GROWERS AND SHOWERS! - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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GROWERS AND SHOWERS!

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US Winery Guide, International Winery Guide and Your Guide to Wines from the United States and The World. Explore US Wineries today! – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: GROWERS AND SHOWERS!


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GROWERS AND SHOWERS!
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  • Bubbles.  Bubbles are good.  Sparkling wine, even
    better.  Better still, Champagne.  So, then, what
    exactly is Grower Champagne?

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  • To best answer that, lets start with a brief
    bubbly tutorial.  Feel free to skip this part if
    youre one of those people who feel obligated to
    correct the server if they dont open the
    Champagne bottle the way you were taught (we know
    who we are). 

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  • All Grower Champagne is Champagne all Champagne
    is sparkling wine all sparkling wine, however,
    is not Champagne.  To be true Champagne, wine
    must A) originate from the Champagne region of
    France, B) contain only the legally approved
    grape varietals, and C) be produced through the
    method champenoise, a difficult and scientific
    way to make wine that includes secondary
    fermentation, bottle racking, and an inordinate
    amount of lab geek stuff well beyond the normal
    wine geek stuff.

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  • Legalities aside (my motto, you cant have it!),
    Champagne has a status edge over all other
    sparkling wines, and for once a blindly accepted
    reputation is well-earned.  Certain other parts
    of the globe (Oregon, Italy, Spain, especially
    Austria) are making quality strides, but its
    tough to rival Champagne. 

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  • The vast majority of Champagne production (over
    80) falls to negociants those who buy grapes
    others have grown.  Small and large companies
    alike that do so follow such strict guidelines
    that they produce uniformly consistent sparkling
    wines of excellent quality.

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  • Grower Champagne differs in that the people who
    own the vineyards and grow the actual grapes also
    produce the wine and take it to market.  While
    its a small amount of overall Champagne
    production, its a category growing in size,
    stature and public opinion. 

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  • Or at least privately held public opinion. 
    Grower Champagne retains the elegance, balance,
    vivacity and joy generally associated with
    Champagne, but adds a level of deep soul to the
    process.  More grip, more gravitas, more juice to
    the juice.

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  • Valerie Masten, National Sales Manager for
    Michael Skurnik Imports, has the good fortune to
    represent the Grower Champagnes from the Terry
    Theise portfolio.  Consequently, when she hosts a
    Grower Champagne tasting symposium, flacks flock
    from miles aroundsometimes, even other
    Winemakers interrupt harvest activities to
    attend!  At just such a recent affair, Valerie
    shared several new releases, multiple astute
    observations, and palpable excitement equal to
    many of the Champagnes she shared.
  •  

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  • Observation 1) In Champagne, growers are paid by
    tonnage, and with younger vines showing more
    vigor of volume, old vine (vieilles vignes en
    Française) selections are quite rare.

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  • Jean Milan primarily utilizes chardonnay vines
    that are 70 years of age.  Combined with the
    soil of the Oger viticultural zone (heavy chalk,
    low PH), the wines display bracing acidity,
    extensive minerality, and, in my own personal
    experience, a marked propensity for diverse
    complexity with extended bottle age. 

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  • Another producer with a cadre of older vines,
    Marc Hébrart, happens to also be Valeries
    favorite.  Guess what?  She chose well.  The
    standard non-vintage Hébrart is comprised of 80
    pinot noir and 20 chardonnay, which creates a
    dramatic tension of red fruit versus white chalk
    that Val finds electrifying.

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  • Observation 2) The Ampelos Charter is gaining
    traction with Grower Champagne.  At its essence,
    the trend toward sustainable / organic /
    biodynamic methods for grapegrowing and
    winemaking is a definitive force in virtually
    every wine region on the planet, Old World and
    New World alike.  In Champagne, a region known
    for conformity of House Style thats
    consistently dependable and more about science
    than art, such an individualistic bent seems
    quite counter-intuitive in general, yet plays
    directly to the strengths of Grower Champagne.

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  • René Geoffroy is an effusive proponent of Ampelos
    principles.  His meticulous attention to detail
    includes the use of a rare Coquard wine press, in
    turn resulting in delicate Champagne of cerebral
    expression and hot-wire energy.  Another strong
    Ampelos enthusiast is Cedric Moussé, whose winery
    is 100 geothermal energy-driven, featuring
    underground springs and solar powered equipment. 
    The non-vintage Moussé blanc de noirs is entirely
    from red grapes (85 pinot meunier, 15 pinot
    noir), and its a gusher, full of beautiful
    berries and compelling complexity (not to mention
    fabulously frothy mousse) (come on, you didnt
    see that coming?).

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  • Observation 3)  Champagne was all about pinot
    noir and chardonnay, with pinot meunier playing a
    supporting role, for seemingly centuries, until
    recently.  Certain Grower Champagnes have
    reverted to ancient history and revived the
    inclusion of other legally allowed but rarely
    seen varietals, including petit meslier, arbanne
    and fromenteau. 

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  • Twin brothers Pierre and Philippe Aubry are the
    most prolific practitioners of this micro-trend,
    farming over a third of all the Champagne acreage
    of these obscure varietals (as well as always
    including pinot meunier in their end blends). 
    The unique singularity of the Aubry Champagne
    lineup is remarkable intense, intriguing,
    exhilarating. 

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  • Their revolutionary approach pays off with
    sparklers that put the AMP in Champagne (but,
    conversely, they leave out the PAIN while
    availing oneself of a bottle of Aubry is not an
    inexpensive endeavor, they could easily triple
    their prices and no one would blink) (or maybe
    theyd blink, but then theyd taste, and then
    theyd do some rapid-fire eye-twitching when
    comparing it to a whole slew of big name
    negociant Champagnes charging a good deal more
    and delivering a great deal less) (which,
    technically speaking, is the polar opposite of a
    great deal).

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  • All Grower Champagnes can be identified by the
    initials RM on the bottle, signifying
    Récoltant-Manipulant (essentially Grower
    Produced).  My suggestion?  Not to burst your
    bubble, but Champagne isnt only for celebration,
    its whats for dinner and lunch, and brunch,
    and happy hour and I say, next time you pop
    that cork, go Grower.      

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