To those with poor French here is a very poor translation :-) A wine from champagne turns a meal into a festival meal of festival? It is a personal, subjective, choice which must however respect some principles. It is also an expensive choice, because the price of champagnes, due to a strong demand, has increased much for eighteen months. Mostly, the champagne is before all lightness, delicacy and promptness. They are often crudes without year (wine assemblies of several harvests), the best prices of each range. White of white, where s' express only the chardonnay, are in general more expensive. They develop notes sharp of fishing, d' citrus fruits or of exotic fruits. The bubbles s' raise quickly in glass and involve mentholated notes or d' fresh almond. The dress has green reflections or pale gold. In mouth, c' is the freshness which dominates. They will be been used for l' aperitif or with the entries: cold with the naturalness or slightly gratinées oysters, crawfish with the vapor; salmon marinated with the grasses (gravlax), or poultries (capons, poulard) in frost, cold heat or carpaccio. With the dessert, these wines accompany the soufflés or foams d' citrus fruits, sorbets with the fruits. Among champagnes of mark, let us retain special Bollinger vintage (45 €), the crude reserves pol. Roger (34,50 €), the crude without year of Delamotte (30 €) and l' exceptional white of white year 1999 of this mark (52 €). Let us add to this choice rough Demoiselle of Vranken (27 €), the crude without year of Thiénot (26 €) the sovereign crude d' Henriot (28 €) and still crude 2002 of Deutz (45 €), without omitting l' excel ultra gross (not proportioned) of Laurent Perrier (55 €), or rough the LP (35 €), first price of this prestigious mark. Certain champagnes do not make mystery of their aromatic power. Their intensity is due to the presence of pinot black and pinot miller, which accentuates l' of it; vinous aspect. Their color is frank. In glass one distinguishes from the flavours from violet and d' spices, of truffle also sometimes. With the palate the tastes fleshy and are prolonged. They can be been useful with shellfish (lobsters, crawfish), salmon smoked or of duck foie gras to the naturalness useful with toast. Some between them will hold their row vis-a-vis the large poultries - poulard, goose, capon or pigeon - . With dessert, one will avoid confronting them with chocolate logs. On the other hand, they will spare their effects with the fruits of season (oranges or pears finely spiced), beggars of the thirteen desserts of Christmas, or cakes with chestnuts. Are included in this category D vintage 2000 of Widow A. Devaux (49 €), the great reserve of Gosset (37 €), the noble vintage 1998 of Lanson (88 €) and rosy 2003 of Moët and Chandon (49 €). One will retain at Mumm the vintage 1999, for his spiced notes, crude 1999 of Bruno Paillard, very balanced (44 €), and vintage 2002 of Veuve Clicquot (48 €), with dominant of pinots. Another category of champagnes, also resulting d' black assemblies of pinots and well melted millers, offer a sweetness, sometimes even a consistency always balanced by the promptness of the chardonnay. Their colors go from the constant gilded yellow to the pink extinguished for the rosy ones. Their flavours point out honey, the bread d' spices, cinnamon sometimes. In mouth, c' is the roundness and the marrowy one which dominates. These champagnes must be been useful with shellfish out of cassolette or gratin scented with spices. Agreements with the duck foie gras or d' goose in brioche or accompanied by brioche bread are delicate. The poultries will have to be enamelled with honey, or to present a spiced note. They are as well wines intended to accompany by tarts or salads with the red fruits, small furnaces or macaroons. One will choose crude 2000 Charles Heidsieck (49 €) for roundness, the very greedy gross reserve of Billecart-Salmon (34 €), also the rosy crude of this brand (55 €) and the unexpected first white vintage of blacks of A.R. vintage Lenoble 2004 (30 €). At Roederer, owner of his vineyards, the crude first (36 €) offers a fruity mouth, like the R of Ruinart (37 €) and unworked diamond of Vranken (37 €). Certain champagnes express before all complexity and the richness. They are bottles of a great maturity, special vintages or of prestige vintage. Their price largely exceeds 100 € a bottle. On the other hand, the champagnes of vine growers (Champagnesdevignerons.com) are much more accessible, from 30% to 40% less expensive, but are less well distributed, except near some good cavists. Rough the particular vintage of the Baron Albert, for example, is sold with the price of 14,70 €; the rosy one of Claude Baron: 15 €. Both in the Charly-on-Marne. Pierre Boever and Fils, to Louvois, yield to his great wine the Ladies of France to 13,20 €. His/her colleague of Hautvillers, Jean-Philippe To work, fixed the price of rough sound without year at 12,70 €. Less expensive still, the vintage tradition of Gerard Cligny, with Merrey-on-Arce, is invoiced 11,30 €!
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Antoine Capet Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 4:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ChurchillChat] Re: WSC & champagne Further to Jim Lancaster's message (below) : _Le Monde_ had a feature tonight on the current state of the market for champagne in France. Naturally Pol Roger is mentioned - not cheap at 34,50 euros for the regular 75 cl bottle, however, when growers' prices start at 11.30 euros. I take it that lovers of real champagne have enough French (like Churchill) to understand an article in French about it. One good thing about the present international crash is that the ruined "golden boys" will no longer be there to push the prices up thanks to their "dirty" money, making champagne once more accessible to those of us who earn an honest penny. Once more : Season's Greetings ! A.Capet PS. For those who are interested in mathematics and the incredibly complex non-metric system, which differs in the UK and the USA for the measurement of liquids : I am surprised that the (British) Daily Telegraph should write that the "Imperial pint" is equivalent to 50 cl. It is one eighth of a UK gallon (4.53 litres), therefore 56 cl +. The US pint - one tenth of a UK gallon, ie. 45 cl + - is in fact nearer. I suppose that Churchill liked to have 56 cl for his dinner (reluctantly making do with 28 cl - ten English fluid ounces - for lunch, when he had to share the "Imperial" bootle). 50 cl (two thirds of a bottle) would not have been sufficient. ......................... Un vin de champagne tout au long d'un repas de fête ? C'est un choix personnel, subjectif, qui doit cependant respecter quelques principes. C'est aussi un choix onéreux, car le prix des champagnes, en raison d'une forte pression de la demande, a beaucoup augmenté depuis dix-huit mois. Pour beaucoup, le champagne c'est avant tout la légèreté, la délicatesse et la vivacité. Ce sont souvent des bruts sans année (assemblages de vins de plusieurs récoltes), les meilleurs prix d'entrée de chaque gamme. Les blancs de blancs, où s'exprime le seul chardonnay, sont en général plus chers. Ils développent des notes vives de pêche, d'agrumes ou de fruits exotiques. Les bulles s'élèvent rapidement dans le verre et entraînent des notes mentholées ou d'amande fraîche. La robe a des reflets verts ou or pâle. En bouche, c'est la fraîcheur qui domine. Ils seront servis à l'apéritif ou bien avec les entrées : huîtres froides au naturel ou légèrement gratinées, langoustines à la vapeur ; saumon mariné aux herbes (gravlax), ou bien volailles (chapons, poulardes) en gelée, en chaud froid ou en carpaccio. Au dessert, ces vins accompagnent les soufflés ou les mousses d'agrumes, les sorbets aux fruits. Parmi les champagnes de marque, retenons le Bollinger spécial cuvée (45 €), le brut réserve de Pol Roger (34,50 €), le brut sans année de Delamotte (30 €) et l'exceptionnel blanc de blancs millésime 1999 de cette marque (52 €). Ajoutons à ce choix le brut Demoiselle de Vranken (27 €), le brut sans année de Thiénot (26 €) le brut souverain d'Henriot (28 €) et encore le brut 2002 de Deutz (45 €), sans omettre l'excellent ultra brut (non dosé) de Laurent Perrier (55 €), ou encore le brut LP (35 €), premier prix de cette marque prestigieuse. Certains champagnes ne font pas mystère de leur puissance aromatique. Leur intensité est due à la présence de pinot noir et de pinot meunier, qui en accentuent l'aspect vineux. Leur couleur est franche. Dans le verre on distingue des arômes de violette et d'épices, de truffe aussi parfois. Au palais les goûts sont charnus et prolongés. Ils peuvent être servis avec des crustacés (homards, langoustines), du saumon fumé ou bien du foie gras de canard au naturel servi avec du pain grillé. Certains d'entre eux tiendront leur rang face aux grandes volailles - poularde, oie, chapon ou pigeon - garnies d'une farce fine. Au dessert, on évitera de les confronter avec des bûches chocolatées. En revanche, ils ménageront leurs effets avec les fruits de saison (oranges ou poires finement épicées), mendiants des treize desserts de Noël, ou gâteaux aux marrons. Entrent dans cette catégorie le D millésimé 2000 de Veuve A. Devaux (49 €), la grande réserve de Gosset (37 €), la noble cuvée 1998 de Lanson (88 €) et le rosé 2003 de Moët et Chandon (49 €). On retiendra chez Mumm le millésimé 1999, pour ses notes épicées, le brut 1999 de Bruno Paillard, très équilibré (44 €), et vintage 2002 de Veuve Clicquot (48 €), à dominante de pinots. Une autre catégorie de champagnes, également issus d'assemblages de pinots noirs et meuniers bien fondus, offrent une suavité, parfois même une onctuosité toujours équilibrée par la vivacité du chardonnay. Leurs couleurs vont du jaune doré soutenu au rose éteint pour les rosés. Leurs arômes rappellent le miel, le pain d'épices, la cannelle parfois. En bouche, c'est la rondeur et le moelleux qui dominent. Ces champagnes doivent être servis avec des crustacés en cassolette ou en gratin parfumés aux épices. Les accords avec le foie gras de canard ou d'oie en brioche ou accompagné de pain brioché sont délicats. Les volailles devront être laquées au miel, ou présenter une note épicée. Ce sont aussi bien des vins destinés à accompagner des tartes ou des salades aux fruits rouges, des petits fours ou des macarons. On choisira le brut 2000 de Charles Heidsieck (49 €) pour sa rondeur, le très gourmand brut réserve de Billecart-Salmon (34 €), également le brut rosé de cette marque (55 €) et l'inattendu premier cru blanc de noirs de A.R. Lenoble millésimé 2004 (30 €). Chez Roederer, propriétaire de ses vignobles, le brut premier (36 €) offre une bouche fruitée, comme le R de Ruinart (37 €) et le diamant brut de Vranken (37 €). Certains champagnes expriment avant tout la complexité et la richesse. Ce sont des bouteilles d'une grande maturité, des cuvées spéciales ou de prestige millésimées. Leur prix dépasse largement 100 € la bouteille. En revanche, les champagnes de vignerons (Champagnesdevignerons.com) sont beaucoup plus accessibles, de 30 % à 40 % moins chers, mais moins bien distribués, sauf auprès de quelques bons cavistes. Le brut cuvée particulière du Baron Albert, par exemple, est vendu au prix de 14,70 € ; le rosé de Claude Baron : 15 €. Tous deux à Charly-sur-Marne. Pierre Boever et Fils, à Louvois, cède son grand cru Les Dames de France à 13,20 €. Son collègue de Hautvillers, Jean-Philippe Bosser, a fixé le prix de son brut sans année à 12,70 €. Moins chère encore, la cuvée tradition de Gérard Cligny, à Merrey-sur-Arce, est facturée 11,30 € ! Jean-Claude Ribaut http://www.lemonde.fr/aujourd-hui/article/2008/12/17/champagne-quand-meme_1132224_3238.html ======================== ----- Original Message ----- From: jimlancaster To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 4:28 PM Subject: [ChurchillChat] WSC & champagne Appropriate season’s greetings from Jim Lancaster Below is a text version of an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph about WSC and his preference for the Imperial pint bottle of Pol Roger champagne. Champagne? Like Churchill, I’ll have a pint, but was he right about the best size of bottle for fizz? Jonathan Ray in the Daily Telegraph 13 December 2008 In a fit of festive largesse, Champagne Pol Roger is generously offering three lucky readers the chance to win a bottle, magnum and jeroboam of vintage champagne from the 1995 vintage and the same from 1996 and 1999. To enter, and for terms and conditions, see http://www.polroger.co.uk/telegraph/ before midnight on Wednesday, December 31. CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE SIZES Bottle = 75cl Magnum = 2 bottles Jeroboam = 4 bottles Rehoboam = 6 bottles Methuselah = 8 bottles Salmanazar = 12 bottles Balthazar = 16 bottles Nebuchadnezzar = 20 bottles (Unfortunately the prize draw for a bottle, magnum or jeroboam is only available to people living in the UK — Jim Lancaster) Historians, scholarly wine-lovers and students of Churchilliana can rest easy at last: a major historical inaccuracy has now been corrected. As is well-documented, Sir Winston Churchill’s chosen champagne was Pol Roger and ever since the Churchill Museum opened in 2005, in the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall, two bottles of Pol - one from 1928 and one from 1934 - have been exhibited among the great man’s effects. These two vintages were his particular favourites. But the eagle-eyed will have noticed that these bottles were the wrong size - Churchill’s measure of choice was the imperial pint rather than the regular bottle. Last week, Patrice Noyelle, Pol Roger’s director-general, righted this wrong by presenting the museum with two imperial pints from the identical vintages. Although since discontinued, the imperial is roughly equivalent to 50cl and sits neatly between a full bottle (75cl) and a half bottle (37.5cl). “It’s a fine detail, I know,” says Phil Reed, director of the Churchill Museum. “But as a museum, we only deal in accuracy and we’re delighted this minor fault has finally been put right.” James Simpson, Pol Roger’s UK sales director, is equally pleased. “Churchill was our most devoted customer,” he says. “And even though we were probably the only people to notice, it has always irked us that the wrong bottles were on display.” What, though, was so special about the imperial pint? Churchill believed it to be the perfect measure: just enough for two people to drink at lunch and for one person to drink at dinner,” says Simpson. “He drank one every day, between his whisky and his brandy.” Champagne is noted for its many different-sized bottles, ranging from quarter bottles to nebuchadnezzars which hold 20 standard bottles. Clearly, wines stored in such diverse sizes are going to mature at a very different pace owing to the ratio of wine to air. To celebrate Patrice Noyelle’s presentation, I twist James Simpson’s arm and persuade him to open some bottles, magnums (two bottles) and jeroboams (four bottles) from three recent vintages in order to see exactly how they differ. Because Simpson and I hate to drink alone, we ask Phil Reed and my former boss, Simon Berry [of Berry Bros & Rudd], to join us. ”Churchill was right,” says Berry. “The imperial pint was the perfect size for fizz. Champagne is all about sharing and it is ideal for two people, giving them two glasses each. A half is too mean and a bottle is too lavish. And for those who like mature champagne, it is ideal too - the wine ages faster in this format than it would in larger sizes. It’s ridiculous that the EU now prohibits it.” Simpson is less certain as to the merits of smaller bottles. Pol Roger has recently decided to discontinue producing half bottles on the grounds of consistency. Apparently, they became oxidised too readily. Qualitatively, we say the larger the format the better,” he says. “A bottle is the best size for regular consumers, giving four people one decent glass each with a top-up. But I favour the magnum, of which we’re selling many more than in the past. It’s the optimum size for ageing and isn’t outrageous for four people to share as an aperitif and as a partner to a first course.” After a quick mouthful of non-vintage Pol, we settle down to taste the 1995, 1996 and 1999 vintages in the various different sizes. Churchill would have been brought up on vintage champagne (non-vintage only arrived after the Second World War). And, as Simpson points out, champagne would have tasted different in those pre-war years: Pol Roger, like most champagne houses, was in the habit of adding a splash of brandy to the fizz along with the regular dosage of sugar. No wonder WSC [Winston Spencer Churchill] liked it so much. “In those days, most gentlemen would have drunk champagne with food,” explains Simpson. “It only became fashionable as an aperitif in the Fifties, when more chardonnay was used and the blends became lighter. A typical diner would start his evening with sherry then drink fizz with the meal, claret with the savoury and finally port.” Pol Roger’s traditional vintage blend is 60 per cent pinot noir and 40 per cent chardonnay and I am struck by how different our three vintages are. The 1999 is floral and toasty; the 1995 fruity and ripe but beautifully balanced; and the 1996 full of brioche and fine natural acidity. The sizes do indeed differ, with the bottles ready for drinking and the jeroboams closed and reserved. We agree that the magnums are currently showing best, although the jeroboams probably promise more. It seems then, that size does matter and that big is beautiful. Where, then, does that leave the imperial? “It wasn’t lack of demand that killed it, but bureaucracy,” says Berry. “It’s a drinker-friendly size: you can’t put a jeroboam in a fridge. I find it sad that it is now only a museum piece. What on earth would Churchill say?” --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ChurchillChat?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
