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)
several producers commented on my excellent timing as I was caught in those few days when it was possible to see every colour of leaf on the vineyards. I agreed how spectacular the whole area looked - like a giant patchwork quilt. On closer inspection, I was also muddled - why were the browner leaves at the lower levels and the greener ones further up the hills when surely it should be the other way round?
The answer - which does seem like reverse logic - is that the frost hits the valleys first while the vineyards higher up are more protected. The leaves certainly confirmed this explanation. Imagine the effect this has all year round on the individual vineyards - whether rain or sun, snow or frost .
Of course, with champagne the blending process (of grapes and years) is intended to iron out these vagaries, but it still helps to understand all the components of quality. This is what Herve hopes to achieve with his focus on vineyard quality at Ayala.
Fascinating yesterday evening to meet Herve Augustin, President Directeur General of 
