Category: Champagne

Champagne Brands Eye China

Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger and other champagne houses could spearhead a move into China, in an indication of changing tastes.

Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo, was speaking to the Wall Street Journal following the publication of a new study.

99.5% of wine currently consumed in still wine. “The Chinese ignore the sparkling wines right now,” Beynat said.

He attributed this to a shortage of marketing by the champagne industry, and said leading brands would play an important future role in educating Chinese consumers about sparkling wines.

The overall growth in wine consumption in China is expected to slow to 39.6% over the next four years, compared with the 142% increase seen between 2007 and 2011.

Vinexpo expects 252m cases of wine to be consumed annually in China by 2016, up from 159m in 2011.

Beynat said the slowdown was a natural correction after the explosion in demand witnessed in China in recent years.

Nonetheless, he anticipated that the country would remain a growth story, as he pointed out China is expected to become the world’s sixth largest wine producer in 2016, ahead of Chile and Australia. “The more you produce, the more you drink,” he noted.

French wines still rule the Chinese market, accounting for around 48% of imports in terms of volume.

China’s per capita consumption is predicted to increase from 1.4 litres of wine per person to 2.1 litres over the next three years. This remains far behind France, the top nation on this metric, at 53.2 litres per person.

Source: AFP/Wall Street Journal

Project Champagne 2030

Growers and brand owners have recently united to increase the quality and value of Champagne through a project dubbed 2030.

Project 2030 was officially launched in December at a meeting of the Association Viticole Champenoise (AVC) to improve the long-term health of the region, both for those selling the wines, but also those working in the vineyards.

Tension between the producers and brand owners is common and is usually due to grape prices – Ghislain de Montgolfier has stated that Project 2030 had brought “communal targets” which will require both parties “to work well together”.

Speaking of the motivation for the project, he added, “We think that we have to protect the image of Champagne not just through the legal system but by increasing knowledge of the product, as well as the quality and sustainability.”

Further impetus for the project stems from a need to add value to Champagne. Although the region is approaching a production limit of 370 million bottles (based on an average yield of 12,400 kg/ha), margins for brand owners are declining.

Indeed, figures shows that between 1971 and 2011 the volume of Champagne produced has increased by 28%, but the value has only risen by 4%.
More particular, the average price for a bottle of Champagne has remained almost stable during the last three years, while grape prices have increased around 3% in each of the last three harvests.

Nevertheless, greater cooperative between the growers and the houses was confirmed by Pascal Férat, head of Champagne’s Syndicat Général des Vignerons.

In an interview with Drinks Business, Férat said, “The houses and growers share a common vision and objective for the region of Champagne.”

He also said, “Project 2030 is about setting up long term objectives for 2030 and the next generation, and I am very happy to open this file, even if I won’t see the end of the project.” Continuing he commented, “It’s about Champagne taking its future in hand, and about the presidents [of the unions for the growers and the houses] pushing the key leaders of Champagne to sit around the same table and decide the future.”

The project has a two-pronged approach according to Férat, with, on the one hand, a focus on the positioning of Champagne in global markets and on the other, an emphasis on how growers need to evolve and adapt to secure their position in the long term.

For the growers, Férat admitted that one core part of Project 2030 would consider the transfer of land from one generation to the next.

With the price of land in Champagne now averaging €1 million per hectare, the cost of passing on vineyards to the next generation is becoming prohibitively high due to inheritance tax.

Pascal Férat (left) and Ghislain de Montgolfier captured together for the launch of Project Champagne 2030.
Photo courtesy of http://www.lunion.presse.fr

Ghislain de Montgolfier, president of the Union des Maisons de Champagne (UMC) since 2007 ­– although retiring from the post this month – told the drinks business that the growers and houses “want to improve Champagne together.”

Source: Drinks Business

The Launch of Dom Pérignon Rosé 2002 by Richard Geoffroy

“I wish you and your loved ones a happy new year and all the best for 2013! What better way to do this than to announce the launch of the Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2002?

Following the strong success of the Dom Pérignon Vintage 2002, the expectations were very high for the Rosé. My feeling is that they were met; my ambition is that they were surpassed; my wish is that you will concur. The story of 2002 is written into the wine: the spring was warm and dry leading to almost perfect flowering; the summer saw long sunny stretches interspersed with overcast and rainy spells, with one final sunny interlude before the harvest. It would be hard to think of a more favourable growing season.

This is reflected in the wine as Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2002 lives up to its promise of accomplished harmony, offering a pure expression of the spirit of Dom Pérignon. This new vintage of Dom Pérignon Rosé will be declared in Istanbul, Turkey on January 23, 2013. I will narrate the tale of this highly awaited night in a future entry.”

Champagne 2012 will be an ‘exceptional’ vintage

Champagne producers Dom Perignon, Philipponnat and Champagne Barons de Rothschild have confirmed they will make a 2012 vintage.

Despite what vignerons called one of the worst growing seasons they had seen for decades, with April frosts, hailstorms, and one of the wettest summers on record, they are optimistic for 2012 vintage quality.
‘The quality and the intensity are definitely there to make an outstanding vintage,’ Dom Perignon chef de cave Richard Geoffroy told Decanter.

Winegrowers said the warm weather in August was a saving grace. As harvest grew closer it became apparent that the small amounts of grapes on the vines were of excellent quality. In September as grapes were picked and pressed, often at close to 11% alcohol, the growers were amazed at the concentration of flavour, natural sugar and acidity, then a talk of a potential vintage started to spread.

‘The base wines show a lovely richness as well as the acidity needed to make outstanding and long-lived Champagnes,’ Jean-Phillipe Moulin, director of wine making at Champagne Barons de Rothschild and Paul Goerg. ‘We will definitely bottle a vintage for both brands.’

Charles Philipponnat at Champagne Philipponat agreed. ‘2012 is an exceptional vintage and especially promising for Pinot Noir,’ he said, and was echoed by at least three other producers, including Champagne Boizel and Champagne Tarlant.

Benoit Tarlant said the quality of all three grape varieties was ‘excellent – something which is extremely rare’.
He added that he would make less non-vintage this year. ‘It would be a pity not to make a decent amount of vintage wine, even if it means we have a little less of of our non-vintage cuvee.’

The harvest average in 2012 was just under 9,000 kg/hectare – significantly lower than the maximum allowance of 11,000kg/hectare.

Source: Decanter

BOLLINGER ROSÉ: BACK TO 1846

Bollinger’s Rosé has been repackaged in the new 1846-inspired bottle that was first launched last year.
The label and foil have been given a different shade of pink and the box has been given a metallic sheen for “greater shelf stand-out”.

A QR code has also been added on the back label that will give consumers greater access to information on the Champagne, how it is made and what to pair it with, as well as increase its traceability.

The bottle shape was inspired by a collection of old bottles unearthed in Bollinger’s cellar dating back from 1846. A revolution indeed, with four formats, from half-bottle to jeroboam, displaying this fabulous innovation. There is undoubtedly a strong heritage element, but above all this new bottle format helps to optimize the quality of Bollinger’s cuvées. Close to the perfect balance of a “small magnum”, with a more slender neck and a wider base, the 1846 bottle “slows down the exchange of oxygen slightly, and thereby offers superior wine quality,” according to Cellar Master Mathieu Kauffmann. The Special Cuvée bottles are the first to adopt the elegant curves of the 1846 bottle, and this very special format will then be gradually applied to the entire range: one by one Bollinger Rosé, La Grande Année and La Grande Année Rosé, Bollinger R.D. and, lastly, Vieilles Vignes Françaises will each take on the new format.

Alongside the aesthetic, modern science has allowed Bollinger to design a bottle that acts as a “small magnum”, with the slimmer neck meaning the wine ages at a slower rate thanks to a decrease in the oxygen exchange through the cork.