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A champagne with notes of Indian spices

Reading through the review of the single-parcelled grower champagne by Megan Nunn on facebook sometime back, I happened to read about how she noticed the notes of Indian Spices in a champagne she tasted. Megan is a devoted enthusiast of small grower champagne houses with a keen interest in their wines, regions, cuisines and culture […]

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Champagne Accessories

Champagne Pewter Buckets and Bowls

The shared 1:38 minutes YouTube clip is based on the James Bond signature music score…tanan tan nan…always hauntingly melodious, isn’t it ? Only that here it isnt from a Bond movie but rather it’s a showcase of a champagne bottle case made of Pewter. Now this isnt a promotion post so I’m not writing brand […]

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Champagne Harvest

Réseau Matu

Every year the Champagne region of France announces the start dates for the harvest. This start dates vary by each village and grape varietal, ensuring that every plot is picked at the optimal ripeness. But then How is the date of harvesting decided? The bunches of grapes reach optimum ripeness at different times depending on […]

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EMERGENCE OF ADVERTISEMENT AS A MARKETING TOOL FOR CHAMPAGNE

Turn of the previous century or more precisely from 1870s to start of WW1 were heady times in France. It was peak of industrial revolution, economic prosperity and peace. Eiffel Tower was inaugurated, streets and homes had incandescent light bulbs, Wright Brothers flew their first successful flight. It were days of celebration too. Films, Moulin […]

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Economics of Champagne

Grower Champagnes (Récoltant-Manipulant) are those that are produced by the same estate that owns the vineyards where the grapes are grown. Now here lets talk about economics of making and selling champagne by the grower himself. Its evident that he would make a profit only if he is able to sell his champagne at a […]

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When will France learn…?

‘When will France learn…that champagne should be drunk with roast meat and not introduced as an incubus after dinner’ demanded a letter in The Times in September 1860. (the header and text of this write up is sourced from this article https://bit.ly/2HvQ2TZ) The above mid 19th century excerpt essentially espouses the current trend of drinking […]

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Belle Epoque

The period of about three decades after the end of Franco Prussian war in 1871 was a time of peace and prosperity in France. This was, as brought in previous post, “The Belle Epoque”. And champagne, which had already established itself as a celebration drink, further flourished during this time. As author Henry Vizetelly in […]

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VINTAGE PAINTED CHAMPAGNE ADVERTISEMENT got sold at live auction at $1300 (source https://bit.ly/2EbZCJE) DESCRIPTION : “Perrier-Jouet Champagne”, oil on canvas laid to panel, in the style of 1920s Parisian outdoor ads, depicting a woman emerging from the neck of an enormous champagne bottle, which is displayed in an equally huge ice bucket in the midst […]

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How phylloxera indirectly helped champagne

Anyone who follows wine is certain to be aware to the dreaded word ‘Phylloxera’. It is a disease which once threatened to wipe out almost the entire vine population in European vineyards, and France being a major producer of wine was naturally severely affected. But as goes the proverb that every dark cloud has a […]

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Champagne – a taste of contradictions

“It takes poor soil to make good Champagne; black grapes to make white wine; a blind man saw stars; the man accredited with putting bubbles in Champagne actually worked most of his life to keep them out” (Excerpts from the book titled ‘Champagne’) These are ironies which prompted a writer to call Champagne as ‘a […]