Many of us are extremely grateful to you, Brad and Todd for orchestrating these Zoom sessions Frank. They have been very stimulating and provided lots of educational info. Your add on charitable donation for this one is above and beyond and who I know you to be.
In case I fail to remember to ask, I’m submitting a raised hand now for a question about decanting champagne. Perhaps it should be addressed by Brad, but possibly Benoit may be one to ask as well. I’ve long had the thought that like most other wines, many champagnes can benefit from some decanting, but never heard it recommended or discussed by any of the big Champagne authors/ writers/ importers. I’m borrowing this from the smilies to emulate a raised hand.
There is only way I have ever enjoyed Champagne decanted (not counting Coteaux Champenois) and only circumstances which involved rather quick consumption . If you are going to open and quickly consume a bottle rather than slowly follow it over the course of an evening, decanting can be a benefit if done quickly and correctly. Open the bottle and pour the wine into a rather narrow decanter then quickly empty the decanter into the glasses and consume. This usually turns out better than just opening the bottle, pouring into the glasses, and drinking. This type of decanting not only gives the wine a blast of aeration, but can help to calm down the effervesence in some younger wines which can often help them go with food - especially sweeter styled Champagnes with dessert. For very reductive wines there is also a benefit. I will never say decanting is optimal in the big picture, but in some particular situations, it can be.
Folks, I had made a reference earlier in the thread about the start time, which was wrong. The event is starting at 1900 Paris time. For those of you who are outside the US, I wanted to make sure I cleaned up things with you.
Hal, that is part of the Marguet history, well before he changed up many things, including dosage and sulfur approaches, and likely more stuff we can talk about tomorrow. Thanks for attending tomorrow, thank you for everyone who has signed on.
Will have the video up when it is finished (we’re still going, finishing up) but it’s fascinating to me that Benoit stated that Coteaux Champenois is the ‘future of Champagne’. That deserves its own thread/discussion!
Todd and Brad, thank you for being committed to this series we have invested in delivering the past few months. Even today, you both helped us craft a great event with Benoit, to go into his thoughts about why he works the way he does. He is truly unique in the region, and I again learned more today, and appreciate his wines that much more.
As I had committed, in support of the NAACP LDF, I will make a donation in behalf of all of you in the amount of $200. It seemed fitting that we would connect Marguet to this donation, inspired by his desire for respect, heart and positive energy, which are qualities seemingly missing in sectors of our lives and society today.
The climate is going to have change a lot more for this to be possible in any type of high quality volume on a year-by-year basis. I think we are 100-200 years away from even considering this. I also worry about the economic impact. Champagne is not inexpensive. Your entry level price point is $30 bottle. It does take more time and money to make Champagne than a still wine, but still wines from Champagne are still not priced inexpensively; many times they are priced like a vintage Champagne. Maybe they come down a little in price if volume goes up, but who is going to pay $50-$150 a bottle for still white and red Champagne when you can drive a few hours south to Burgundy and get something better for less money. I have had some very good Coteaux Champenois and a few reds that I thought were on the level with a good Premier Cru from Pommard or Volnay, but what makes Champagne special is that it goes through two fermentations and does it better than any other place in the world. At one point in time, Champagne was all still wines and was well known for it, but they changed to sparkling wines for a reason. My feeling is that if Champagne were to ever become a region of majority still wines that it would not be considered very special region overall.
To me the most fascinating point of the conversation wtih Benoit was when he mentioned that he not only blends taille into all of his wines, but that he immediately blends the taille and cuvee together right after pressing and the wine ages in the barrel as one entity of a parcel. I did not know this and do not know who else does this. First, most don’t blend taille into any of the their higher end wines and second, most keep the taille separate for aging and only blend it in when it is time to make the blend for bottling.
This is fascinating because I think it helps to explain why the Marguet wines taste quite fruity and textured upon release without dosage. The taille gives the wine more roundness, more body, and an intrinsic sweetness. I think it also helps to explain why they seem to travel well, age okay (at least for the medium term), and don’t suffer from bottle variation despite the lack of sulfur in most pressings. Using the taille as Marguet does requires a lot of careful attention to maturity at picking and careful pressing. Phenolics can cause the wine to go haywire if you don’t get it right, but they can also add some protective qualities that help the wine fight against oxidation (even if the wine seems to first oxidize before coming back to freshness).
I will say we served Marguet Shaman by the glass for a couple of months at my old place and there was some significant bottle variation (not necessarily negative, but I remember one bottle was clearly not showing well) - I just attributed it to the style of winemaking. Not sure if that was a transit issue along the line but it was noticeable.
It could be the lack of sulfur mixed with transit. I haven’t noticed a lot of bottle to bottle variation, but I haven’t been able to track bottles over the course of time that you have. Additionally, most of the Marguet I consume is while I am in Europe or purchased in Europe and hand carried back. Normally, I find the complete elimination of sulfur especially at disgorgement (though jetting can help) to be a recipe for possible variation disaster as a lot of the bottles start aging differently and some bottles just plain go ‘off’. I do think that if Marguet does have some variability it is far less often and less extreme than others who take a no/very, very low sulfur position.
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