Club — The Champagne Dame

In this episode our Club Manager Kyri makes his debut and comes from behind the production department and in front of the camera. He chose two intriguing wines from Christophe Mignon ‘Pur Meunier’ Brut Nature, based in Festigny and a gorgeous magenta pink Rosé Champagne from the young talented producer at Laherte Freres called Rosé de Meunier made Extra Brut from the region of Chavot, close to Epernay. Watch this episode to see the review on these wines.

What do we know about the Cooperative? To some people, they believe it is where grapes are gathered en mass and champagne comes out at the other end. This is a great misconception as the Cooperatives are essentially a home for hundreds if not thousands of growers that do not have access to wine-making facilities and their plots are too small to warrant this. The result? It becomes a library of plots across all areas of champagne. Some refer to it as a patchwork or ‘quilt’ of plots woven together by the wine-making teams. They hand select the best quality...

There are a number of tools the winemaker has at their disposal to create a unique character in their wines and resultant champagnes. This month we focus on the idea of ultra cool fermentation. Most primary ferments which take the grape must and turn it into a still white wine reach between 20 to 28 degrees and take a matter of days. Our feature houses this month purposely cool down the fermentation to approximately 12 to 14 degrees, which slows down the fermentation time but also allows the house to capture the delicate nature of the fruit and retain maximum...