An earlier edition of Bordeaux – New York, Issue Number Five, 2004, was devoted to Champagne in general. In this,I wrote a long and highly detailed thesis on how Champagne is made. I described the process from the planting of the vine to the picking of the grapes and then, from the pressing of the grapes to the labeling and packing of the bottled wine.

There were also some more technical articles, including a truly fascinating scientific study of the Champagne bubble, entitled “Effervescence of Champagne”.

 

For those of you who come to this without having seen the Champagne issue and who would like to know more, please refer back to Bordeaux-New York, Issue Number Five, cited above. Regretfully, we do not have the space here to repeat the thesis or even a précis of it.

We have chosen to present to you, in depth, the profiles of five famous Champagne Houses. In Champagne a Company is always known as a House! These are: - Deutz, Gosset, Pol Roger, Salon and Taittinger. There is no good rhyme or reason or logic as to why these five Houses were chosen, other than the fact that they all make fine Champagne and all have lots to say for themselves.

 

I reiterate what I have already said many times. The length of the article on a particular House is in no way related to the quality of that House. A longer article does not denote a better Champagne nor a shorter article a less good one.

 

As you will see the length and complexity of their various histories varies hugely and some are much longer than others.
Also, in any one particular Champagne, I may pay a detailed and lengthy amount of attention to a particular facet of the Champagne process on which that particular house waxed eloquent, such as “remuage”, “pupitrage” or “dégorgement”, for example.

 

All the Houses received “TASTED” with grace and charm and generous hospitality and did their very utmost to answer all my detailed, complicated and often irritating questions with the utmost candour and transparency.

 

 I would like to extend my warmest thanks and that of “TASTED” to all five of them equally, and to their devoted personnel.It has been a pleasure to visit these Houses, to listen to how they make their Champagne and to taste their wonderful wines.

 

I hope that reading these articles will give you, in your turn, as much pleasure and that it will encourage you to taste and enjoy, at any hour of the day or night, some fine bottles of bubbly !

As Dom Perignon is supposed to have said when he allegedly discovered Champagne ...
... « Come quickly brothers, I am drinking stars » ...

 

 

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