a nice bit of bubbly
Tim Kitchener-Smith is the founder and company director of Kitchener-Smith Wines. Having spent his entire working life involved with wine, previously with Oddbins, and then a successful stint at La Cave in Mayfair, Tim left the UK to set-up a wine shop/bar in the French ski resort of Les Arcs 1950, a brand new, mostly Brit owned, Canadian built mini Disney-World, but covered in snow. 
I have to admit that Champagne is my favourite tipple. Not just because it’s more expensive than other drinks, but there’s so much history, love, care and attention, passion and least of all snobbery that’s involved, it’s become an obsession. I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the Champagne Academy in 2005. One whole week of visiting the sixteen Grande Marque Champagne houses in both Reims and Epernay, eating foods so rich it would make Jamie Oliver blush, tasting old wines so old that you almost felt embarrassed sampling them, and then sitting an exam, so hung-over you thought you were back at Uni!
Champagne, at present, is a monster. Of the 335 million bottles released worldwide last year, 175 million were consumed in France and just under 40 million bottles enjoyed in the UK, up 6% on 2006, we’re the second biggest global market. The Champenoise are at the stage where global demand has outstripped supply and prices are on the up and up, again. With the bulging markets of Russia, the far-east and now India wanting a major slice of the pie as well, regular consumers of Champagne could soon be having to take on an extra job just to pay for their addiction.
On the 18th March The Champagne Information Bureau hosted their annual Champagne tasting at The Banqueting House in Whitehall, the largest Champagne tasting in the world. Sixty-eight of Champagne’s leading and most popular houses all showing of their goodies all under one very large roof. In the UK the Champagne Information Bureau is the educational and promotional arm of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) based in Epernay, France.
Some 10,000 bottles with an estimated value of a quarter of a million pounds were uncorked, as London celebrated its status as the international capital for Champagne with a record 38,957,205 bottles imported into the UK in 2007. That’s more than the combined efforts of Spain, Japan and the USA put together! So, who was there? About 500 members of the trade: sommeliers, buyers, collectors, industry figures, and just a few ‘who are yous’. Being in the fortunate position of having tasted most of the non vintage styles recently I took this as a fantastic opportunity to sample, at leisure, the table of vintage Champagnes. 65 houses were represented here and eight vintages in total were made available. Ideally, what you really wanted to do was taste them all blind, that way they’d be no bias towards the more familiar houses, but unfortunately it was just to left to your own devices, pour yourself a tasting glass and simply get on with it.
Vintage Champagnes are obviously only released in what the houses call ‘exceptional years’. With the large percentage of sales leaning towards the non vintage styles, vintage Champagnes are hardly ever consumed. So then, these were a few highlights from my tasting, before I fell over!
The 1998 Perrier-Joët was soft in the mouth and not too foamy and now starting to lose its green-ness. Little tick there. The Mumm, deriving from the same vintage, tasted of custard creams and came across as being quite tart. I wasn’t so sure about that one. The 1999 Pol Roger was far too winey for my liking and probably the most disappointing of the lot. The Moët & Chandon 2000 was one of those ‘eureka’ moments. Not too green and with lovely delicate toasty notes on the palate, I reckon, that with maybe perhaps with one or two more years of maturation it will be a complete success.
The 2000 Piper Heidsieck made a shock horror entry into my ‘favoured’ box – a really pleasant nose, quite masculine on the palate with much more depth than expected, whereas the Charles Heidsieck was really light with no depth of flavour and seemed to be mature now. The most balanced of the lot, unsurprisingly, was the 2002 Veuve Clicquot – really balanced but really ordinary. You could see why this would please many people but to me it was pretty dull and, at the price it commands, a bit of a let down.
Possibly my most anticipated Champagne was the 2002 Louis Roederer, allegedly their best vintage since 1990. It was classy and impressive but not ‘wow’. The Taittinger 2000 was though. Gloriously subtle with those refined notes on the palate that made you understand why vintages are released. The colour, golden straw, the overall taste – aromatic richness and elegance personified.
Bring on the tasting in 2009 I say, and if you’re up for a little visit of your own, to this most romantic of wine regions, get in touch because I’m organising tours for the forthcoming months literally as you read this…
Email tim.ks.wines@googlemail.com for more info and future wine tastings…
