Global Warming Has Been Good To Champagne Producers

Racegoers pouring champagne.

VOA/Reuters: Global Warming Has Been Good to Champagne Makers, So Far

REIMS, FRANCE — Climate change is a touchy subject in Champagne.

As France prepares to host world leaders for talks on how to slow global warming next month, producers of the northeastern French region's famous sparkling wine have seen only benefits from rising temperatures so far.

The 1.2 degrees centigrade increase in temperatures in the region over the past 30 years has reduced frost damage. It has also added one degree in the level of alcohol and reduced acidity, making it easier to comply with strict production rules, according to champagne makers group CIVC.

"The Champagne region and Germany are among the northerly vineyards which have managed to develop thanks to warmer weather," Jean-Marc Touzard, coordinator of a program on wine and climate change at French research institute INRA.

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Editor: Global warming may be good for champagne producers .... but their prices are still high.

How Champagne Is Made

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Sputnik: 'I'm Drinking the Stars!' How Champagne is Made

Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it making it fizzy. The carbon dioxide may result from natural fermentation, either in a bottle, as with the méthode champenoise, in a large tank designed to withstand the pressures involved (as in the Charmat process), or as a result of carbon dioxide injection.

According to the legend, champagne was invented on August 4, 1693 by a Benedictine monk Dom Perignon who at the time served as cellar master of the Abbey of Hautvillers. "Come quickly! I'm drinking the stars!" he exclaimed when tasting wine that he was unable to rid of bubbles, and thus the legendary beverage was born.

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Champagne Sales Set A Record For 2015

Bottles of Champagne are displayed at Dilettantes wine shop in Paris, France, Dec. 31, 2015.

VOA: Champagne Sales Set for Record Year

PARIS — Champagne sales are set for a record year, driven by solid demand from export markets, favorable currencies and stabilizing sales in France, the fizzy drink's home market.

Industry estimates gathered by Reuters showed that about 312 million bottles of the prestige sparkling wine will have been dispatched in 2015, a rise of between 2 and 3 percent from 2014.

Revenue has risen 4.4 percent to 4.7 billion euros in 2015.

In 2007, the record year so far, revenues reached 4.56 billion euros, before the global economic and financial crisis began weighing on the market a year later.

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Editor: I guess this means that the prices are not going to go down. :(

£330,000 On A Single Round Of Champagne

British Millionaire Spends £330,000 On A Single Round Of Champagne... And Needed 12 Staff To Help Him Serve It -- Daily Mail

* British entrepreneur Charles Shaker purchased the rare Armand de Brignac Brut Gold 'Dynastie' collection of champagne at the Billionaire Club Monaco

A wealthy Briton splashed out £330,000 pounds on a single round of champagne as he partied with Hollywood stars including Leonardo DiCaprio at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Charles Shaker, a British entrepreneur and adviser to the ultra wealthy, forked out the fortune on an extremely rare Armand de Brignac Brut Gold 'Dynastie' collection of champagne.

The extravagant buy was ordered at the exclusive 'Armand de Brignac Gold Party' hosted by the Billionaire Club Monaco.

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My Comment: £330,000 for a bottle of champagne .... I am lost for words.

Only Sparkling Wines Produced In Champagne Can Use The Name In China

China Recognises That Not All Bubbly Is Champagne -- France 24

Beijing said Tuesday that only sparkling wines produced in Champagne can use the name in China, giving the region's wine makers a long sought after victory in its bitter battle to stop the name from being abused.

Wine makers in France’s Champagne region have long toiled to educate consumers worldwide that not all bubbly is champagne, but here’s news they can finally drink to: China has said it will limit the champagne label to wines produced in the world-famous French region.

The new recognition comes as a major success for the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), a trade association comprised of grape growers and wine makers from the Champagne region, who have campaigned to safeguard their product from being confused with other types of sparkling wine.

In other words, it isn’t champagne unless it was made in Champagne.

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My Comment: China has a huge counterfeiting problem when it comes to wine .... but this is still a positive step for China and the industry.

It's Not Champagne

French Wine Lobby Bristles At California 'Champagne' For Obama's Inauguration -- The Hill

The French wine lobby is upset about the menu for Obama's inauguration and is penning a letter to the chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), The Hill has learned.

At issue is the menu's dessert course, which will be accompanied by “Korbel Natural, Special Inaugural Cuvée Champagne, California,” according to a press release from the inauguration committee. That description violates U.S. law, according to Sam Heitner, the director of the Champagne Bureau, a Washington lobby.

The inauguration committee however says the wine itself is labeled in accordance with U.S. law and will be correctly identified on the menu.

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My Comment: The French are right .... California sparkling wine is not French champagne.

Bubbles Are The Clue For Good Champagne

Cheap Bubbly Or Expensive Sparkling Wine? Look To The Bubbles For Clues -- NPR

There's nothing like the distinctive "pop" of the uncorking of a bottle of bubbly to create a sense of celebration. Whether it's Dom Perignon or a $10 sparkling wine, bubbles add pizazz. Sparkling-wine lovers sometimes point to the glittering streams of tiny bubbles as an important attribute. Why? Well, tiny bubbles are a sign of age, explains French chemist Gerard Liger-Belair, author of Uncorked: The Science of Champagne. "Old champagnes always show tiny bubbles, mainly because they have aged several years and lost a significant amount of dissolved CO2, the gas that produces the bubbles," Liger-Belair told us in an email. And what else can the bubbles tell you? Well, if the streams of bubbles remain down to the last sip, this can be a clue as to how it was produced.

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My Comment: One more reason why I will stick with my Moet Chandon.

Champagne Is Suffering Its Worst Grape Growing Sseason In Decades

Champagne Suffers Worst Season In Decades -- The Telegraph

Champagne is suffering its worst grape growing season in decades due to an "unprecedented" blight of frost, hail and disease, leading experts to warn that prospects for the coming harvest look increasingly dim.

Weather conditions coupled with the ravages of mildew have made Champagne growers' life hell in recent months; cold snaps, freak hailstorms, unrelenting rain and grape rot are expected to cut yields in the famed appellation by a third.

"This year has been unprecedented," said Dominique Moncomble, director of technical services at the CIVC, the Champagne wine board. "We have been accumulating problems: we are battling the elements and disease."

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My Comment: Hint .... prices are going to go up.

Are The British Giving Up On Champagne?

Champagne Sales Lose Their Sparkle -- The Guardian

For the first time the British are now spending less on champagne than other sparkling wines, and it's about time too, says Oliver Thring.

Well, he wasn't going to drink anything else, and frankly, in those circumstances, neither would most of us. But Bradley Wiggins is one of a shrinking breed – the Englishman who drinks champagne. In the credit-swollen days of 2007, we spent £1bn on champagne in the UK. That figure is expected to fall to less than £700m this year, while sales of prosecco, cava and other sparkling wines are up 55% over the same period, to £720m. For the first time in this country, champagne is less popular than its rivals.

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My Comment: Champagne has always been overpriced .... that is why it is champagne.

Saudi Man Splurges $136,000 On A Bottle Of Louis Roederer Cristal

Saudi Man Splurges $136,000 On Vintage Bubbly In Dubai -- Sydney Morning Herald

A Saudi millionaire splurged $US136,000 on a bottle of champagne at Dubai's glitzy Cavalli club over the weekend, a UAE newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"The Saudi Arabian and his friends guzzled" a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal in the early hours of Saturday morning, the 7DAYS newspaper said, citing the club's manager David Lescarret,

The vintage bottle was "one of just three believed to be available worldwide," the paper added.

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My Comment: US136,000 for a bottle of champagne .... hmmm .... no.

Cashing In On 19th Century Champagne

Cashing In On 19th Century Champagne, 11 Bottles For Sale -- Reuters

(Reuters) - Like smart investors who dispose of their stocks, the government of Aland, a string of islands off the coast of Finland, is selling 11 bottles of antique Champagne from a cache of 145 found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

Divers from Aland stumbled across the Champagne and beer while exploring a shipwreck in July 2010. The owner of the vessel and its destination remain unknown, but the sunken craft and its cargo now belong to the government of Aland.

"We began by selling two bottles of this antique Champagne at an auction last year," Rainer Juslin, head of Aland's Department of Education and Culture, said in a statement announcing the sale.

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My Comment: An incredible champagne find.

Businessman Splashes Out £125,000 On ONE Bottle Of Champagne

Heavy load: Two waiters were required to carry the 99lb double Nebuchadnezzar-sized bottle

Cork Blimey! Businessman Splashes Out £125,000 On ONE Bottle Of Champagne As He Spends £200,000 In A Single Bar Round -- Daily Mail

* Two waiters were needed to carry the 99lb bottle of champagne
* It was so big it was the equivalent of 40 standard bottles of bubbly
* The man also had to pay a 10% service charge - costing more than £18,500

A businessman blew £125,000 on a single bottle of the world’s most expensive champagne while buying a round of drinks for more than £200,000 in a night club.

The financier ordered a 30-litre double Nebuchadnezzar-size bottle of Armand de Brignac Midas bubbly along with £60,408 on other beverages for his 10-man entourage.

Two waiters at the PlayGround nightclub at Liverpool's Hilton - which is on a huge publicity drive promising to bring 'six star Vegas luxury to Merseyside' - were needed to carry in the bulky 99lb bottle of champagne, which is the equivalent of 40 standard ones.

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My Comment: Wow .... now that's a party .... all be it an expensive one.