You better buy your holiday bubbles now

If you plan to host a party this holiday season or have something to celebrate, you should buy your favorite champagne now.

Champagne officials are predicting a worldwide shortage of French bubbles toward the end of the year. Part of the reason is that demand for champagne, particularly in the United Kingdom, has bounced back with gusto. Tariffs placed on champagne by former President Trump depressed sales in the United States, which meant more of the product being sold in the UK. But U.S. sales picked up in the spring as consumers were re-emerging from the pandemic. Now, the U.S. in back to stocking up at a time when producers were reducing production in anticipation of a long-term slow down. Yields in 2020 were intentionally lowered by the Committee Champagne.

The shortage will benefit prosecco producers and even sparkling wine producers from the West Coast which face no product shortage.

I suspect that consumers are tired of the pandemic, no matter what its risk, and will find reasons to celebrate this Christmas season. Those with the ability to pay higher prices will indulge in prestigious champagne no matter what the cost. — if they can find it.

The value of blind tastings

As often as I embarrass myself in a blind tasting, it is essential to measuring a wine without prejudice. How many times have you — or someone in your circle — chosen a favorite based on cost or region? A $100 cabernet sauvignon must be better than one that sells for $25, right? Burgundy pinot noirs must be better than one from California, right?

The other day among friends we submitted ourselves to four sparkling wines: one from Champagne, one from Oregon, one from South Africa and one from England. All I asked is for the knowledgeable tasters to tell me which one they liked the best. The champagne was very good, but it was the Nyetimber from England that was judged the favorite. And, many thought it was champagne.

It was the result I was hoping for. I recently wrote a magazine article on the growing success of the English sparkling wine industry. I was blown away by the quality of these wines and their similarities to champagne. British winemakers are using the same grapes grown in similar soil and using the same traditional winemaking process. Temperatures in the southern region, thanks to climate warming, are as perfect as those in Champagne. In fact, as temperatures rise in Champagne, England has a better future. More than 70 percent of the wine that comes from these vineyards is sparkling.

Would anyone have judged the English wine superior had they seen the label? I doubt it. In fact, restaurateurs who carry Nyetimber in my town say it takes some convincing. But when the adventurous diners try it, they are universally delighted.

Subsequent to the sparkling wine tasting, we blind tasted four reds and asked to guess on their grape variety or region. I was convinced the first one was a blend from the Rhone Valley and the second was from Rioja. The third I couldn’t guess and the last I thought to be another Rhone.

All of them were from the Paso Robles region of the Central Coast. They were stunning, expensive wines Three were from the 2014 vintage, the fourth was a 2010.

The Booker Vineyard The Ripper was grenache, so I at least had the grape variety right. The second was a grenache/syrah blend from Law Estate — hardly close to Rioja. The third was the 2010 L’Aventure Cote a Cote, a blend of mostly syrah and mourvedre. The last wine — the 2014 Saxum Broken Stones — was a blend of grenache, syrah and mourvedre. All were stunning wines but I liked the Law Estate the best and close behind was the legendary Saxum.

As I said, blind tastings are humbling experiences when you stick your neck out. But they taught me a lot.

English fizz a nice surprise

Champagne has been loathe to dispel the myth that they invented sparkling wine. I can’t blame them. They have commanded the sparkling wine industry for centuries and hold on to their rightful claim that only they can call champagne “champagne.”

But history will show that methode champenois, the process by which today’s champagne is made, was an invention of English physician Christopher Merret. He was the first to add sugar to still wine to produce a secondary fermentation.

But a century earlier, Dom Perignon was fumbling to tame the bubbles in what he called “the devil’s wine.” His problem was that fermentation would stop as temperatures in northern France dropped, only to resume in the spring when temperatures climbed. The result was carbon dioxide (bubbles) which once trap would cause a bottle to burst. Champagne started as an accident; for the Brits sparkling wine was intentional.

However apologetic the good monk, the Brits loved the bubbles in the 17th century and invented a stronger glass bottle. Voila, champagne lived on.

With that history refresher, I was eager to sample two sparkling wines made in England. With more than 400 wineries in southeast England, the Brits have been dabbling in winemaking for some time. However, their success with sparkling wine didn’t appear until global warming made its growing conditions more hospitable.

The two sparking wines — “Ridgeview Bloomsbury and Ridgeview Cavendish — were quite good. They both use the same primary grapes used in Champagne — chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. That makes their product closer to champagne than prosecco (glera) and cava.(xarello and more).

I liked the elegance and depth of the Bloomsbury brut, which was different from the Henriot Brut I tasted as well. But it held its own.

So did its price. The Henriot seemed like a deal at $45 compared to the $55 prices for each English sparkling wine. I have to wonder why anyone would choose and English sparkling wine when for less money he could get French champagne.

However, the English are proud to drink locally made sparkling wine. In fact, sales of champagne have plummeted in England due in part to the local competition as well as the popularity of prosecco and Brexit.

If you are English, be proud of these wines. Surely Dr. Merret would.

For more champagne recommendations, see “My Column.”

Ringing in the year with champagne memories

At this time of the year I can't help but think of the people of Champagne. I always wonder how they celebrate the new year -- surely they drink champagne year-round, so what's the special drink to ring in the new year? Probably vintage champagne.

If you have been to Champagne, you know the pride of the champenois -- and their formality. Every time I've been there my hosts have greeted me in suit coats. That's so totally unlike winemakers from Burgundy and most of southern France. Perhaps because the local quaff is associated with wealth and culture, they feel the need to be a bit more formal.

Remi Krug

My favorite memory is that of Remi Krug, who with his older brother Henri was the fifth generation to make Krug champagne. Henri died in 2013 at age 75 and passed the baton onto his younger brother, Remi, in 2001.  The company was bought by LVMH in 1999.

My wife and I tasted champagne, including the ultra-expensive tete-de-cuvee Clos du Mesnil, in Epernay and then drove with Remi behind the wheel to Charles Boyer's Les Crayeres for lunch. Les Crayeres is a three-star Michelin restaurant and when Krug walked in, everyone paid attention. I don't think there has ever been a more stellar moment in my wine career -- eating lunch with Remi Krug at an expensive restaurant and drinking more Clos du Mesnil.

Krug champagne is special because it ages its wine in small oak casks -- most other houses age it in stainless steel. Krug also holds the champagne in bottles for as long as 8 years before it is released. This is a more expensive process and hence Krug wines can cost more than $300 a bottle. But the champagnes are more complex than your average non-vintage brut.

I also dined with Claude Taittinger at Chateau de la Marguertterie, a castle used primarily for fetes and receptions. Like Krug, he too was immaculately dressed and so proper my wife and I had a hard time relaxing even after a few glasses of Comtes de Champagnes rose.

Alexandre Chartogne

One of y fondest memories was that of Chartogne-Taillet in the little village of Merfy. We had stopped there because the Chartogne family was one of the first to make grower champagnes. Instead of selling their grapes to a cooperative or a producer, the family had decided to make their own. This was in the early 1990s and the movement was just getting started. Phillippe Chartogne and his wife warmly greeted us in his house and showed us the garage where he made his wines. Half way through the interview, his two kids came in from school and we decided to leave. He was disappointed that we weren't staying for dinner, but we had other appointments. The hospitality was unbelievable and today his wines rank among our favorites.

By the way, one of the kids -- Alexandre -- is now the winemaker.

Great memories and I'll be toasting them on New Year's Eve.