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Spinning the Bottle Mixed messages about champagne are everywhere. Get a grip on its many incarnations before you pop the cork. |
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posted on November 29, 2007 |
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Tis the season for Champagne: Right about now, everyone’s drinking it, pouring it and tying up bottles of it with a bow. But with so many brands and categories out there, selecting a Champagne can be a daunting decision—one that’s, ironically, not always made easier by Champagne producers. Like politicians, the Champenois are the masters of spin—one moment, they’re hammering home the message that Champagne is not just for special occasions, but for any day of the week. In the next breath, however, they say that for a special occasion, “You must have a bottle of great Champagne!” Similarly confusing is the way Champagne is categorized with regards to vintages. Ninety percent of all Champagne that’s bottled is NV, or non-vintage (the blend of wines from several harvests). Because this is their core product, Champagne producers will tell you that these wines are the essence of their art and their brand standard. Which is true, but it’s a virtue born of necessity: Champagne is one of the coldest wine regions in France, and is often fraught with either rain or sun at harvest, which means producing a delicious Champagne from the grapes of any one year can be a tricky thing. As Terry Thiese, who imports many of France’s boutique-grower Champagnes (meaning they’re made by the people who also grew the grapes), explains, “Blending vintages is a hedge against difficulties with individual vintages. They blend to maintain consistency, so the bottle of Bollinger you bought this year tastes the same as the one you had two years ago.” However, in years with good weather (which occur four or five times a decade), most houses offer a single-vintage Champagne called the tête de cuvée, which is inevitably much more expensive than an NV. Good examples of this are Dom Pérignon and Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne. Bearing the stamp of their year, these wines are unique (1996, for instance, produced wines of great acidity and power). But if NVs are the great expression of the art of Champagne, why are vintage bottles so pricey? The answer is, of course, that better-quality grapes go into vintage bottles. They don’t need to be blended in order to correct deficiencies. To further complicate things, some houses make a category called multi-vintage, which, depending on whom you talk to, means different things. Krug applies the term to its Grande Cuvée, for, as Rémi Krug once told me, “It’s a blend of many vintages, not an absence of vintage.” But this is just another way to say NV, and the term hasn’t particularly caught on. Laurent-Perrier’s prestige cuvée Grand Siècle is a blend of several vintage years, making it truly multi-vintage. Gaston Chiquet’s delicious Cuvée de Réserve which Thiese imports, is another such wine. “It’s an homage to a style of wine his father made, a blend of three vintages, six years en tirage [aged on lees in the bottle before release].” So how to cut through all of this verbiage? Price can be a guide. No matter what the marketers tell you, more expensive Champagnes are typically made with better grapes. For that special gift, you may want to go vintage. Otherwise, for that lovely glass on the special occasion of, say, a humdrum Tuesday night, a NV Champagne fits the bill quite beautifully. And you can spin that bottle however you want. What to Drink Take note that NV Champagnes are ready out of the gate; young vintage Champagnes are often in need of some aging; and if you want to geek out about the puissance of a 1996, splurge on vintage. Vintage Salon 1996 Salon makes only one wine—a vintage Champagne—so there are only a few releases each decade and no confusion. The 1996 is exceptional, piercingly dry and radiating a supernova’s intensity of brightness and energy. But all that flash costs money. ($240) D&M, 2200 Fillmore St., 415-346-1325 Multi-Vintage Laurent Perrier, Grand Siècle One of the great values in the category of tête de cuvée, Grand Siècle is a blend of recent vintage years, or years in which other houses made single-vintage wines. Because it is a blend, it’s consistently good. Notable for its evocation of citrus and red berries with a toasty note and a streak of minerality, this wine is a pleasure to drink. ($80) K&L, 638 Fourth St., 415-896-1734 Non-Vintage Chartogne-Taillet, Cuvée St. Anne A grower Champagne (affectionately known as “farmer-fizz”) from the Thiese collection, this wine offers everything you’d want from a great NV. A wonderfully round and rich wine, it’s accessible on release and has a dose of raspberry and strawberry perfume delivered with a silky touch. ($47) Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, Ferry Building Marketplace, 415-391-9400
Tis the season for Champagne: Right about now, everyone’s drinking it, pouring it and tying up bottles of it with a bow. But with so many brands and categories out there, selecting a Champagne can be a daunting decision—one that’s, ironically, not always made easier by Champagne producers. |
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