First, thank you for reading.  We hope that you enjoyed our January quest to learn a few things about the wines, people and region of Champagne.  I know I can’t wait to visit someday and walk the chalky soils, drive the crazy roadways, and visit the many growers of the region who are taking the road less traveled by not selling their grapes to the big houses.  Consistency is boring.

Stay tuned for our take on British Columbia in February, which will include a trip to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Here is a summary of our Champagne articles:

• Ringing in a Decade with Champagne
• Take the E50 from Paris to Reims
• L’Histoire de Champagne
• A Running List of Champagne Favorites
• Time to Split
• There are Big Houses in Champagne
• James Bond’s Champagne
• The Greatest Champagne-Dessert Pairing

Leading up to my encounter with Molly, I gave one of her recipes a try. And I was pleasantly surprised at how well Coeur a la crème with raspberry sauce accompanied Champagne. We enjoyed this heavenly dessert with good company, and a glass of Moet & Chandon. While it appears difficult, it is, hands down, one of the easiest desserts I’ve made, and by far one of the best. It is light and fluffy yet full of flavor given the richness of cream cheese and white chocolate. And raspberry puree is the perfect addition on top. If you’re thinking about making something sweet for Valentine’s Day, I highly recommend giving this a try.

Coeur a la crème with raspberry sauce

Instead of using a heart shaped mold, I used a colander, which Molly suggests as another option. Although it doesn’t look quite as pretty, it tastes the same. Serves 6-8.

For the Coeur/dome

3 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped (use the best you can find)

One 8-ounce package of cream cheese (not low fat, room temperature)

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

¾ powdered sugar, sifted

Using a 1 ¼ quart colander, first take some damp cheesecloth and line (double layer) the interior completely while leaving enough to extend beyond its edges and enclose the filling completely. Press smooth and let the extra hang over the sides of the colander.

Heat white chocolate in microwave in 22 second burst, stirring until smooth. Set aside and let cool.

Combine cream cheese, ¼ cup of cream, and powdered sugar in bowl, mixing together until light and fluffy. Add white chocolate and continue to mix until silky smooth.

In another bowl, beat the remaining 1 cup cream into peaks, and then fold into cream cheese mixture. Spoon the mix directly into mold, folding cheese cloth over the top. Put the colander on a plate or cookie sheet and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

For the puree

One 10-ounce bag of frozen raspberries, thawed

3 tablespoons sugar

Combine raspberries (and their juice) with sugar in food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Push the purée through a very fine sieve to remove the seeds. Store in covered container and chill for up to 4 hours.

When ready to serve, spoon a dollop or two into a Ramekin, topped with a spoonful of raspberry puree.

Champagnes from the Bollinger estate are the choice of 007:

Live and Let Die: Bollinger
Moonraker: Bollinger RD ‘69
License to Kill: Bollinger RD ‘75
The Living Daylights: Bollinger …
Goldeneye: Bollinger Grande Année 1988
Tomorrow Never Dies: Bollinger Grande Année 1989
The World Is Not Enough: Bollinger Grande Année 1990
Die Another Day: Bollinger ‘61
Casino Royale: Bollinger Grande Année 1990

While Dom Perigon, Veuve Cliquot and Moet & Chandon are household names, Bollinger has quietly built an impressive reputation. Perhaps the strongest tie to this being James Bond’s champagne is the fact that in 1884 Bollinger was deemed to be the official champagne of England’s Royal Court. High honors indeed, but what impressed me most as I researched this legendary estate was the fact that Bollinger is still an independent grower – which we at Tavola Rosso advocate heavily.

Although it could be a little difficult to find, Bollinger’s non-vintage brut retails for around $50. If you are into collecting Bollinger’s R.D. and Grand Année champagnes will run you several hundred dollars. Not only are those two wines vintage, but both are very unique in how they are produced.

The Grand Année is only produced when Bollinger believes there is an exceptional harvest. This choice is designed to express the character of the vintage. The house will select the best wines, cru by cru. The wine spends five years on its lees and is aged in bottle under cork, instead of crown seal.

The R.D.  takes the Grand Année further by extending the aging on lees. R.D. spends eight years on its lees, and is also, like the Grand Année, aged under cork, not crown seal. R.D. is a registered trademark of Bollinger which stands for récemment dégorgé (”recently disgorged”). In the mid-1990s, Bollinger sold Année Rare which was an R.D. that had gone under even longer aging on the lees. The disgorgement date is given on the back label. The 1981 R.D. is unique in that there was no Grande Année produced from that vintage.

For your next special occasion – or if you are just looking to add a little romantic intrigue like 007 – look for a bottle of Bollinger as a fantastic substitute to the usual suspects. Cheers.

Unlike still wine, Champagne is difficult to save for more than a few hours.  There are some good products on the market that can slow the demise, but nothing can stop time.  Once you pop the cork, you have a couple hours.  With a stopper, you might be able to double that time.  So unless I have friends over or I feel like polishing off a bottle, that sparkling treasure will remain buried in the cellar.  However, instead of hiding my bubbly away for specific occasions, I have found a solution in the form of small format bottles or Splits.

A few years back Champagne Houses noticed a growing demand for their wine in America.

|Several factors appear to be behind the recent success. One is the popularity of rosé in the U.S.—especially sparkling rosé. Champagne houses and other sparkling producers have also targeted 20- and 30-somethings with single-serve bottles and other smart packaging. And as U.S. wine consumption as a whole increases, more Americans have learned that sparklers are food-flexible wines.|

I never like to think of myself as a slave to marketing, but I have to admit half-bottles and splits are really appealing to me.  Not only can I enjoy champagne more often, but it won’t go flat on me.  Splits are not for all occasions, but they definitely make it easier to enjoy your favorite champagne.

Here’s a list of the top brands in the industry that are easily accessible to consumers across the United States:

• Dom Perignon – produced by Moet  and Chandon, and owned by LVMH this famous label is named after the famous monk, who in 1668 began producing fine sparkling wines for Louis 14th, the Sun King.  Mark dove in to history of Dom Perignon earlier. 400k cases per year.
• Krug – also owned by LVMH, Krug is recognized as one of the nuttier  champagnes out there with a strong influence of the oak aging.
• Vueve Clicquot – also falling under the shiny LVMH umbrella since the mid 80’s Veuve is heavily marketed in the US and easily recognizably by their yellow label.  Madame Clicquot was influential in developing the riddling and degourgement process that makes large scale product possible.
• Moet & Chandon  – they are the official house of Queen Elizabeth the second and a part of the same portfolio as Louis Vuitton.  2M cases per year.
• Cristal – produced by Louis Roederer, was initially  produced for Alexander II of Russia and is widely considered the first premium cuvee.  Flashy websites are all the rage in this class of wines.  Also, 400k cases per year.
• Louis Roederer – famed producer of Cristal, dates all the way back to the same year that Our Declaration of Independence was signed. Another 250k cases, beyond the Cristal.
• Henriot – this independent house is a favorite of Mark, and has a rich history dating back to 1808. Surely, this is one of the up and coming wines that is really delivering on value right now. 
• Laurent – Perrier – makers of the best selling  Rose champagne, and one of my personal favorites, they also proclaim to the best the oldest family owned house.  They contract with a whopping 1200 growers each year and their 2008 revenue was over 180M. Imagine managing that many growers, and keeping quality consistent!
• Perrier-Jouet  – Owned by Pernod Ricard, this house was also founded in the early 19th century and produces on a massive scale out of the Epernay region.   Their website is definitely creepy. 250k cases per year.
• Taittinger – run by Claude Tattinger out of a massive  mansion near Reims, these folks export 2/3 of their production. Their flagship wine is a 100% chardonnay effort called Comtes de Champagne.
• Charles Heidsieck  – the champagne for “those who know” is very proud of their many gold medals and awards at county fairs.  Chuck, who lived in the mid 19th century is widely credited with popularizing champagne in the US. 
• Mumm – the official champagne of Formula One Racing, they also have a large operation in Napa.
• Bollinger – one of the last remaining family owned operations, they ferment much of the champagnes in oak.  100k cases.

It was French monks who were the first to bottle a sparkling form of wine called Champagne, named after the Champagne region of France. The method of making “mousse” (another name for bubbles) in a bottle was enhanced by the efforts of Frère Jean Oudart (1654 – 1742) and Dom Pierre Pérignon (1639 – 1715), Benedictine monks and cellarmasters at their respective abbeys of Saint-Pierre aux Monts de Châlons and Saint-Pierre d’Hautvillers.

The appellation of Champagne has a colder and shorter growing season than the rest of the French wine growing world. Therefore, Champagne grapes had to be picked late in the year, with less time available for fermentation. For those that have tried fermenting wine in the cold (Sean) you will know that the cool temperatures stop the process of converting the sugar from the grapes into alcohol. The French monks perfected a new method of making wine – methode champenoise – by using a second fermentation process that took place in the bottle during the following spring. The second fermentation created carbon-dioxide bubbles that are the sparkle of Champagne.

On behalf of all lovers of bubbly: Merci beaucoup, Dom Pérignon et Frère Jean.

You can pick up a bottle of the Dom Pérignon 2000 vintage for about $125. Salut!

The name Champagne is derived from the word Campagna, a region in Southern Italy.  The story goes that the Roman soldiers thought that the hills looked the same.  After they planted grapes , they must have quickly learned that the climate and terroir was quite different from their hot and dry homeland.

The region is located less than 100 miles northeast of Paris and directly west of Alsace at the 49th Parallel North (which is the same latitude as the U.S./Canadian border in Washington state).  The official controlled appellation (AC) contains five distinctly identified districts: the Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne, Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne.  Taking a closer look at the above map of Champagne, I’ve circled the general location of these districts, although some smaller ones exist within the region. The Aube is disconnected from the rest southeast of Troyes, making the geography of Champagne rather interesting.

Not all vineyard land is valued the same, of course, and for many years going back to the 1940’s an organization named CIVC rated the grapes from each village and stack ranked them.  The Grand Cru vineyards, the highest classification, got 100 percent ratings. Premier Crus were vineyards with 90 to 99 ratings and the Deuxième Crus in the 80–89 range.  Once the price was set for the grapes, each buyer would pay a percentage of that price to the grower depending on the village in which the land was located based on their classification.  Complex and controlled, or simply French.  In the past 10 years, growers and buyers have moved to a more capitalistic system of trading goods, but many of the previous rating are still honored.

All of the land that was approved for the AC boundaries in 1927 has been planted, and a proposal is currently being reviewed to expand the official boundaries.  This is serious business and has the potential to make a E5,000 hectare soar to a value of over E1,000,000. It’s clear to me that the ability to legally use the word Champagne on a bottle of wine, makes it one of the most powerful words in modern use.

I pulled the picture below from Bing Maps showing the fascinating quilt-like division of properties.  Over 19,000 individual growers take to the fields every year and less than 10% of the land is owned by the big houses.

Separately, I think, Liz, Mark, Nick and myself all had a little new years resolution including Tavola Rosso.  Mark resumed posted a week ago, Liz was just telling me about some recipes she wanted to post, and Nick sent me an email demanding that we get this thing going again (despite not posting for a year and a half ). To be fair, he did have some good ideas and the site was getting stale.

So… we’ll be focusing our food.wine.travel thoughts and posts on a specific region, state, provence, appellation or maybe even continent each month and digging deep for the really interesting content.  This could include pairing, a dissertation on the key players – who are the influencers, disrupters, region history lessons, the top brands to watch out for and to be aware of,  a geography lesson, look in to the notion of terroir, and the usual tasting notes and wines of the week.  We hope that this keeps us motivated to write and keeps you coming back to read more.

We’d like to welcome the new decade in with a closer look at the Champagne region.

To be continued…

CC MeanestIndian