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TONG N°4
Champagne

Champagne faces many obstacles – a revision of the appellation, the developing trend for single vineyard champagnes and the concomitant “rise of the grower.” At the same time, houses and cooperatives have never been so demanding.
What about the trend for Extra Brut and Brut Nature? Better educated consumers want wines with more individuality and greater transparency about its products, in tune with a healthier lifestyle. But the resulting champagnes are often too harsh and thin because the grapes are not always ripe when harvested.
And the big champagne houses exaggerate the role played by blending so as to secure their house style, rarely mentioning the vital role of liqueur d’expédition. There’s a lot to think about.


Content
 

A delicate balance
The champagne business now and in the near future
by Steve Charters MW
 
Champagne's credibility gap
About the revision of the Champagne appellation - with exclusive maps!
by Tom Stevenson
 
Single vineyard champagnes
The rise of terroir
by Essi Avellan MW
 
Autolysis
The mystery of champagne revealed
by Hervé Alexandre
 
The science behind the bubbles
Why they contain so much flavour
by Gérard Liger-Belair
 
A quest for the best
An experiment to make champagne only with grapes
by Pascal Agrapart
 
Steve Charters MW
Steve Charters is an Australian Master of Wine based in Reims, France, where he is professor at the Chair of Champagne Management in Reims Management School. His specialities include the cultural and social context of wine, and more particularly champagne. His research focuses on the marketing of wine, consumer behaviour and wine tourism.

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Tom Stevenson
Based in Britain, wine writer Tom Stevenson needs no introduction. He is a world authority on champagne, and has written extensively on the subject for the last 30 years. His most important work is without doubt Christie’s World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine, first published in 1998.

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Essi Avellan MW
Essi Avellan is Finland’s first Master of Wine, and editor of the international publication Fine Champagne Magazine. Avellan contributes to a number of international newspapers and wine and food magazines and judges at several wine competitions. She knows everything there is to know about single vineyard champagnes.

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Hervé Alexandre
Hervé Alexandre is professor of Oenology at the Institut Universitaire de la Vigne et du Vin Jules Guyot at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France, where he’s responsible for the Diplôme National d’Oenologue. He is also rector of the Union of Oenologists of France. His research focuses on the micro-organisms in wine, yeasts and bacteria.

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Gérard Liger-Belair
Gérard Liger-Belair is professor of Chemical Physics at Reims University in France. He also heads the university’s “Bubble team”, exploring the science of thin films, bubbles and foams and their interdisciplinary applications. Among other prizes, he has won the Association of American Publishers’ 2004 award for his book “Uncorked, the Science of Champagne”, published by Princeton University Press (to contact him: gerard.liger-belair@univ-reims.fr)

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Pascal Agrapart
Pascal Agrapart is a champagne grower in Avize, one of the grand cru villages in Champagne’s Côte des Blancs. He makes terroir champagnes, and is not interested in so-called luxury cuvées. His latest project is an experiment: he wants to make champagne using only grapes without any addition of sugar.

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