Jeffords on Champagne: Paging SB

S

SFJoe

Joe Dougherty
A few interesting items from Andrew Jeffords' recent trip to Champagne.

* "We used to sell 30 to 40 per cent of demi-sec in the mid-1980s,” remembers Charles Philipponnat. “Now it’s completely gone.” Every house has dropped its dosages. Dom Pérignon formerly had a dosage of 10 g/l; now it is 7 g/l, and around 5 g/l for the Oenothèque releases.

* Large houses with substantial vineyard holdings, moreover, are now at great pains to stress their credentials as growers. “This is the wine of a grower,” insisted Taittinger’s Jean-Pierre Redont, introducing his company’s single-estate Folies de la Marquetterie.

* Houses take their vineyards seriously, too. Some 70 per cent of the blend of Roederer’s Cristal is now biodynamically grown.

Knock me over with a feather.
 
i wonder if it has anything to do with, ahem, teh modern agricultural practices.

seems to be a lot more rs in teh base wines these days.

fb.
 
originally posted by fatboy:
i wonder if it has anything to do with, ahem, teh modern agricultural practices.

seems to be a lot more rs in teh base wines these days.
.
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Hot vintages might easily make wine that wants less dosage. But that doesn't convert big houses into bio, which I find a bit shocking.

Not sure I follow. Base wines may have more potential abv, but none that I've ever tasted had much rs, unless you catch them pretty early in the winter.

I've never tasted with the big houses, though.
 
la-fi-mo-dominos-artisan-pizzas-no-20120405-001.jpg
 
Ha ha ha, he is the anti-Tom Stevenson. Go, team oxidation.

But this? Really? "No other fine wines require so much emotion, from both producer and consumer, in order to make their mark."

Can't we call a scam a scam?

I do not eat green eggs and ham.
 
[A]ccording to Charles Philipponnat, it could do better. “The market for sparkling wine has expanded by 40 per cent over the last decade, but Champagne sales are more or less where they were a decade ago. Too much Champagne is still sold at low prices. It’s a waste of resources."

That'll fix it, yeah.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Lordy[A]ccording to Charles Philipponnat, it could do better. “The market for sparkling wine has expanded by 40 per cent over the last decade, but Champagne sales are more or less where they were a decade ago. Too much Champagne is still sold at low prices. It’s a waste of resources."

That'll fix it, yeah.
Click to expand...

This quote struck me as weird too. If the market expanded but you have the same old volume because you raised prices, that makes sense. But if the market has grown, and you're selling at "low prices" (relative term for the Champenois), then something's wrong with what you are offering.
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
But if the market has grown, and you're selling at "low prices" (relative term for the Champenois), then something's wrong with what you are offering.
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I thought that was his intended implication. Too many people making bad wine, or perhaps vines planted in the wrong places. For which there is less excuse when land is so expensive.
 
Every so often a big house offers Champagne for $20-25 wholesale or thereabouts, in order to grab glass pours. My thought is that in those times the wine is offered at a loss or at the level of breaking even, to gain market position. Of course those other houses who lose a glass pour because of this might not be too happy about being undercut on price.

I think he may be referring to this.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Every so often a big house offers Champagne for $20-25 wholesale or thereabouts, in order to grab glass pours. My thought is that in those times the wine is offered at a loss or at the level of breaking even, to gain market position. Of course those other houses who lose a glass pour because of this might not be too happy about being undercut on price.

I think he may be referring to this.
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Oh. So he's suggesting a little less cutting each others' throats and instead standing united against artisanal cava and pet nat with bacon carbonara?
 
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