Celebrating and Toasting with a C....Sparkling Wine!

Will that be a Champagne, a Cava or a Crémant you will be drinking to celebrate the new Year? All of them made of course in the traditional method. Crémants are produced by adding a smaller dosage for the second fermentation, resulting in less carbon dioxide and thus a lower bottle pressure.This lighter effervescence creates a creamy texture to the wine and hence the term Crémant which means "creamy". Crémants have 2-3 atmospheres of pressure instead of 5-6 in wines from Champagne. My friend Philippe Durst, the Export Manager at Dopff Au Moulin in Alsace sent me this picture of a Crémant having some fun with a waitress.
But no matter what sparkler you will be celebrating with ( and I will be celebrating with a bubbly made here on Vancouver Island called Célébration Brut from Starling Lane Winery.) it turns out that it is actually good for your heart.
My friend Nick Stephens over at Bordeaux-Undiscovered did a great post on that. And of course we all know that we should continue to drink our favourite beverage in 2010 because it is good for our health. Decanter has done a nice summation of the beneficial effects of wine. But only look at the green column. The researchers in the red column will be drinking and celebrating with a cup of decafinated tea.
Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy 2010!!

Summit Needed to Stimulate Slumping Sales in Le Champagne

There has been a dramatic decrease in sales of Champagne and calls for drastic cuts in yields may be required. Domestic sales for the first two months of 2009 were down 29.3% and European exports dropped a whopping 47.7%.
So perhaps what Le Champagne needs is a great Ambassador. And of course no one was better at it than Napoleon Bonaparte himself. The image portrayed here
is of Napoleon and his good friend Jean-Rémy Moët in July of 1807 at Moët et Chandon
click on pictures to get the enlarged versions for more detail
It was Napoleon who commented "That in Victory you deserve Champagne,in defeat you need it." A lot of Champagne was bought and consumed.
When we visited Moët et Chandon
during the 2005 harvest season we were taken to the pleasant garden courtyard with the Three Emperors' Tree and taken back in time when Europe's great leaders met there to enjoy Champagne and of course talk about the issues of the day.




















It was a thrilling moment enjoying our own glass of Champagne and stepping back in time to March of 1814.This was followed by a magnificent lunch in the
Moët's residence formal dining room. Our hospitable host, Arneaud de Mareuil, the Vice-President Public Relations, Communication & Heritage was a true champagne ambassador.
That is Sanjoy, my wine travel friend, on my left and Arneaud on my right. The rest of the guests were media and movie types from Denmark. I ended up calling them the Great Danes (That's a veterinarian's mind)
So is it time to move forward and have a Champagne Summit to discuss how best to support the Champagne industry? The picture on the right shows who might be meeting under that old Three Emperors Tree today.
Now the faces may not fit too well as I adapted them to the lunch scene, but you get the picture. That is Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the left, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merchel and of course Obama. On the right is President Nicholas Sarkozy. Somehow, I get the impression that he may not be the most popular guest. I think the question could be asked 'What have you done for us lately?' A toast to you all!!

Champagne ...then and now !

After my first post on my Tuscan tour, I fully intended to share more about that marvelous trip. But I am detouring slightly to cover part of a previous trip. And thus I will make mention of my visit to the Champagne. Only because Harper Collins, the publishers in New York, send me a copy of the book The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo to review. I had the pleasure of a private tour during the 2005 vendange, again with my friend Sanjoy from California, and with that background it made this book that much more meaningful.



















The Champagne house of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is truly a must visit establishment and those of you who have been there will agree with this I am sure. The limestone cellars, which have been there since Roman times, are a treasure house of works of art. If you follow this link it will take you to the Veuve Clicquot website. There is an age verification before you can actually visit the site and just a little hint for those of you from Canada ( and yes we are a bilingual country) if you do not speak French, use the USA country of origin. The good people at Veuve have assumed if you are from Canada you must be able to speak French and the French version is what will present itself. We had a wonderful, knowledgeable young lady give us a most interesting tour and at the end of it, we had the pleasure of being served the La Grande Dame. Like Dom Perignon, I thought I was seeing stars.
The archives at the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin reveal very little of the remarkable widow Clicquot. Their website gives only sparse details about this brilliant business woman. But Tylar Mazzeo has done an incredible amount of research for her book. Tylar is also very well versed in anything wine related and the book is liberally sprinkled with wine facts, especially about Champagne. For instance, did you know that in those early days, Champagnes were very sweet and had upwards of 200 to 300 grams of residual sugar? These are woven into the story and makes the history of the widow Clicquot come alive and the book almost reads like a novel and personal diary at the same time. This book is certainly a must read for all Champagne lovers out there. It is a tribute to the widow Clicquot Ponsardin and her marvellous determination and entrepeneurship. I believe Veuve Clicquot should host a major book signing event with Tilar Mazzeo present. She has contributed immensely to the story of the Veuve Clicquot with this fascinating, well written book. Publishers Harper Collins have just added another great book to their long list of excellent books.

(Wine) Diamonds are Forever!

We are all familiar with the wine diamonds found clinging to the bottom of a cork or that have settled to the botom of the wine bottle. Cold stabilization will reduce the amount of these tartrate crystals that will eventually show up in some wines. For a good description of "wine diamonds" check out this article. But I am now talking about the real thing. Click on the above picture to get a closer glimpse at an 85 facets, $12000 diamond. Moet & Chandon's smiling representatives Philippe Bures,Flame Rodriguez and Richard Loewen were on hand in Victoria, British Columnbia, to make a presentation of this diamond to Daphne Korths, winner of a contest held by Moet & Chandon.

Personally I would rather take two of the Nebuchadnezzars and the rest in cash. And of course I would revisit one of my favorite Champagne houses wher it all began. Do you think the Dom ever envisioned a magnificent diamond like this to be associated with the Champagne house he inspired when he exclaimed "Come quickly, I am tasting stars"
Here is to you Dom Perignon. You will forever be remembered!!