The Pleasure of Champagne
Understanding the label, knowing the great houses, and the art of choosing and serving it well, the wine that opens every occasion worth marking.
Champagne runs like a bright thread through these pages. It opens the aperitif hour, it begins the dinner date, it makes among the most gracious of gifts. It is, more than any other wine, the drink of occasion, the one we reach for when a moment deserves to be marked. And yet, for all that we drink it, few of us understand it well, and a little understanding adds considerably to the pleasure.
This is a guide to that understanding. Why champagne holds its singular place, how to read what the label is actually telling you, which of the great houses are worth knowing, and how to choose and serve it so that it shows at its best. None of it is difficult, and all of it deepens the enjoyment of a wine that is, at its finest, one of the genuine pleasures of the table.
Why champagne
Champagne occupies a place no other wine quite shares, and it is worth understanding why. Part of it is simply the association with celebration, so deeply established that to open a bottle is to declare an occasion. But part of it is the wine itself: champagne is uniquely suited to beginnings, bright and lively and lifting, celebratory without being heavy, an aperitif that sharpens the appetite rather than dulling it.
It is this quality that makes it the natural opening to an evening. A glass of champagne to begin sets a register of occasion from the first sip, signalling, without a word, that the night is not an ordinary one. It is festive and elegant at once, and it puts people at their ease as few drinks can, which is precisely why it has become the universal overture to a fine evening.
And, properly understood and well chosen, champagne is a genuinely great wine, capable of complexity and depth that reward attention as much as any still wine does. To drink it only thoughtlessly, as mere fizz, is to miss much of what it offers. To drink it with a little knowledge is to discover one of the finest pleasures the cellar holds.
Reading the label
A champagne label tells you a good deal, once you know how to read it, and the knowledge is easily acquired.
The first distinction is between non-vintage and vintage. Non-vintage champagne, blended across several years to a house's consistent style, is the everyday expression of a house and the majority of what is drunk. Vintage champagne, made only in the finest years from a single harvest, is rarer, finer and more expensive, made to express a particular year. Neither is simply better; they are different pleasures, the non-vintage reliable and characterful, the vintage exceptional and occasional.
The style is indicated too. Brut, the most common, is dry, and the standard for fine champagne. Blanc de blancs is made entirely from white grapes, typically elegant and refined. Blanc de noirs is made from black grapes, usually richer and fuller. And rosé champagne, made pink, is often a little fuller and more fruit-forward, and lovely for its colour as much as its taste.
There is also the distinction between the grande marque houses, the great established names, and grower champagnes, made by the same estates that grow the grapes. The famous houses offer consistency and prestige; grower champagnes offer individuality and, often, remarkable value and character. The connoisseur enjoys both, and knowing the difference opens up a whole further dimension of the wine.
Champagne is the drink of occasion, the one we reach for when a moment deserves to be marked. A glass to begin declares, without a word, that the evening is not an ordinary one.
The great houses
For the gentleman building his knowledge, a tour of the great houses is where the pleasure deepens, for each has its own character and its own devotees.
Krug stands, for many, at the very summit, rich, complex and profound, a champagne of extraordinary depth made for those who take the wine most seriously. Dom Pérignon, the prestige cuvée of Moët, is the most famous of the great vintage champagnes, elegant and celebrated the world over. Cristal, made by Louis Roederer, is another of the legendary prestige cuvées, refined and instantly recognisable.
Among the great houses, Bollinger is prized for its rich, full, characterful style, long a favourite of those who like their champagne with real body. Pol Roger is beloved for its elegance and balance. Taittinger and Ruinart are celebrated for their refined, chardonnay-driven finesse. And beyond these, a whole world of fine houses and remarkable growers awaits the gentleman inclined to explore.
The point of knowing the houses is not to insist on the most prestigious but to find the style that speaks to you. A gentleman who prefers the rich depth of Bollinger to the refined elegance of a blanc de blancs has not chosen wrongly; he has chosen well for his taste, which is the whole art. Explore, notice what you enjoy, and let your preference guide you.
Choosing and serving well
Knowing champagne is one pleasure; serving it well is another, and a few simple points make all the difference to how it shows.
Temperature matters more than most people realise. Champagne is best served properly chilled but not frozen, cold enough to be crisp and refreshing, not so cold that its flavours are numbed. A spell in an ice bucket, or a few hours in the refrigerator, brings it to the right point; the freezer, which dulls it, does not.
Glassware matters too, and here fashion has thankfully improved. The wide coupe, romantic though it looks, lets the wine's character escape; the narrow flute preserves the bubbles but cramps the aromas. A white-wine glass, or a tulip shaped glass, is now preferred by those who care, allowing the wine to breathe and reveal itself while keeping its liveliness. For fine champagne especially, the glass genuinely changes the experience.
And, as with every fine thing we have written of, restraint completes it. Champagne to open an evening is a pleasure; champagne drunk heedlessly is a waste of a fine wine and a fine evening alike. A beautiful bottle, properly chilled, well poured and savoured, does everything the occasion asks. The pleasure of champagne, like the pleasure of the evening it opens, lies in its quality and its savouring, never in its quantity.
A practical guide to champagne
For gentlemen who would like the principle rendered as practice, this is our plainest guidance.
Learn to read the label. Non-vintage or vintage, brut, blanc de blancs or rosé, grande marque or grower, each a different pleasure. A little knowledge makes every bottle more enjoyable.
Explore the houses, and find your style. From the rich depth of Bollinger to the refined elegance of a blanc de blancs, choose for your own taste rather than for prestige. The best champagne is the one you genuinely love.
Serve it properly chilled. Cold enough to be crisp, never so cold as to be numbed. The ice bucket or the refrigerator, never the freezer.
Choose the glass with care. A tulip glass or a white-wine glass over the flute or the coupe, so the wine can breathe and reveal itself. For fine champagne, the glass genuinely matters.
Savour it, and keep it in proportion. A beautiful bottle well poured and enjoyed is the whole pleasure. Champagne opens an evening; it is not the whole of it.
The wine of the occasion
Champagne is the wine we reach for when life offers something worth marking, and for good reason: it is festive and elegant, celebratory and fine, the natural overture to any evening that matters. To drink it with a little understanding, of what the label says, of how the houses differ, of how to serve it at its best, is to turn a familiar pleasure into a considered one, and to enjoy more fully a wine that rewards attention as generously as champagne does.
The gentleman who understands champagne opens an evening with more than a gesture; he opens it with genuine appreciation, and the pleasure is the greater for it. It is among the most accessible of the connoisseur's pleasures, asking only a little curiosity, and it repays that curiosity every time a cork is drawn.
Should you wish for an occasion worth opening a fine bottle, in the finest company, our team is always glad to arrange it, champagne, table and all, so that you need only raise your glass.
