The comeback of the bubbly: An ode to Champagne by Ash Rajan

“When do you drink Champagne?”

According to Lily Bollinger, widow of the famous Champagne house founder’s grandson Jaques Bollinger: “I only drink Champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”

There it is – an ode to Champagne’s versatility.

Most drink it to mark milestones, celebrations and spontaneous reveling, but Lily and her parade of Champagne widow peers, the Grand Dame Veuve Clicquot, Mme. Pommery, Mme.Roederer and Mme. Perrier Jouet taught the world to drink it all the time.

The notion that Champagne is the aristocrat’s sparkling wine while sparkling wine is the poor man’s Champagne is a common but unfair assault on Spain’s Cava, Italy’s Prosecco and Spumante, Germany’s Sekt and South Africa’s Cap Classique. Champagne can be called that only if it is made ‘methode champenoise’ and hails from the Champagne region of Rheims and Epernay, an hour or so away from Paris. Battle-torn during both world wars, the German Generals pillaged these heavenly bubbles stockpiles, almost every single bottle, prior to the 1945 vintage, was gone.

Champagne has several faces, Brut is the driest, and the most common. Sec is sweet, and Demi Sec, sweeter. Then there’s Blanc de Blancs, made entirely from chardonnay versus the standard blend of chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier and pinot gris. Further, there is Non-vintage, a blend of several vintages or Vintage from a specific declared year and Single-Vineyard Champagnes produced from a specific ‘terroir’ and micro-climate. Champagnes typically fall into three genres, the most recent, single estate-grown, artisanal, grower Champagnes like Chartogne-Taillet, Tarlant and Pierre Peters. Then the ubiquitous Moet Chandon, Veuve Cliquot, Laurent Perrier, Perrier Jouet, Bollinger, Pol Roger, Mumm, Taittinger, Roederer, Piper Hiedsieck et al. Then, the top brass like Salon, Clicquot’s Grand Dame, Moet’s Dom Perignon, Roederer’s Cristal, Ruinart’s Dom Rose, Krug’s Clos du Mesnil, Taittinger’s Comtes Blanc De Blancs and Jouet’s Belle Epoque etc. all ranging from $200 to north of $500 a bottle. Pol Roger’s Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill was Winston’s favorite sparkler, a loyalty that bagged him a life-time supply of 20,000 bottles from the Champagne house. A fellow wine geek friend hosted a seven course dinner recently, paired solely with these venerable sparklers. A few of us were unsure if a single varietal could handle the burden of matching the wide range of flavor signals of the entire meal. I have to admit that I went in, an atheist, came out, a pilgrim.

To pop or not to pop, to spill or not to spill:

Sommeliers, milestoners, revelers and Formula One race-car champions vary in their views over this debate. You could not have missed a single Bond movie without the pop and froth of a Dom Perignon or a Bollinger, both Bond favorites. I personally love the aural sensation of a ‘pop’, a declaration in c minor for the tilting score to follow. A meticulous sommelier in a quiet dining establishment would prefer a towel-choke of the airborne cork. Likewise, the camera loves the foamy cascade from a shaken bottle while a couple celebrating their anniversary may prefer the gentle but orbital transfer of stars from their Dom Perignon to their flute. Whatever your choice of cork-launching ritual, avoid a Dick Cheney moment and aim the bottle away from your friends.

To capote or to flute: Period buffs like me are partial to capotes. So obsessive is my desire for them, I acquired a gaggle of vintage Baccarat capotes in Paris on my very first visit. The bubble-to-palette-tingle ratio is high from its wider brim and is the clincher for the capote. But like heroes, the bubbles seem to die faster while the flutes display the bubbles like a lava lamp and the tingle lasts longer. And then there is your less glamorous white wine goblet, re-cast as the ideal vessel for blanc de blancs and older vintages. Temperature rule of thumb is 55 degrees cellared but served at 45 degrees; or 55 degrees for older vintages.

Champagne with Caviar?

It is unknown if the Czars replaced vodka with Champagne to chase down their Beluga but Harrods of London has been home to this heavenly pairing for decades and it may well have birthed it.

My own trilogy of anglophile must-dos in London include Champagne and caviar at Harrods, afternoon tea, clotted cream and scones at Fortnum and Mason and the warm mutton patties in Covent Garden. Champagne’s tingling bubbles competes with Sauternes to mate well with the satiny texture of foie gras while Oysters Rockefeller is an old Hollywood classic and the shrimp minus the cocktail can cozy up to a blanc de blancs before you can say jumbo. Anything mushroom will pair too, while its uptown cousin, the truffle, may need a more acidic and austere Champagne like a young Salon. Strawberries, too, are really into Champagne, often literally…visualize a ruby or two amidst tiny diamonds.

Lily and the grand dames of Champagne have a bone to pick with us mere mortals, who would reach for a bubbly only when life throws us a softball of a milestone or a celebration. Napoleon took their message hands down (at least with his one hand not in his jacket) when he crooned, “In victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it.” Pop, foam, fizz…

This article was written for the Bernardsville News by Ash Rajan who is a French certified Maitre’ Du Vin Du Bordeaux and a Wall Street wealth practitioner at Janney Montgomery Scott. Email him at [email protected] on wines and tasting-pairing events. And, of course on how to stay rich during your retirement