|
Champagne and America
A symbol of elegance and refinement, France and its art de vivre was very influential internationally in the 17th century. |
Around this time, the wines of Champagne also began their sparkling adventure which in no time had seduced the finest palates worldwide. The relationship between Champagne and America, although not well established at the start of the |
|
19th century, would rapidly evolve and this divine drink would soon become the emblem across the Atlantic of joy, success and celebration. The land of the free and home of the brave could not but succumb to the charm of the finest sparkling drink. |
From George Washington to Scott Fitzgerald and on through Marilyn Monroe  , Champagne would make the heart of the 'Stars and Stripes' beat for many generations. |
|
A modest market until the end of the 18th century
At the end of the 18th century, while the American market remained relatively undeveloped, Champagne had become a regular at the table of the President of the United States. Following a dinner on March 4th 1790, the senator Samuel Johnson from South Carolina wrote in his memoirs that “[…] We had some excellent Champagne and then I had the honor to drink a cup of coffee with the wife of George Washington, a very pleasant woman”.
In May 1792 in the account book of George Washington, the then President of the United States, is found: “transportation fees of 6 baskets for wines of Champagne”, from the ship to his residence “for 66 pences”.
Even if from the 18th century onwards the wines of Champagne – both sparkling and still - had a mission to spread their message throughout the world, it was only in the 19th century that the sparkling wine of the Rheims province would truly seduce America.
The first journeys to America
In 1832, the United States and Canada together stood as the third largest importer of sparkling wines of Champagne with 400,000 bottles. As André Simon emphasized - “At a time when advertising did not exist and when means of transportation were expensive and risky, wine dealers managed to create, in spite of everything, a demand for Champagne”. Many representatives of the Houses of Champagne undertook long promotional tours in order to advance their wines. This strategy, common to other commercial areas, was imperative for Champagne in the 19th century. Regarded as a novelty by many and considered a reflection of French society, the Americans were all the more inclined to adopt this new drink when they were introduced to it by the sophisticated messengers who had journeyed all the way from the champagne region itself.
Many wine dealers headed for the New World early in the 19th century. Edmont Ruinart departed for America in 1831 on a tri-mast sailing ship full of immigrants. They underwent thirty eight long days at sea in the most uncomfortable conditions, suffering storms and icebergs. Charles Perrier paid a long visit in 1839 to both the United States and Canada on the behalf of Perrier-Jouët. Jacques-Charles Kunkelman likewise traveled extensively through North America for his House of Champagne. These were genuinely risky expeditions and from time to time the precious cargo did not always reach its destination … or at least not on time. In July 1849, another tri-mast trade boat, the Niantic, entered the bay of San Francisco. Deep in its hold, according to the ship’s log, it carried a consignment of Jacquesson and Son Champagne. Abandoned by its crew, who had deserted to join the Gold Rush, the vessel was pulled into dry dock and used as a warehouse. Two years later a huge fire destroyed the city. The port, which was cluttered with sailing boats, quickly succumbed to the flames. The Niantic soon got forgotten and was buried beneath the debris. Its next appearance was not until 1975 when archeologists made their discovery during excavation works in the port. Amongst the many maritime objects and commercial items discovered in its hull were 60 Jacquesson and Son Champagne bottles! Two of them can still be seen in a museum at Dizy in Champagne. The remainder are kept at the maritime museum of San Francisco.
These long and difficult trips sometimes became epic adventures...
Charles-Camille Heidsieck : a pioneer in America
In 1851, Charles-Camille Heidsieck created the House Heidsieck. He demonstrated an exceptional dynamism and his brand became familiar to devotees of Champagne, especially in the United States where he marketed heavily. He made four trips, the first one in 1852 when he was 30 years old, and subsequently in 1857, 1859-60 and finally 1861. Thanks to his enterprising spirit and his compelling communication skills, he quickly became the darling of America and was nicknamed 'Champagne Charlie' . While travelling in 1860, he brought his best hunting gun with him both to impress his American hosts and also to get people talking about him. And thus indirectly speaking about the Heidsieck House. He very much succeeded in this objective when he appeared in a paragraph of the Harper’s Weekly of January, 28th 1860 and similarly in an article of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper of the same date. The pretext for these pieces was the hunting but which also happened to include a very descriptive piece on Heidsieck Champagne with drawings demonstrating its wine production methods.
Heidsieck stayed in New York in 1857 from where he wrote: “I am at the moment the most important character in New York, my steps and my deeds are followed by journalists. This is both incredible and boring, but the more hype there will be around me, the more useful it will be to popularize the wine that I represent and make it take a fortunate development of the favor of the customers”. At the end of this second trip, he had managed to sell 300,000 bottles dispatched from Rheims.
In 1860, during his third trip, Charles-Camille Heidsieck used all the locomotion means available at the time: horse, carriage, steam-boat and the first railways that crisscrossed the country. Counting on his fame, he revisited the emerging industries in the North, stopped in the federal capital where he met the most important political figures and discovered with wonder the South, its luxurious vegetation, its plantations and its aristocracy.
Everywhere it was the same warm welcome for the man and the same success for the Champagne to which he gave his name. From Mobile in Alabama, he wrote to his wife in May of that year, “they have shortened the name of the wine which is quite popular so that in the drinking establishments we only ask for a bottle of Charles”.
In 1861, the Secession War broke out and this happy tale took a tragic turn. While trying to recover his debts, the Rheims wine dealer was deceived and robbed by his agents and finally imprisoned by the Union general Benjamin T. Butler under the pretext of spying. Ruined, isolated from his relatives, he was kept waiting for 110 days, first in the cells of the Jackson Fort and then the Pickens Fort. Unsanitary prisons in the Deep South, both of these forts were located on small islands. Jackson in the middle of the Mississippi, Pickens in the bay of Pensacola. Charles eventually returned home to France in 1863, his health diminished and his fortune lost. This stormy tale did nevertheless end on a happy note. Charles-Camille Heidsieck eventually collected the majority of his funds and lived a peaceful life in France upon his return.
America ties the knot with Champagne
Over the course of this short period, the daring of these wine dealers from Champagne was amply rewarded. At that time, Champagne was as fashionable in the United States as it was in Europe. Thus, in a letter addressed to his son Paul on July 16th 1863, who was traveling to the United States, Joseph Krug expressed delight at the good news that his son had sent him regarding the success of his brand in New Orleans.
Champagne at that time was quenching the thirst of gold diggers in California, was obligatory at the best parties in New York and New Orleans, just as in Paris, as well as at the buffets on the finest racecourses of the day. The essential tipple of high-society, songs about Champagne flourished quickly. This occurred initially in England and later on in the United States. One of the best known successes was a song entitled ‘Champagne Charlie’. Popular since the 19th century, this ode to Champagne is still in the repertoire of Anglo-Saxon singers and orchestras, especially the jazz bands in New Orleans.
The song was created in the 1860s when popular male and female singers of the day including the likes of Vance, Leybourne, Liston, Nash Fraser and Annie Adams amongst others were producing their own shows for the London stages.
Joe Saunders, known popularly as George Leybourne whose drinking songs and dandy appearance got him the nickname “Champagne Charlie”, wrote lyrics for a piece of music composed by Alfred Lee. The song he called ‘Champagne Charlie’ and he would sing this song until the end of his life. Here are some extracts from the original text, published in the Comic Songster of 1868:
Champagne Charlie
I
I've seen a deal of gaiety throughout my noisy life,..
A noise all night, in bed all day, and swimming in Champagne.
Chorus
For
Champagne Charlie is my name, Champagne Charlie is my name,
Good for any game at night, my boys, good for any game all night, my boys,
Champagne Charlie is my name, Champagne Charlie is my name,
Good for any game nights, boys; who'll come and join me in a spree ?
Well known Champagne brands Veuve-Clicquot and Moet & Chandon built on the success of this song and penned personalized versions. In 1868, Lonie Sherrington sang a female version of Champagne Charlie whose chorus is slightly different:
He'd pass whole nights and days
In drinking Madame Clicquot's best
In 1869, Leybourne performed another version, ‘Moet and Chandon for me’, the chorus of which was once again a slight modification ending with “Moet and Chandon’s the wine for me”.
The Great Vance' gained a comparable success to ‘Champagne Charlie’ with ‘Clicquot’ whose chorus runs as follows:
Clicquot! Clicquot! That's the stuff to make you jolly,
Clicquot! Clicquot! Soon will banish melancholy.
Clicquot! Clicquot! Drinking other wines is folly,
Clicquot! Clicquot! That's the wine for me!
In this war of songs, the House Charles Heidsieck benefited from a fortunate coincidence in the United States. The Americans still had fond memories of the visit in 1857 of Charles C. Heidsieck whom they called… Charlie.
The United States becomes one of the first export markets
The adoption of Champagne wines in America sped up at the end of the 19th century with the advent of steam travel both on land and at sea revolutionizing the means of transport. While maritime crossings were still very hazardous and time-consuming, in 1800 forty days were needed on average to get from Le Havre in Normandy to New York. By 1870 the crossing took only 8 days. Steamers and transnational trains also played their part in the promotion of Champagne as much was consumed on board. The American Maritime Company even owned its own cuvée.
The 'Phylloxera'
Imported to England in 1863 with American vine seedlings, the phylloxera attacked across the whole of Europe at the end of the 19th century. This small aphid, almost invisible to the eye, spread terror wherever it went. It lived in the roots of the vine in which it dipped its sucker provoking some nodules which in a few years lead to the death of the vine. This villain reached Champagne in the 1890s threatening to destroy the precious vineyards.
Champagne vines were saved paradoxically, however, a few years later by the same American seedlings tested with success in different wine-producing regions. These seedlings had the property of resistance to the phylloxera because the layer located directly beneath the bark is particularly active and creates after the bite of the aphid, a cork that heals the wound.
Little by little, the reconstruction of the Champagne vineyard began. Grafted vines replaced the older vines everywhere where the phylloxera had exercised its devastation. By 1906, a thousand hectares had been replanted, which became two thousand by 1910 and more than two and half thousand in 1914. This accounted for over a third of the vineyards that had been contaminated. The vineyards of Champagne were saved!
|
|
Ifthe commercial energy of the Houses and the prescience of their leaders help to explain the success of Champagne in the United States, the quality of the exported commodity also played a significant role. For instance, the House De Venoge, which had successfully established itself in the United States is rewarded for the remarkable quality of its wine in 1876 at the International Exposition in Philadelphia. In 1879, in 'Facts about Champagne and other sparkling wines', Henry Vizetelly wrote “MM. G. H. Mumm and Co. are leading the trade with the United States where their products are very well known. They sold almost half a million bottles, a quarter of the total exports intended for this country”. Both Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck but also Louis Roederer, Ruinart and Pommery are high amongst the top league in sales.
The Houses of Champagne also knew how to adapt to the taste of the consumers across the Atlantic. Thus, as early as 1860, they sent wines of 'dry' Champagne that were more suited to the palates of their new American clients.
Thanks to the work and talent of the Houses of Champagne, America had become by the end of the 19th century one of its primary export markets. According to “Le Vigneron Champenois” dated October 18th 1899, the United States held fourth position with 1,490,900 bottles. It is worth noting that in this period the United States would normally have ranked as the third largest importer. The previous year, the exports had reached 2,733,000 bottles. The exceptionally low figures of 1898 were as a consequence of the Spanish-American war.
In France, this new friendship formed between the people of Champagne and America is consecrated by some of the most talented artists. The master cabinet maker Emile Gallé in 1903-04 decorated the 75,000 hectoliter wine vat of Pommery (which represents the equivalent of 100,000 bottles) that was to remain in use until 1973.
The work of Emile Gallé pays tributes to the fraternity uniting both sides of the Atlantic. From top to bottom, France can be seen represented by the features of a woman seen from behind standing in the vines offering a cup of Pommery to America. This latter, a sumptuous figure with luxuriant hair elegantly riding some type of sphinx with an Indian head, symbolizes the young America. At the upper level, framing a third female figure skillfully swathed in cloth, pensive genius of trade sitting enthroned in a chair, can be seen on the left the statue of “the Liberty enlightening the world” in the port of New York; on the right the ship that carries away the big wine vat in its trip towards the New World at the occasion of the Universal Exhibition of Saint Louis, Missouri). Finally, at the bottom under a sky of grape-filled vines, we see a panorama of the town of Rheims dominated by its famous cathedral and carved in the wood the signature of the artist and his associates.
|
|
|
Moet and Chandon illuminate freedom in the USA
|
A promising market
The American market, although still young, had made substantial progress. This, despite exorbitant customs duties, competition with local products (the “domestic champagnes”) and the presence of anti-alcoholic leagues and temperance societies. The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance prevented the use of Champagne for the baptism of new boats and had it replaced by, for example, a bottle of water for the launch of The Great Republic in 1853.
Nonetheless, the sales of Champagne increased fourfold in the United States between 1900 and 1909. The epitome of success, Champagne was enjoyed on a continent where people very openly flaunted their achievements and wealth. Charles C. Heidsieck wrote that “there is no country where people can get rich so easily provided that they send an item people enjoy and sells well”.
Symbol of splendor and luxury, Champagne was in attendance at the most important people’s tables and even appeared at events where it was least expected. Thus in 1902, when Madam Roosevelt baptized 'The Meteor', the yacht of the German Emperor, in the presence of the prince Henri de Prusse, George Kessler (commercial agent of Moet and Chandon in the United States) managed at the last minute to substitute a bottle of Champagne in the place of the intended German sparkling wine.
The new millionaire class that emerged following the economic boom from 1870-1900 also adopted Champagne as its favorite beverage. For instance, in 1906 in San Francisco, two hours before the earthquake at the opulent residence of the primary art patron of the East Coast, James Ben Ali Haggin, the famous tenor Caruso, after singing Carmen at the opera, sang the famous tune of 'Paillasse', his hand majestically atop the neck of an emptied magnum of Champagne. As in France, Champagne in the US had become the essential drink in all the fashionable pleasure spots. In the reserved area of New Orleans, the wine was flowing like water wrote Alan Lomax, and wine was often Clicquot Champagne or Mumm extra dry.
Evelyn Wells in her book 'The Champagne Days of San Francisco' recalled in 1939 the frenzied years of the 1890s and the early years of the 20th century before the earthquake and fire that laid waste to the city in 1906:
“ 'The city that never sleeps', that was how we called the city (…) because a gentleman never ordered anything other than champagne to accompany his dinner. Like champagne, the spirit of San Francisco bubbles with exuberance, calms down and then gathers momentum again. During the roaring years of the 1890s, its most irrepressible period, there was Champagne in the air of the city and in the veins of the joyful young black people whose tricks were the subject of everyone’s conversation on both continents”.
The time of the Prohibition
However the elevation to power of President Wilson in 1912 opened an official era of austerity. If the president bans wine from his table, private bales are nonetheless still going on in a luxury unheard of and Champagne flows with abundance. John Dos Passos recalls in ‘La Grosse Galette’ a lunch he had at the Plaza in New York during the Prohibition, when he was the guest of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald: “If I remember well, we drank some 'Bronx' and then some Champagne. Scott was getting his liquors from good bootleggers”.
The power of the anti-alcoholic movement had the considerable effect of reducing the champagne market back to the level of 1900, a disappointment all the more noticeable given that hopes at the time had been so very high.
From the year 1910 onwards, anti-alcoholic leagues assumed more and more importance. The movement benefited in particular from the help of the Anti-saloon League sponsored by J. D. Rockfeller, founder of the Standard Oil and a zealous member of the Baptist church. As early as 1917, the Prohibition was enacted in some states which were referred to as 'Dry states'. In 1919, it was extended across the whole country by the Volstead Act and was the focus of the 18th amendment to the Constitution. In 1921, these restrictive measures were further reinforced by the 'Willis Campbell Bill'.
For fourteen years these laws would constantly be violated and apparently have the most harmful effects on society's health and morality. Bertrand de Mun wrote in the 'Economic and Financial Illustration' of April 26th 1924 that “the great American Republic has become the blessed land of smuggling and fraud”. Thus was set the scene for the serious crime of many gangsters, including one Al Capone. When the American liner 'Leviathan' crossed the Atlantic, only water was officially served but Champagne was very much available under the counter. Anyone who had the requisite finances could secure from bootleggers adulterated alcohol and imitations of Champagne. This is one example amongst many that Paul Poiret quotes: “I was in New York and wanted to buy dinner for some friends in a hotel… One of my fellow guests offered to get me three bottles of Pol Roger 1906 at the price of 300 francs per bottle (€233 at 2004 prices). After all, that was a whim. Why not! He brought them to me the next evening but at the end of the meal when I saw the head waiter pouring a heavy and reddish liquid into the glasses, I cried out: 'Do not drink this, it is poison'. I was brought the bottles whose labels, tie and neck had been forged. It was a fake Pol Roger that I had paid 300 francs a bottle for. I tasted it, it was undrinkable but the Americans drank it, saying they were very satisfied!”.
Bootleggers did not however only trade with counterfeit products. They did in fact introduce to the United States real champagne that they had procured in the Bahamas, Bermuda, at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and in Mexico. Maurice Hollande wrote – “According to unofficial information, the illegal importation of Champagne in the United States during the Prohibition would have been at the level of 2,300,000 to 3,000,000 bottles a year, but these figures look exaggerated by a multiple of two to three times”.
To introduce Champagne illegally some very unusual tricks were used. For instance, trained dogs were equipped with a particular type of pouch, cleverly concealed on their backs each of which contained a quarter of the precious liquid.
Be that as it may, until the official repeal of prohibition which started in Norway in 1926 and carried on in the United States from state to state until 1933, the impact on Champagne exports from France was very dramatic. It forced the champagne wine dealers to pro-actively campaign through the 'International League of Opponents of Prohibition' created in 1921 and to participate in the creation of the 'Commission d'Exportation des Vins de France' on February 15th 1922.
Prohibition or not, the relationships between America and the town where Champagne is produced continued to remain very tight. For instance, on June 10th 1928 the President of the Republic Gaston Doumergue , accompanied by the Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber and representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Works, the American Hospital and of the municipal library (which benefited from a donation of $200,000 from the Carnegie Foundation) unveiled the new Town Hall of Rheims in the presence of the ambassador of the United States in France, Myrron T. Herrick.
Shortly after the lifting of the Prohibition , American clients quickly began to place substantial orders again. On November 17th 1936, a dispatch of 100 cases of the 'Cuvée Dom Perignon' Vintage 1921 left the cellars of Epernay for New York and the wealthy clients that still existed across the Atlantic.
The War years
Shaken by the years of the Prohibition, the option of sales of Champagne to the countries at war with the Axis was of course impossible. The press reported in 1941 the return of bootleggers in the United States who were offering substitutes for Champagne as well as the real thing just as they had been doing in the heyday of the Prohibition.
However, Champagne did continue to be the beverage of celebration and victory. Thus, on May 12th 1945 at the Town Hall of Rheims, General Eisenhower , honoured citizen of the town, raised his Champagne flute (containing Mumm Cordon Rouge) to drink a toast to the honour of the French Republic.
The 1960s
During the 1960s, the Houses of Champagne were often breaking new ground and one such innovation involved creating new bottles destined to contain special cuvées. These receptacles were very different from the classic champagne bottles, as for example the Dom Perignon launched by Moet and Chandon in the United States in 1937 with the 1921, 1928 and 1929 millesimes. This trend would extend little by little and soon the majority of Houses of Champagne had also created their own prestigious cuvées. This succeeded in broadening the range of products offered to consumers worldwide.
By so doing Champagne reinforced its image as the king of all wines: wines of honour which the most prestigious tables were obliged to serve. Thus, Michel Piot wrote in 'Le Figaro' on September, 10th 1979 that “the wines served at the table of the President of the United States always come from California apart from Champagne that can only come of course from the eponymous French province”.
A symbol of elegance and refinement as it was, the pale golden wine continued to be consumed worldwide because as Hervé Bazin describes - “... French wine among all others, source of joy, proof of harmony whose joyful explosion salutes all happy events and gives for a while, to those who drink it, the qualities of the Gallic spirit and the champagne-style subtlety”. Which is why it remains closely associated with the most prestigious high society events. In 1962 the inaugural trip took place of the ship, the 'France' , from Le Havre to New York. In this journey, today remembered as 'The Trip of Elegance and French Taste', Champagne played such a central role that American journalists baptized the crossing 'The Champagne Journey'. On November 22nd 1977 during the first regular commercial flight of the Concorde on the Paris-New York route, it was naturally Champagne ('Cordon Rouge' by Mumm) that was served on board.
And on the rare occasion when Champagne was not making the journey west across the Atlantic, America's personages made the eastbound trip to the Rheims province. On August 25th 1981, Richard Nixon, ex-president of the United States, organized a private visit to Rheims. As for President Bill Clinton he celebrated with 'Louis Roederer' and 'Jean-Claude Rouzaud' at the White House in 1996 on the occasion of a gathering of the 'Club des Chefs des Chefs', an association that brings together the chefs of the heads of states and crown heads.
In a land where even the craziest dreams often become reality, it is in the United States on June 18th 1984 that Pascal Leclec-Briant builds at the Bilmore Hotel the highest ever pyramid of Champagne flutes for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. No less than 10,404 flutes are used - the equivalent of 44 stories, each 1.7 meters high. More than 1,800 bottles would have been necessary to fill all the flutes!
Champagne crowns the Arts in America
From a very early stage, the wines of Champagne have struck up a friendship with the art of the instant and the emotion that is still very vivid today. Scenes celebrating Champagne on the screen are plentiful, in particular when it deals with the American movies. One of Alfred Hitchcock's earlier movies from 1928 was actually entitled 'Champagne'. In 1934, Laurel and Hardy fought over a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck in the classic 'Sons of the Desert'. The brand that sponsors the Oscars and several other notable prizes and festivals is since that moment a regular of the public across the Atlantic.
The drink, of which Madame de Pompadour once said “it is the only wine to leave women beautiful after drinking”, has on numerous occasions assisted in the seduction of women on the big screen. Thus, Sir Charles succeeds in charming Princess Dala in 'The Pink Panther', a 1964 film by Blake Edwards, with the help of the bubbly:
SIR CHARLES: Would you like some Champagne?
PRINCESS DALA: I told you I do not drink any alcohol
The princess allows herself to be convinced ... a first kiss ensues.
A Star in its own right on the screen, Champagne is also often enjoyed once the curtain has fallen. Indeed, legend has it that Marilyn Monroe once filled up her bath with 350 bottles of Champagne before taking a long and languid soak.
Fine Arts
The Fine arts are not to be outdone. In 1974 in the United States, Charles White III paints 'Champagne Bubbles' in the pop art style.A painting recognized worldwide as it has been regularly reproduced in poster and postcard form. It consists of a couple flying away from the skyscrapers of a city on a flying carpet of bubbles being cast skywards from a bottle of Champagne.
The House Duval-Leroy commissioned the American painter Neiman Leroy (whose name by coincidence is similar to the name of the brand) to produce a label, the style of which - incorporating a mix of vivid and energetic colours - has recently seen the artist praised to the skies. The House Taittinger has undertaken a series of very bold collaborations. In 1985, Roy Liechtenstein, the 'enfant terrible' of pop art signed the series “Taittinger Collection” and wraps the bottles of the pale golden drink in a delicate blue background set off with a motif of a stylized dotted blue and yellow Greek figure .
Music
With regard to music in the United States, there is an enormous catalogue of songs that make mention of the classic French drink. Amongst these examples include one from Muddy Waters who plays and sings 'Champagne and Reefer' with his orchestra (music and lyrics composed by McKinley Morganfield) that begins: “Well, bring me Champagne when I am thirsty”. While Rupert Holmes in his pleasing melody 'Escape' (known as the 'Pina Colada' song) states: “I am not much into health food / I am into Champagne”.
Champagne and American Literature
Finally, it is notable the breadth of American literature which utilizes the glamour associated with Champagne in their works. From Scott Fitzgerald to Pearl Buck and on through Herman Melville and John Steinbeck, American writers regularly eulogise upon the nature of this special drink, Champagne. Even Truman Capote, renowned for not being a Champagne lover, is carried away by the charm of the golden wine in 'Answered Prayers':
“From the wine steward she ordered a bottle of Roederer’s Cristal. Even for those who dislike champagne, myself among them, there are two champagnes one can’t refuse: Dom Perignon and the even superior Cristal, which is bottled in a natural-colored glass that displays its pale blaze, a chilled fire of such prickly dryness that, swallowed, seems not to have been swallowed at all, but instead to have turned to vapors on the tongues and burned there to one damp sweet ash”.
Companion to life's most precious moments, Champagne is first and foremost the wine of celebration and friendship. As Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize winner in 1976, wrote in 'The Adventures of Augie Match':
“The buffet was set in Stella’s apartment: turkey, ham, champagne, cognac, fruits, cakes. It was splendid. […] After a few cups of Champagne, Stella began to smile”.
But it is to Malcolm R. Hebert in his seminal piece “The Champagne Cookbook” we shall leave the last words:
Champagne makers are the most agreeable, generous and considerate people that I ever had the pleasure to meet.
…………………..
Cooking with champagne is a brilliant way and however easy to enhance your table. There is enough to entertain oneself in the kitchen with a bottle of Champagne within reach! Your family and your guests will be amazed to see your simplest dishes become ‘epicurean’ by a mere addition of champagne.
……………………………..
A glass of champagne or two with breakfast is a magnificent way to start the day.
………………………………….
Caviar has always been considered as the noblest side dish for champagne, and the combination is so classic that a club in Chicago is called the ‘Champagne and Caviar club’.
Houses of Champagne in America
During the 1980s, several Houses of Champagne embarked upon the goal of establishing themselves as domestic producers for the American market. This is true, for example, of the Taittinger brand which in 1987 created the 'Carneros' estate in the Napa Valley in California. “The United States is the largest potential market in the world at the moment” explained Philippe Court, general director of the Taittinger House. “A market becomes a growth market when it is culturally interested and by that I mean agri-culturally interested. For more than 30 years, the Americans have planted vines and we can find vineyards today in more than 42 states. It is where the highest development potential for the coming years lies”.
The Taittinger brand, already well-known in the United States, built up a subsidiary on American soil whose signature 'Carneros Estate by Taittinger' enables it to keep a certain autonomy. The appelation contrôlée 'Carneros Estate' meanwhile permits the erudite clientele to know the origin of the wine. Simply stated, the consumer thus benefits from a clear understanding of the root of the wines. “Fantastic wines are produced in the States. The creation of more and more sophisticated wines will however take many decades of experimentation. France has the experience of several centuries whereas we are still learning about our wines in the Napa Valley”.
Today, about 5% of Americans drink wine. “People are a bit chauvinistic when they drink wine and domestic wines have their devotees”, comments Philippe Court regarding this issue. “While creating new categories for sparkling wines with local production, we create new consumers that one day might want to try other wines and in particular Champagne”.
A promising and developing market, American consumers now very much appreciate the finest sparkling wine. Indeed, the United States is at the moment one of the foremost export markets. According to the 'Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne' 19,268,837 bottles of Champagne were exported to the US in 2000.
Written and translated by Nadège Druzkowski & James Curran
|
|
