if you go back for more. Equally the price varies according to the going rate at the time.
Over the past few years, there have been some good bargains to be had on this market, but now most champagne makers have seen the worst of their financial problems and have little, or no, need to sell off vins sur lattes, or at least not at rock bottom prices.
You can discover more about vins sur lattes, and what a good alternative buy could be, at this link
http://www.mymaninchampagne.com/MMIC-Blogs/champagne-prices-on-the-up.html