Very fun and somewhat exciting to read through the UK weekend press and see pictures of possibly our favourite highland cow covered in the well used decorator’s sheet (as explained in my earlier blog post) in both the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Mail.
Please could everyone keep an eye out for any spottings of the Bovril outdoors revival advert featuring our beastie - and add the details as a comment to this post. PLEASE and free bottle of champagne for the most unusual spot!
Many thanks.
Farming is diverse. I am a farmer (Highland Cattle), I have friends who are farmers and our champagne producers are also farmers. Like me, they nurture and grow their raw material (grapes), at the mercy of the elements and making best use of their natural resources.
Terroir helps explain the unique characteristic of wines due to the location (orinetation, soil, micro-climate, etc.) of the vineyards where the grapes grow; by unique I mean what makes, for example, chardonnay from ‘hill one’ so different to chardonnay from ‘hill two’. It is this individuality which is exacerbated in the production of champagne since there are so many elements to be blended together to make the perfect wine and maintain a house style.
Obvious question: how come many of us have a favourite champagne that we chose year after year, notwithstanding that the raw ingredients are so different from year to year depending on the weather and harvest?
Simple answer - the skill of the blender. The blending of non-vintage champagne allows the blender or oenologist the opportunity to create a “house style” for their champagne and to mostly replicate this year after year. Remember: non-vintage champagne is a blend of both vintages (years) and grapes.
Now if champagne was produced every year from that year’s harvest as happens for most other wines - in other words, if we had vintage champagne every year - then it would be much more difficult to have a “house style” as the vagaries of individual harvests would have such an impact on the end wine; the blender would not have the opportunity to use wines from previous years (up to 20 years in the case of Nomine) to recreate the bubbles of familiarity.
Every year’s harvest is unique and unique harvests give the ingredients for unique wines; in 2003 Bollinger grasped this opportunity and produced a fabulous but highly unusual vintage champagne which reflected the astonishing weather (and thus harvest) that year. Try some if you can find some - only a few thousand bottles were ever made.
So, we breed highland cows and then we sell them; some for breeding stock, some for pets (?!) and some for arguably the World’s best beef. Often other people complete our job to produce the end product. In champagne terms, we are the wine grower. Some champagne houses, including some of the very best known, are the people who finish the champagne job - the wine makers.
Claude Nomine and his family are that special and sadly fast disappearing breed of recoltant - both wine grower and wine maker; they see the process through from vine to wine. That explains why we love dealing with them and why we love their champagnes. They control every aspect of production and this is reflected in the quality of the wine; that is why the personalised champagne we offer is so good - because it is well made and delicious!
Just occasionally, however, we are not the bovine equivalent of wine grower. Instead our animals are inadvertent but willing “celebrities”. Bovril are hosting a competition to invest in refurbishing the Great British outdoors. Although none of our animals head Bovril’s way for their beefy beverage, we were thrilled when they asked if they could borrow one of our beasts for their photo shoot - although a bit bemused when they also asked if they could drape a used decorator’s sheet over her and take photos by the only broken gate on our farmland… I loved it! The cow did too… not sure,though, that Nick did as he was crouched behind the cow keeping her steady for nearly three hours during the shoot…!
I don’t think there is a champagne producer category for this type of farming activity! Maybe, though, there is something here for Davina McCall to look into when the Big Brother series finishes in 2010?
@ThisisDavina (Davina McCall)
@nonvintage (me)
Nick leading Calum out at the Surrey County Show with me at a safe distance behind, armed with a stick!
As a main business, we also breed highland cows at our farm on the Surrey/Sussex and Kent borders. These are fabulous beasts being much more docile than they may look with their spectacular horns. Sadly in commercial terms they are hard work and despite being one of the UK’s oldest native breeds of cattle, are currently on DEFRA’s “at risk” register.
We have around 100 beasts, all pedigree with traceable bloodlines through the Highland Cattle Society going back to 1885, and we use three stock bulls on our farm. Calum (in the picture above) is home bred, three years old and looks after a hareem of 18 females; he currently weighs around 800kg. We are serious breeders and were delighted to become approved by Waitrose as one of their nominated farmers last year after rigorous quality controls, site visits and independent audits.
Waitrose are a huge supporter of the UK’s native breeds and British farmers generally. As a business they certainly recognise that quality counts and you may have noticed their highland beef promotion at Christmas time in selected stores… Waitrose also recognise that quality costs more and they do pay farmers a premium for their highland beef, recognising the much longer production process, and that is a huge credit to their business ethos.
People often ask what the link is between the shaggy monsters and champagne. While “nothing tangible” might be a truthful answer, the reason for our involvement with this breed over others was their particular premium nature. Just like champagne, the beef production cannot be hurried as they grow very slowly and do not tend to be mature until 30 months old (as opposed to continental cattle which can be from 14 to 18 months). Some of the very best highland beef is from 48 month old bullocks that have lived an outdoor life feasting on heather and bilberries - but legislation makes their production very difficult. Similarly, females are typically not bred until they are in the their fourth year. All of this means downtime and serious investment as a farmer - but a terrific natural product at the end of the day. Our beasts live outside all year round and love a cold snap to remind them of home!
These principles echo our champagne motiviation. Our main Non-Vintage champagne is aged in bottle in the producer’s cellars just outside Epernay, France (before disgorgement) for a minimum of three years as opposed to the legal minimum of 15 months. The family producer is three generation practised at the art of champagne making, nurturing his own vines all year round so that all aspects of the production are within his control - as we say from vine to wine. 22 hectares of vineyard dotted around the region and in some of the very best Cru villages gives him a potential production of only 250,000 bottles per harvest as quantities are rigorously controlled to ensure only the best juice pressings are used. Quarter of a million may sound a lot but in fact is not many, considering the region has potential for 360m bottles in a year - and that is before the planned expansion by one third to cater for theoretical increases in global demand.
So there it is; we believe that a focus on quality makes a huge difference in the long run; that alone is the perfect reason to still be working with the same champagne producer after 15 years - and breeding highland cows at the same time!
Bring on the bubbles…
Best wishes
Alastair
