Alastair\'s Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Veuve Clicquot’

Moët et Chandon

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Moët gets good press and bad but it important not to lose sight of the fact that Moët & Chandon is a hugely significant champagne with origins hailing from 1743.  To many, Moët IS champagne!

Moët’s parent, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), is a global conglomerate of premium brands, headed by the formidable Bernard Arnault. In champagne parlance, LVMH’s houses (brands) include: Moët, Dom Perignon, Krug, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart and Mercier.  In aggregate, between 20-25% of all champagne production falls under the LVMH umbrella.

What is interesting is the way Moët looks to grow its image and market share as the World emerges from recession.  Category sponsorship (champagne) of the 82nd Oscars this year might be a master-stroke.

We note that Moët chose to give away golden jeroboamsMorgan Freeman Moet Oscars 2010 (or are they bigger?) to specific Oscar winners - which at Park Lane we know our customers also find popular as personalised champagne gifts…

AND - Moet also personalised bottles (or are they mags?) for each category winner.  Not quite a fully personalised label (but then that wouldn’t be brand reinforcement)  but the closest they could get.  Now this is the thing:  it is exactly where we wanted to come from back in 1994 when we started out - personalising a well known brand - but we couldn’t find a house to play ball with us and that included Moët which was a preferred partner.

I doubt Moët will introduce this concept wholescale in the UK but at little old Park Lane maybe we should be content by remembering that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…Personalised Oscars Moet

Arguably the World’s most important brand of champagne recognises the importance of personalising the bottles for the end recipient;  hmmm - now where have we heard that before?!

Pink champagne

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Some people love it and some not;  I am in the love category.  A great luscious rose with Personalised pink champagne ordered by a client as wedding thank yousplenty of fizz, dry but not bone dry - perfect.

Love it so much, in fact, that we had it at our wedding reception - with our own personalised label of course - twelve years ago;  pioneers then as most quaffers only knew Laurent Perrier as THE rose champagne.

But the World has changed;  all the big houses produce pink and some of the biggest brands have uber-premium vintage rose - think Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame rose - that is also uber-costly - £200+ as opposed to under £100 for the GD white 1998!   Bollinger introduced their special pink to the market in 2008.

So what’s the difference?  The usual vintage/non-vintage distinction applies, as does the blending process (different grapes and vineyards).   Principally but obviously it is the colour:  the old way of production was to macerate the skins of the black grapes - ie. allow the colour to bleed out into the pressing and then use this in the blend.   The more modern way is conventional blending - adding still red wine (pinot noir normally) to the white blend at the time of bottling.

The paler more blush coloured pinks are typically from the maceration technique and to my mind are usually softer and more approachable.  Just a personal opinion, though.

Either way, rose champagne is perfect for a special Wedding day, perfect for Valentine’s day, perfect for Mother’s day and equally perfect for every day;  enjoy!