Dr. David Muhleman

The-Wine-Educator    WINE & SPIRITS EDUCATION AND CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE CONSUMER AND THE PROFESSIONAL

Champagne!

Just the word brings to mind images of luxury. For years the Champagne industry has sold their product as the quintessential image of luxury. They would have you believe that if you enjoy champagne, you are taking part in the lives of the rich and famous.

 Quite honestly, their plan worked. We do associate champagne with all things luxurious. I admit I am a fan of champagne. I admit I encourage others to buy champagne for celebrations and as special gifts. I’ve even been quoted as saying the only wine you can properly drink out of a paper cup, a plastic glass, or even a lady’s shoe; is champagne.

But is champagne really that good? What is it about champagne that justifies the hype and the entire culture it has created?

If we go back to the early days when champagne was simply fizzy wine, we learn that most winemakers felt the wine was faulted. It wasn’t supposed to have bubbles. And it was only when the Queen of England took an interest in the fizzy wine was it accepted. In fact, in those days the wine was slightly sweet, light, and more a novelty than fine wine.

Additionally, the Champagne region has lost it’s vineyards to war and disease several times over the past century, so they have had to start over each time beginning with new vines and having to recreate it’s image yet once again.

A history of exploding bottles, unfiltered, cloudy wine, and quite honestly poor growing conditions put champagne at a great disadvantage in trying to become a great wine region. So the main organizations in the champagne industry (Comite Interprofessional des Vins de Champagne, the Union des Maisons de Champagne, and the Sydicat General des Vignerons) got together to promote their wines as something very special. And even though you can buy sparkling wines in other regions of France (and around the world), they taught us that nothing compares to the true original; champagne from the champagne region.

If we really look at champagne, the wine, and not champagne, the image, we might be disappointed. If you have ever had a glass of champagne served in the old flat, round parfait glasses (called Marie Antoinette’s), which were common only a few decades ago, the wine quickly lost it’s bubbles and went flat. Flat champagne really is not a wonderful wine. It lacks many of the intensities, and complexities, which we associate with finer wines. I challenge you to let a bottle of champagne go flat, and drink it as a still, white wine. It’s rather unremarkable (with some incredible exceptions).

If that is so, than champagne without the bubbles is simply a mediocre table wine. If we accept that, then it’s the bubbles that make champagne so special?? It’s the bubbles and not the wine? So is caviar really good, or is it the image? Are Ferrari cars really that good, or is it the image? Is champagne really that good, or is it the image we have come to associate with the wine?

If you ever get a chance to see the kitchen in a great restaurant, it often diminishes the grandeur of the food, and my recent trip to the champagne houses of France, seemed to diminish my worship for champagne. It losses some of its luxury when you see it without its “make up” on. I have come to understand I like champagne for what it represents, not for its intrinsic greatness (although there are champagne’s which are truly great). But most non-vintage champagnes are wines to enjoy for their image and culture, and less for their true wine excellence.

Cava’s, prosecco’s, setk’s, and sparkling wines all have bubbles. And in some cases these “bubbly” wines are far better bargains than bubbly wines from Champagne. But nothing says luxury like champagne, nothing says style and class like champagne, and nothing says celebration like champagne. But let’s drink it for what it is; a fizzy white wine from a marginal climate, which has an image and culture of Tsars and Kings. It is the wine that the common man can share with the rich and famous.

I like champagne, I like most bubbly wines, but some times we need to realize it is the image and culture we are buying into, and not the intrinsic excellence of the wine. And once we acknowledge that, we can get back to drinking our champagne and feeling like we are among the rich and famous, for at least the time it takes to enjoy the wine.

So until next time, enjoy good wine.