champagne tasting

with the danger of sounding much too decadent, i need to tell you the following.

i had the idea of a champagne tasting where i would get a bunch of people to split the cost of several champagnes. i asked my friend, tove, who wrote a book on champagne to recommend some brands. i also got a list from the wine buyer of a british wine club. i have to admit, i spent a lot of time searching for specific names of champagnes and trying to figure out the format of the tasting. i had thought that every corner wine store would have all the names on my list, but it wasn’t as easy as that. it turns out the small vineyards have too few bottles of production to sell everywhere. they find their own little markets, sometimes a few restaurants, sometimes only selling in a small foreign country.

i set a date a few times, but couldn’t get enough people to come, and got some feedback on the proposed cost. so i decided to go “public” and offer it through the parent group. then, tove said she was coming to visit and she agreed to lead a degustation, so i scheduled it for then. i then committed to buying the champagne with hopes that everything would work out and i would get paid back. i found a local shop with several of the specific champagnes and a mail order website with others. i was nervous about ordering from a website and having the bottles shipped, but this particular merchant had them delivered and it was quick and easy.

tove arrived last night. she is a norwegian journalist whom i met when i went to a french language immersian program in montpellier france, many years ago. we got to be friends as we tried to learn about french wines. then when i moved to paris i said, “tove, you should come too.” and she did. then p and i took her to epernay to taste champagnes, and she fell in love – with the champagne. she became such an expert that she wrote her champagne book, (in norwegian).

today was our tasting. it was hosted by giuse, a lovely and classy italian woman who is also a parent in the school. her beautiful apartment is next door to the prime minister’s home. (once, she hosted a potluck for parents and one friend accidently tried to go to the prime minister’s house instead. she saw all the police and thought, “gosh, giuse lives in such a fancy building.” when the police asked where she was going, she said, “oh, isn’t this where the pot luck is?”) in addition to tove, giuse and me, we had 14 people.  cost was 15 euros per person.  these events are usually all women, but one man took off work to come. another woman also took off from work but said she had to leave the tasting early, to go back to work. she said, “we have a new minister now, you know”. gosh! a new minister? i couldn’t imagine she actually meant the new minister of foreign affairs (secretary of state) in france. it’s been in the news – a scandal with the ex-minister and a former prime minister is the new minister as of last tuesday. but, yes, indeed, that’s who she meant, and that’s where she works! i was thrilled that she would take off for work to come. i asked her what her colleagues would think when she came back with champagne on her breath and she said “they’re all jealous. i told them where i was going”.

everyone bought little light things to eat which were very delicious. we had some smoked salmon and duck fois gras – which both go particularly well with champagne. we had a wonderful informative tasting. we had 5 champagnes from different regions, made of different combinations of grapes. i had a fear they would all end up tasting the same. there was really no such danger. it was really fun! here are the notes for the event. 

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PIA DEGUSTATION de CHAMPAGNE, March 4, 2011

rue de Varennes, Paris

Basics of champagne – how it’s made – ferments twice – bubbles made in 2nd fermentation

     - 1st fermentation done just after harvest like normal wine

          o put grape juice in tanks (steel tanks or wood barrels) for a few months

     - assemblage done in feb/march – blend of several years from different parcels and different grapes – know approx ratios to start.

          o a grande maison like Bollinger might use 100 diff wines in their champagne. 8 different villages

          o a small house might blend 10-15 wines

          o blend according to recipe

     - tirage = 2nd fermentation –

          o bottle it with yeast and sugar (know exactly how much for certain pressure)

          o cap with metal cap (like soda bottle)

          o yeast and sugar creates c02

          o fermentation is done in a couple of weeks

          o bottle stays in cellar 15 months min (by law)

          o more time is better, because wine continues to change

          o deposit of “lie” of yeast and sugar goes to bottom, is sticky

     - remuage - when time is decided

          o could be 20 years, but usually 4-5 years, vintage millisime = 3 years

          o need to get sticky deposit to the top of bottle

          o bottle angled down slightly, so “lie” slowly moves toward narrow part of bottle

          o after a little while, turn bottle ¼ turn and increase angle slightly

          o repeat until finally upside down.

          o by hand would take 6 weeks, but now, machines (gyro palette) do it 7-10 days

     - degorgement - when all deposit gathered at top of bottle (pressure = 6x atmosphere)

          o keep bottle upside down, freeze top of bottle to -29C

          o turn right side up, upper part of neck is frozen, remove cap and upper level of frozen deposit pops out. rest of champagne stays in bottle.

          o some houses put date of degorgement on bottle – the more recent the degorgement, the fresher the wine.

     - add liqueur d’expedition or liqueur de dosage – sweet liqueur which determines champagne sweetness – sec, demi-sec, brut (sweet, med sweet, less sweet)

     - cork and label it

4 main regions of champagne

     cote de blanc – only chardonnay grapes

     montagne de reims – primarily pinot noir

     vallee de la marne

     aube – further south ( a couple of hours drive )

Types of grapes: need to remove skins in time so color doesn’t darken wine

     pinot noir (black grape)= marsh/foresty/masculine

     pinot meunier (black grape)– more floral

     chardonnay (white grape) = brioche, butter, vanilla, when older taste = toast, chocolate

RM = recoltant manipulant – only their own grapes

NM = negotiant manipulant – buys other grapes in addition to using their own.

Terroir – soil gives different flavors

DEGUSTATION

Duval Leroy – in town of Vertus in southern most part of Cote de Blanc area. Currently run   by the widow of Mr Duval Leroy who died in 1991. She is Belgian.

Uses majority chardonnay grapes. Basic champagnes are fairly light. Good aperitif. They do not only make chardonnay wines (todays is not all chard). They own fields scattered around and buy grapes from small producers. They make blends too. They are a fairly big house. They grow only around 1/4 of grapes they use. Produces 16 million bottles (at time of book). (NM)” Fleur de champagne premier cru “(under 30 E)

Pierre Moncuit –from Mesnil in Cotes de Blanc, pure Blanc de Blanc (only chardonnay grapes). RM

“Hugues de Coulmet Blanc de Blanc “ (under 30 E )

Margaine – town of Villers Marmery in Montagne de Reims region– this wine is 90% chardonnay 10% pinot noir, but mainly makes blanc de blanc “Premiere Cru Brut “(under 30 E)

Egly Ouriet – 100% Pinot Meunier “Brut Premier Cru Les Vignes de Vrigny” (under 40 E)

Rene Geoffroy –Pinot Meunier based and Pinot Noir– more floral “Nuance”(under 30 E)

Gosset – vintage 2000, grande maison (chardonnay and pinot noir)– (45E)

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