Latest champagne trends

The true connoisseur should ditch thetraditional long-stemmed flutes and the saucer-shaped coupes and instead startdrinking the sparkling white wine from elongated, tulip-shaped glasses, say theexperts.And those seeking to be truly avant-garde should startserving the finest bubbly from carafes.Champagne has been associatedwith luxury and festivities since the time when France crowned its kings inReims, in the heart of the Champagne region of northeasternFrance.By the 19th century, it had become an affordable indulgenceand grown enormously popular. Production shot from 3,00,000 bottles in 1800 to20 million bottles in 1850, and kept growing. In 2008, 405 million bottles wereproduced.But recent trends set in motion by champagne producers hopeto remind consumers that champagne are not just a celebratory drink but can alsobe a very fine wine.To appreciate its subtleties, proper servingvessels are necessary, a point driven home at the recent Grand Tasting in Paris,the annual fine-wine fair hosted by critics Michel Bettane and ThierryDesseauve."We hate the bloody champagne coupe, because we know thereis no nose, no aromas, and that's half the pleasure. We definitely do notrecommend it for champagne," said Philippe Guillon of Riedel, whose glasses werebeing used at the Grand Tasting.While they still sell flutes,Guillon sees a move towards a shape reminiscent of a regular wine glass or eventhe rounder pinot noir glass."The glass will affect how the bubblesenter your mouth," he said."If it's too narrow, the bubbles can beoverwhelming. The diameter will play a key role in the perception of thetannins, acidity and bitterness. And the shape will definitely affect thearomas."Andreas Larsson, who was voted 2007 Best Sommelier of theWorld, agreed."I think the optimal glass for champagne is a versionof the flute with a slightly wider body and narrow opening to enhance flavourand aroma. There's still a lot of champagne being served in inferiorglasses."To understand the drive to banish the flute and the coupe,experts point to the complexity of champagne."At the heart ofchampagne is the art of blending," explained Mathieu Kauffmann, Chef de Cave atBollinger, before a packed audience at the Grand Tasting.Kauffmannuses grapes from 40 classified vineyards and 200 different wines. A non-vintagechampagne is a blend of at least five vintages taken from the cellars' vastreserves."Given the climate, we cannot assure the house style eachyear without reserves," he said, adding that reserve wines, stored in magnums,are bottled separately both by vineyard and grape variety to enable precisionblending."My objective is to create a complex, aromatic, andbalanced vinous champagne that will go with an entire dinner and agewell."Believing that both the flute and the coupe fall flat in theface of such intricacy, the big-name champagne producers Moet et Chandon, VeuveClicquot, Piper Heidsieck and Bollinger have created customglasses."We tested 30 different glasses," said Kauffmann. "We triedit with each cuvee and wanted a glass that would also adapt to a great vintage.Our glass is a cross between a flute and a classic wine glass."Newglasses should be a relatively easy sell, but another new trend in the art ofchampagne drinking has already sparked controversy."The debate ismore about decanting, to put it in a carafe or not," said Kauffmann. "I mustadmit, I was sceptical at first but we did some very interestingexperiments."Philippe Jamesse, Head Sommelier at Les Crayeres, athree-star Michelin restaurant in Reims, comes down firmly against carafingchampagne. He is unwilling to sacrifice bubbles foraromas."Effervescence is an important aspect of champagne. The chefsde caves take such care and the quality of champagne is directly related to thequality of the bubbles," he said.He offered a third solution: "Idesigned two glasses that allow me to avoid carafing the champagne. Bothversions widen at the middle and narrow at the top."Others feel thecarafe offers real possibilities."First, it will open up better. Itis a wine, we should not forget," said Guillon."And second, if Iwere going to have a champagne dinner, putting it in a decanter will remove partof the effervescence, which will make it easier to digest."Larssontook a more nuanced approach."Consider a gentle decanting beneficialwhen you enjoy a young, high-quality champagne which is still in a closed phase,just like you would decant a young Burgundy."However, for olderones, there's a risk of overly-oxidizing the champagne and losing too much ofthe bubbles," he said.At least one champagne house has positioneditself with the trendsetters. This holiday season, Charles Heidsieck proposes ahand-blown, lyre-shaped decanter for their prestige cuvee, the 1995 vintageBlanc de Millenaires.This, it believes, will let the wine "expressit fully and reveal its extraordinary aromatic complexity."Follow us on Twitter for more stories