Champagne & port tasting in the Pays-de-Gex, just outside Geneva: Standing in a group of people consisting of an American, a Swede, a Dane, two Brits and a German, discussing French products in French with a Portuguese port representative. Fairly typical, I’d say. The only people who didn’t really speak any English were the very knowledgeable and friendly French representatives of a storied Champagne house, Philipponnat.
They gave, however, an entertaining presentation that included the story of how their current bottle shape was designed. Namely, the photo above – which is of one of the vineyards used to produce one of house’s choicest Champagnes – was taken back near the beginning of the 20th century. Someone turned it on its side – see the i
mage to the right – and voilà! The Philipponnat bottle was born. Cute. The house has been run by the same family for 16 generations.
We tried three cuvées – Royale Réserve (mostly Pinot Noir grapes), Grand Blanc (all Chardonnay), and Clos des Goisses (Pinot Noir). All tasty – I don’t pretend to be an expert in nomenclature, but all three were unique and excellent in their own way.
The rep told us that 300 million bottles of Champagne – that is, products exclusively made from grapes harvested and processed in the Champagne region – are exported and sold every year. Seems like a lot. And the market is growing as developing economies have increasing populations that can afford to buy champagne. Like the market for good chocolate, the appetite seems to be insatiable.
Do you take pleasure in taunting me about things like this? *Sobs* and I thought you liked me. This sounds like a heavenly evening. Champagne is what heaven tastes like…well….champagne and chocolate!
Of course I never meant to taunt. But if this has the added benefit of making you want to visit, well, more’s the better.