Champagne Archives

MOËT LAUNCHES ONE-HOUR CHAMPAGNE DELIVERY IN LONDON UK

Moët & Chandon has launched its one-hour delivery service of its “on the rocks” Ice Imperial Champagne in London only – sorry guys and gals!

Londoners can now have a chilled bottle of Moët Ice Impérial or Moët Ice Impérial Rosé delivered to their doorstep within the hour accompanied by two glasses filled with ice.

Intended to “ignite spontaneous celebration this summer”, you can book the service online choosing the hour and day.

The first rosé Champagne produced with the intention of being served over ice, Moët & Chandon’s Ice Impérial Rosé NV was launched earlier this year to partner with its Ice Impérial Blanc NV, launched in few years ago.

The service costs £80 for a bottle of Moët Ice Impérial and two acrylic white glasses with ice, or £85 for a bottle of Moët Ice Impérial Rosé.

The service is available in select London postcodes (E1, E14, SE1, W1, SW1, WC2, WC1, EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4) from 12pm to 8pm Sunday to Monday, until 1 September.

visit: uk.moet.com

COMITÉ CHAMPAGNE CANCELS LONDON TASTING

The Comité Champagne announced this past week that it won’t be holding its Annual Champagne Tasting in London 2017 after over 20 years staging the event.

Françoise Peretti, who heads up the Champagne Bureau in London, wrote, “The Comité Champagne has been reviewing the annual tastings around the world and it was decided to pause the activity in the UK for the time being.”

“The event, which has been running since 1994, has been very successful, but we feel it is time to review it. Should the Comité Champagne decide to maintain the event, it is unlikely that it would take place before 2018.”

She told Drinks Business that the decision to end the Annual Champagne Tasting was “not a question of slashed budgets; not a question of the UK becoming less important, and not a question of Brexit,” but a result of “a change” in the way the Comité was approaching the marketing of Champagne after more than 20 years hosting the event in London.

Adding “After 20 years, it is time to explore other opportunities.”… “We feel that it is time to look at how we can reinvent the tasting… why do the same thing over and over again?”

While she said that it was “most unlikely” there would be a tasting next year, she said, “be assured, there will be activities”.

Looking ahead, she said that the Champagne Bureau would be spending the second half of this year “canvassing agents, the media, the trade and educators” before deciding how best to promote Champagne in the UK.

Concluding, she said, “I like to see it evolving and everything is possible, we are looking at a big event, or other smaller events, and something digital.”

Nevertheless, she stressed, whatever the approach, “education is number one on the Comité Champagne list”.

The Comité Champagne, formerly known as the CIVC (which stands for Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne), is a trade association representing Champagne’s producers and houses. It is tasked with promoting the region’s wines through R&D, as well as marketing and protecting the Champagne appellation.

The generic body was established in 1941 and has held a tasting in London since 1994, which, for the past two years, was held at One Great George Street.

SOURCES:

Champagne Bureau UK

Drinks Business UK

The U.S. Becomes Champagne’s Top Export Market

The Champagne category is bubbling over in the U.S. market, driven by a dynamic premiumization trend. With per-case value up 20% to over €300 ($334) last year, the U.S. overtook the U.K. as Champagne’s top export market by value in 2015. Champagne shipments to the U.S. leapt 28% to €515 million ($573m) for the year, surpassing the U.K.’s total of €512 million ($570m), which itself represented a 7% bump. U.S. depletions, at 1.4 million cases last year, remain shy of their 2007 total of 1.6 million cases, but shipment value has surged by nearly 60% since 2010, according to Impact Databank. A slide in the euro—whose value against the dollar is down by about 20% over the past two years—has helped to stoke growth.

From 2010-2014, Champagne’s value on a per-case basis rose a respectable 10% in the U.S., adding around $25. But in 2015 alone, it more than doubled that incremental growth, tacking on about $55 in value to the average case of Champagne. Price hikes and a stronger emphasis on higher-end bubblies are both contributing to the dramatic rise in value.

Piper-Heidsieck, which transitioned from the Rémy Cointreau USA portfolio to Terlato Wines last July, is employing both of those tactics. Piper is extending with a Rare Rosé this year, which will be priced at a premium to prestige cuvée Rare Brut, becoming the brand’s highest-priced offering. While looking to increase its high-end sales, Piper has also taken price hikes on its core Brut non-vintage. “Previously you’d sometimes see the Brut as low as $29.99 on the shelf. Over the holidays last year the average was above $39.99, which is a nice move in the right direction,” says Terlato CEO Bill Terlato.

The third-largest Champagne in the U.S. market, Pernod Ricard’s Perrier-Jouët, is seeing strong results for its prestige cuvée Belle Epoque, which sells above $150 a bottle. “The on-premise is back on a healthy trend and it’s a key driver for our portfolio,” says Aygline Pechdo, brand director for Champagnes at Pernod Ricard USA.

Meanwhile, market leader Moët Hennessy USA continues to enjoy impressive progress with the dynamic duo of Veuve Clicquot and Moët & Chandon, which dominate the category with a combined 60% share. Portfoliomate Dom Perignon is also among the top five Champagnes in the U.S. in volume terms—totaling nearly 60,000 cases annually—despite a retail price above $160 a bottle.

Fourth-ranked player Nicolas Feuillatte tells SND it’s focused on expanding Champagne into new consumption occasions. “We’ll be launching new advertising and social media campaigns this year which support our vision for the future of Champagne as more modern and accessible,” says Feuillatte’s Americas export manager Olivier Zorel. —Daniel Marsteller

			Depletions			Percent Change3
U.S. – Top Six Champagne Brands (thousands of nine-liter cases)
Rank	Brand	Importer	2013	2014	2015	2013-2014	2014-2015
1	Veuve Clicquot	Moet Hennessy USA (LVMH)	383	415	453	8.3%	9.3%
2	Moet & Chandon1	Moet Hennessy USA (LVMH)	354	369	382	4.1%	3.6%
3	Perrier-Jouet	Pernod Ricard USA	71	71	80	-0.3%	11.8%
4	Nicolas Feuillatte	Ste. Michelle Wine Estates	67	68	68	1.5%	0.0%
5	Dom Perignon	Moet Hennessy USA (LVMH)	56	59	58	5.2%	-1.7%
6	Piper Heidsieck	Terlato Wines International	51	45	42	-11.4%	-7.0%
Total Top Six2			983	1,027	1,083	4.5%	5.4%
1 excludes Dom Perignon 2 addition of columns may not agree due to rounding 3 based on unrounded dataSource: IMPACT DATABANK

Source: Shanken News

Liz Palmer

liz-palmer.com

@Champagnehouses

@LizPalmer_

The First Annual La Champenoise (the Celebration of Champagne) Takes place this Weekend in Reims, France

The first annual La Champenoise (the Celebration of Champagne) takes place this weekend, June 25 and 26 in beautiful, historical Reims, France.

There will be over 70 champagne houses and growers, along with 10 local gastronomy providers, who will be introducing their wines and products to locals, tourists, and wine professionals.

La Champenoise takes place in mythical Halles du Marché du Boulingrin. It’s also known for its architectural and historical presence, and has recently been restored.

Founders, Matthias Collard , Franck Moussié and Benjamin Carteret combined their experience in event organizing, tourism and Champagne and decided a few years ago that Reims needed a festival similar to the wine festivals held in Burgundy and Bordeaux.

“All the major French wine regions have their celebration, sometimes even at an international level… Champagne is the most festive and friendly wine there is, and we wish to celebrate it with this event that unites all the players involved in its production, whether it is trading houses, cooperatives or independent winemakers,” explains Franck one of the founding entrepreneurs of the project.

La Champenoise

Les Halles du Boulingrin

50 rue de Mars

51100 Reims

http://fetechampenoise.com

Entrance for Saturday June 25, 7pm-1am: €15

Entrance for Sunday June 26, 11am-8pm: €15

2 day pass: €25

Champagne physicist Gérard Liger-Belair’s recent observations revealed in the Journal of Food Engineering

Gérard Liger-Belair a physics professor at the University of Reims and expert in effervescence and oenology released his latest report entitled:

“Unveiling self-organized two-dimensional (2D) convective cells in champagne glasses”

Fabien Beaumont, Gérard Liger-Belair , Guillaume Polidori –
Laboratoire de Thermomécanique (GRESPI), UFR Sciences Exactes et Naturelles, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, BP 1039, 51687, Reims Cedex 2, France

Journal of Food Engineering

Volume 188, Pages 58–65

‘’’Our work around swirling movements which agitate the champagne in the flute (and their action on the exhaust of flavourings) continues.

In collaboration with our colleagues and friends of the grespi, we just released a new series of observations in the journal of food engineering, which makes the link between the number of vortices on the surface and the intensity of the effervescence in the glass.”

An Abstract of the Report

“Under standard tasting conditions, homogeneous stirring of champagne under the action of rising bubbles confers an advantage compared with a situation where the liquid phase would be at rest. Convection helps renewal of the immediate subsurface layers with champagne from the bulk, thus facilitating the evaporation of volatile organic compounds, and therefore better revealing the champagne “bouquet”. Here, spontaneous and self-organized two-dimensional convective cells were evidenced (at the air/champagne interface) in a laser-etched coupe poured with champagne, through laser tomography. Various regimes were evidenced, from a highly unstable 8-cells regime, to a very stable 4-cells regime. Moreover, by blowing air bubbles through a nozzle positioned at the bottom of a goblet poured with water, and by using Particle Image Velocimetry, similar 2D convective cells were also evidenced at the air/water interface, thus pointing out the crucial role of ascending bubbles behind the formation of self-organized 2D convection cells.”

“Amazing networks of convective cells revealed through laser tomography at the surface of champagne glasses.”

Highlights and Findings:

The stirring of champagne glasses under the action of rising bubbles increases the perception of aromas.

Self-organized 2D convective cells were observed in champagne glasses through laser tomography.

Identical convection cells were evidenced in a model experiment, with a bubbly flow blown in a water goblet.

Various regimes were evidenced, from a highly unstable 8-cells regime, to a very stable 4-cells regime.