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Archive for September, 2009

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Do bubbles add flavour?

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

It’s an interesting day when both The Guardian and the BBC run stories on champagne - and I wonder if it is coincidental that it is the same day that Gordon Brown is to address the Labour Party conference in Brighton?  Maybe Andrew Marr will suggest that the Prime Minister should take a leaf out of Winston Churchill’s leadership tactics and look to champagne for sustenance - now he has confirmed he does not rely on any prescription pills?!

No but seriously.  We all know champagne is uplifting - hence why it is the perfect drink for celebration and also why it can help alleviate black dog on our darker days.  There are an awful lot of aromas in a glass of champagne - lovely toasty and vanilla overtones all helped from lengthy bottle age (where the bottles age in the cellars in France before having the sediment removed via the disgorgement process) - as well as all the complexities of the grape blend.  To my mind, gentler bubbles (again substantially a feature of spending longer ageing in bottle) certainly help the drinker enjoy and experience the range of flavours the wine offers. I have covered before how our producers insist on a minimum 3 years age in bottle in the cellars for their non-vintage, as opposed to the legal minimum of 15 months.

I have always suspected that the champagne mousse (bubbles) exacerbate the underlying flavours and this so because all those bubbles have actually been formed in the bottle right at the start of the bottling process when the yeast were alive and feasting on the sugar in the raw blended wine.  It is this process - the second fermentation in bottle - that is the absolutely unique invention of the Champenois and thus why this technique of adding the fizz to sparkling wine was known as “Champagne Method” or “Methode Champenois”, before EU legislation (and protection of the Champagne Appellation) forbade it.

This area is a hoary chestnut - perfect to touch on as the conker season is in full throw;  mine’s a fourer…

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Posted in Champagne, Park Lane Champagne, champagne production | 2 Comments »

Royal Academy of Music

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

You know that you have very good friends when asked to join a small party at an invitation only Sir Elton John concert at the Royal Albert Hall (London) and meet the great man afterwards…  you both know who you are and huge thanks from us if you ever read this note.

Sir Elton’s concert last night was a fundraiser entirely for the benefit of the Royal Academy of Music (of which Sir Elton is amongst the various well known alumni) who have launched an appeal for a superb new 14 tonne musical organ Swiss built by Kuhn at a cost of £1.2m.

What a fabulous institution RAM is, and how loyal and generous so many people are to its needs - well worth a visit to their website to learn more and maybe even to drop off a donation for the organ fund…

And should Sir Elton be classed as an institution as well?  Maybe…   Is he fabulous?  DEFINITELY!!

It is hard to recreate the wonder of witnessing a live performance of nearly three hours where Sir Elton continuously entertained an overflowing Albert Hall with only his vocals and piano - no prompts or sheet music.  He was joined by Ray Cooper on percussion (percussion is something of an understatement!) for the last 90 minutes as he covered off 31 tracks in a deliciously eclectic new set.  Sir Elton’s fingers scampered up and down the keyboard with such purpose, precision and vigour, complimented perfectly by that oh so distinctive tenor;  a consummate professional, entertainer and genius possessed of really great talent.  Within our party, all were exhausted just from watching the performance by the end!

Not only was the show terrific - and who’s mind cannot help wonder at the diversity of music Sir Elton has created over the past 40 years, the spectrum of his fans as well as his truly global reach and influence? - but somehow The Captain found enthusiasm and energy to pop upstairs and reconfirm his appreciation and support for RAM at a small gathering afterwards, apparently after only a modest steak and kidney pudding for sustenance!  This was the first time I have met Sir Elton at close quarters and he struck me as a truly kind, committed and caring individual.  Maybe beyond fabulous is more accurate?!

Is there any relevance to champagne?  Only that plenty of finest brut from the house that Eugene Mercier founded in 1858 (aged 20) was enjoyed before, during and after the show. Somehow that seemed rather fitting and it certainly slipped down well.

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Harvest - the pressing

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Champagne is a big subject;  controversial and emotive with nearly everyone having a different opinion as to which champagne they prefer and why.  Certainly with 8,000 producers in the region and each producing probably three different styles, there is plenty of choice!

We are often asked which is the “best” champagne;  what a question and where  to start? Vintage or non-vintage (a debate for another day), pink or white, single grape variety or traditional mix (Chardonnay only champagne is a blanc des blancs), with food or without?

Unfortunately (or fortunately) because taste is so very personal and subjective, I am not sure there can ever be a definitive answer to that question.  Origin and quality of grapes, age in bottle, experience of oenologists, etc., will all play a part as a comparison for quality - but ultimately the consumer has to decide for the themselves.  We like well made and well aged champagne that pleases most of the people most of the time - and we think our champagnes fulfill this brief perfectly.

But still the harvest continues where all of this debate really starts.  The 100,000 or so harvesters load their 50kg buckets into lorries which head to pressoirs, which press the grapes.  Traditionally a basket press was used by all but now presses up to three times that size are common in the rush to press the precious baubles.

The basket press holds 4,000kg of grapes (roughly an acre’s worth of yield) and a maximum permitted 2,550l of juice is extracted:  2,050l of first pressing or cuvee (best) and the remainder as taille, all kept separate.  Any remaining juice is sent off to become industrial alcohol.  The pressing is quick (4 hours) so that the dark skins of the pinot grapes do not rupture and thus tint the clear white juice - unless pressing for pink champagne.  A mystery explained: why champagne is a white wine when a majority of grapes used to make it (typically) are black.

Loading the traditional basket presses2 aditional basket presses beginning the big squeeze

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Posted in Park Lane Champagne, champagne production | 3 Comments »

Harvest - busy busy

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

So here it is - and you heard it first on Alastair’s champagne blog:  2009 looks to be an EXCEPTIONAL harvest.  That means not just an ordinarily good harvest that could qualify as a vintage declaration;  it means an EXCEPTIONAL harvest and that is not a word to use unadvisedly or lightly but rather reverently and deliberately, especially where champagne is concerned!

This year the quantity and quality of the grapes is excellent - they are very sound and perfectly ripe.    The natural alcoholic strength is about 10 degrees with excellent acidity between 9 and 10!  All bodes well for the future and the continued theme of high quality contents for your personalised champagne.  Thank you too to Mme Nomine for the update.

I am visiting Epernay next month and look forward to the opportunity of tasting some of the still wines (chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier) separately stored from this harvest and gently fermenting - which is a huge privilege and eye-opening experience.  Amazing that the acidic sharpness - causing that cheeky tingle in the cheeks of the mouth similar to the feeling after eating fresh rhubard - mellows so much with age and blending to create lovely non-vintage champagne three to four years hence - or in this year’s case a vintage as well (but not for a minimum of five years).  Not forgetting the maker’s skills, of course…

There seems a certain irony that this year, of all years, there is a bumper harvest in terms of both quality and quantity of grapes -when the potential revolt over yields has resulted in a permitted harvest for stock purposes of sub 10,000kg/hectare.  C’est la vie!

And just in case you are wondering, the actual harvesting is very hard work;  this is a snapshot of what it all looks like - at the vine face, so to speak:

An uphill battle?
Not the athletics track...Heavy when fullWhat a lovely bunch

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Harvest - snip snip

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

So my champagne blog update continues!  This is really a very very interesting time of year for champagne wine and its production - with a manic burst of activity universal across all 30,000 hectares of vineyards that make up the appellation.

Today it happened;  from all over Europe teams of people descended on the vines in the main Champagne region to start 2009’s harvest in earnest.  All harvesting of the grapes in Champagne is carried out by hand so it really does need plenty of people.

The harvest will last a fortnight or so, with different areas starting at different times - Nomine plan to start on the 14th - and the Aube area started at the beginning of the week.  Interesting that “Champagne” is one appellation but that the region is in two distinct areas with the Aube (mainly Pinot grapes) actually 100k or so further south…  Anyone who has travelled down the Autoroute A26, maybe en route to holiday skiing or to the South, must have slightly puzzled over this.

On a personal note, I am curious to see how laden the vines are once the harvest is over, considering the reduced permitted yield this year.  However, with 2000kg/hectare heading to blockage (juice held in reserve for future years but which cannot yet start the production process) and the ever growing demand for ethanol, industrial alcohol and biofuels, I am sure there will hardly be any grapes left on the vines.

For Park Lane, we can be assured of continued quality, even though the product of this harvest will not be with us in non-vintage form until mid 2013 at the earliest.  Always somewhat sobering (no pun intended) to think that the current bottles of non-vintage champagne available through us originate from grapes harvested back in 2005!   Nomine are great quality recoltant producers but even they must get somewhat fed-up at what looks like market manipulation by all those big houses and negociants.  I will look forward to learning more when I visit towards the end of this month.

And my children went back to school today - with the eldest two now 8.15am to 6pm;  by any standards that is a good day’s work!

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