Wine & Spirits

La Vie en Rosé

Ah, the joys, the wonders, the pleasures of Champagne! Real Champagne. French Champagne, the only Champagne. Yes, there are good sparkling wines from California and Italy, excellent Cavas from Spain, nice sparklers from most wine regions, but there is nothing like Champagne.

“Champagne is the one thing that gives me zest when I am tired.”
– Brigette Bardot

What makes it so good? The méthode champenoise, used for all of the best sparkling wines, is one reason. It is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive, but it stores the tiniest, most delicate, never-ending bubbles in the wine. It also gives it a toasty, yeasty character that bespeaks complexity and something mysteriously interesting.

The méthode classique, as it is also called, is this: Ferment your grape juice to convert the sugar into alcohol (wine); bottle your wine and add grape yeast and sugar to restart the fermentation process; stopper the bottle for a period of time (from a few weeks for some sparkling wines to a few years for Champagne); turn the bottles upside down for awhile to let the dead yeast cells settle into the neck of the bottle; stick the neck of the bottle, still upside down, a couple of inches into liquid nitrogen or some similar sub-freezing solution, instantly freezing the gunk in the neck; turn the bottle right-side up and pop the temporary stopper; the built up pressure from the carbon dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation, will blow the debris out of the bottle without ruining the now-sparkling wine; top up the bottle with another of the same already having gone through the process; put in the cork with the little cage on top to hold it in against the up to ten atmospheres of pressure; age it awhile in the bottle (from a few weeks for inexpensive sparkling wines to a few years for Champagne. Simple, huh?

Notice that Champagne always takes longer? Much longer second fermentation, and longer bottle ageing, but that’s not all. Real Champagne must originate in the region called Champagne about 90 miles northeast of Paris, and must follow some of the most strict regulations on how it is made, from the sources and varieties of the grapes, to the second fermentation timing and techniques. The quality control is second to none. There are other reasons, though, that the best sparkling wines in the world come from there: 1) the chalky soil seems ideal to produce the best style of grapes for bubblies; and 2) Champagne is the northern-most wine-producing region in France. The grapes have a great difficulty ripening properly, leaving the wines after the first fermentation, acidic, almost astringent, which happens to be exactly the style that morphs magically into the best of sparkling wines: Champagne.

“Champagne! In victory, one deserves it; in defeat, one needs it.”
– Napoleon Bonaparte

Whew! I’m glad that work is out of the way. Now, let’s enjoy some Champagne. I was saddled recently with the arduous task of attending the launch of a new one…Well, not a new one, rather an existing one in new packaging, and what packaging it is! The bottle is displayed and stored in a clear box upside down…as if it were having a flashback to its childhood when it stood inverted to let the sediment settle. It is produced by the great Grand Cru (That’s the top rating.) Champagne house Piper-Heidsieck. It is called “Viktor & Rolf Champagne Rosé Sauvage” after the two designers who created the packaging, Rose & Savage…No, that’s not right…Viktor & Rolf… as part of a much larger marketing campaign. Upside down ice buckets, upside down wine glasses, etc. You get the idea. The tag line is, “How could we make something new out of something eternal? We only had one answer: invert the proportions.” Whatever they mean by that, I’m not sure, but it is cool, especially the giant inverted Champagne glass pyramid, which hangs from the ceiling like a chandelier in a scene from a hungover nightmare.

“Three be the things I shall never attain: envy, content, and sufficient Champagne.”
– Dorothy Parker

The important part, however, is the drink itself, and it is sublime, sold rightside up for several years as simply “Rosé Sauvage”. In Champagne, Rosés are usually made by adding a little Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier, both red wines, to the blend, which may include one or both of those black grapes made as white wines and blended with Chardonnay. The term “sauvage” means it is very dry…no sweet pinks here. It is a darker pink than typical, with complex flavors of crisp citrus and blood orange, supported by hints of strawberry, cherry, and plum, finishing with a richness that makes one sigh with pleasure. All I needed was roasted duck in a plum glaze to make the experience perfect.

That, and another bottle of the V&R. What a job.

Tagged with: champagne, sparkling wine, wine