This summer's crazy rosé craze

WE WERE out of rosé. I squeezed red and white wine into a pichet from two bag-in-boxes until a rosé colour was achieved. The shame made me want to string the bags around my neck as a penance like the ancient mariner's albatross. My crime is matched by the grapefruit-flavoured disrespect heaped on rosé by Loire producers of Rosé-Pamp. In a risible attempt to give their flavoured wine a veneer of sophistication, marketers trace its origin to a Kir Vendômois (unknown to Google). The supermarket space dedicated to Rosé-Pamp has almost eclipsed the good news coming out of the Loire Valley: sales of Cabernet d’Anjou are up 10%. 

Full article first published in The Connexion (August, 2013)

Champagne lovers need to look for a taste of terroir

YEARS of marketing Champagne as a luxury accessory have transformed the way we think about bubbly. Hardly anyone thinks about Champagne as they do about other wines. It’s associated with brands, not chateaux or grapes, and yet it seems to come from no place in particular. A Bordeaux comes from the Médoc, Pauillac, Margaux, St-Emilion, Pomerol, and so on. But can you name a single Champagne terroir? The distinctions of terroir make artisanal Champagnes more idiosyncratic than those from the big houses. As one grower-producer puts it, “Champagne used to be singular, now it’s plural, with many winemakers, villages and styles.”

Full article first published in The Connexion (December, 2011)

Champagne is just another wine with bubbles

THE PERSISTENT, spumy patter at a recent Champagne event in London, hosted by Perrier-Jouët and G.H. Mumm, was all about the economics of the luxury lifestyle market. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and terroir were scarcely mentioned; in fact, you could’ve spent the day junketing with executives from Reims without uttering the ‘W’ word. Pricy, ostentatious Champagne doesn’t play anything like the part other wines do in peoples’ lives. Yet almost every French wine region produces rivals to Champagne. Jancis Robinson says it’s hard to find a worse-value wine than cheap Champagne, so for the same money, buy a quality rival.

Full article first published in The Connexion (June, 2011)

Photograph of Daniel Elena celebrating victory at the 2005 Cyprus Rally by Leonid Mamchenko.