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| A glass of 1907 Heidsieck served at the Hotel Metropol, Moscow |
We don’t normally think of Champagne as something to keep for decades, though my all time favourite remains a magnum of ‘64 Moët drunk at the turn of the Century in Reims. It was the combination of honeyed toastiness that did it because at this sort of age, you are not looking for a zingy, acidic, cleansing taste but for depth and complexity along with the occasional bubble. It was run a close second by a Krug 89 at Le Cinq in Paris, which was served by Maître’d/sommelier Eric Beaumard in large Burgundy glasses rather than flutes. Salon is another grand cuvee that ages well, with some in the wine trade refer to it as Bâtard with Bubbles, such is its parity with great white Burgundy. As for extreme age, well as we know with humans, anything can happen, but the result can still be memorable if not predictable.
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| Gennady (r) with Norbert Niederkofler, Three Star chef at St Hubertus, northern Italy |
One of my greatest pleasures is friendships with fellow wine and food enthusiasts around the globe, none less than with Gennady Josefavichus, the sybaritic Russian travel writer, with whom I have had some glorious times in Stockholm, Sorrento and Sydney. He invited me to a banquet in Moscow in honour of a century-old Champagne - two bottles of Heidsieck 1907 “Goût Américain” would be opened at the Metropol Hotel, more than 90 years after they were supposed to arrive.
A consignment of more than 4,000 bottles had been ordered by the Tsar in 1916 and despatched from Stockholm in a sixty-foot schooner, the Jönköping. Unfortunately they encountered a German U Boat in the Baltic Sea near Finland, which scuttled the boat. It then settled 200 feet down in total darkness at a constant temperature of 4 C. These conditions would certainly not be conducive for life as we know it, but it was near perfect conditions for the storage of the Champagne due to the near equal pressure of the bubbles in the bottle and the outside surroundings.
Some enterprising divers found this haul in 1997 and after some squabbles about ownership; nearly half of the original bottles were retrieved and found to be in excellent condition. Initially, they were sold for up to $10,000 each, though the auction price has since settled to around a quarter of that.
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| Fredrick opens the 07's |
The two bottles we drank at the Metropol were brought along by Fredrik Åström, a charmingly eccentric Swedish hotelier who has more than 100 of them, although his real passion is cork screws, of which he possesses several thousand.
The bottles themselves had alarmingly low levels, with almost a quarter of the contents missing, though the corks and capsules were completely intact. There was also quite a bit of dirt and residue surrounding the lip of the bottle but once the cork was gently extracted and poured, it appeared to be in near perfect condition.
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| The Menu |
There were no bubbles remaining in the first bottle and there was something distinctively sweet about the nose. This was to be expected as Champagne from century ago was made with far more sugar and “Goût Américain” means it was sweeter still. The taste though, was intriguing – more like fruitcake or marmalade than Champagne. As for the second bottle, it actually managed to exude a few bubbles, though nowhere near the typical 20 million that a good bottle of Champagne should have. Despite this sign of life, it had a far more citric taste without the depth of the first.
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| Sasha preferred the Cristal 09 |
Sasha, my intriguing neighbour, an importer of natural wines, was unimpressed with either of them – “They were different with interesting aromas in the nose ... but just too sweet.” The Heidsieck was up against some impressive opposition as Roederer supplied a range of their own bottles, including Cristal 09, which was certainly at the other end of the sweet spectrum. However, a number of other guests must have agreed with my neighbour, as some glasses from the first bottle remained unfinished. With wine that is a century old, it would be expecting quite a lot for it to be still drinkable after being exposed to air for more than an hour – typically, it would lose depth and finish with a watery end. In this case, it was the exact opposite – there was even more depth of flavour and a clean aftertaste of apples. There was so much life in it that I could imagine this still being drunk more than a decade from now. To think that cases of Champagne destined for Tsarist Russia are still capable of improvement made the experience even sweeter…
Champagne is the least understood wine of them all. It is partly because when drunk, the brand is rarely identified, unless you have the misfortune to attend Jeffrey Archer’s Krug and shepherd’s pie Christmas parties. The Champagne market is dominated by a handful of major producers, rather in the way the food industry is in thrall to a small number of supermarket chains. Unlike other wine regions, Champagne producers blend the majority of their output in order to create a house style year in year out. Despite this, very few are easily identifiable by the non-initiated save for their labels or bottle shape, though non-vintage Bollinger and Krug usually strike a familiar chord.
The trouble is that the majority of Champagne is consumed standing in a noisy room while you raise your voice to make yourself heard - when was the last time you had a memorable drink of anything on your feet? The whole point of Champagne in this context is to enjoy yourself, regardless of whether it is served at the wrong temperature, too young or in an inappropriate glass. My rule is never spend more than £30 a bottle if it is simply to be drunk at a reception or large party, because no one will notice, care or remember what they were drinking. Most of the time, Champagne is served far too cold, which kills any flavour or aftertaste. If you have the patience to wait until it has had time to mellow in the glass, you will be amazed at how the flavours emerge.
The perfect time to drink something more individual or vintage is with friends before dinner, as once Champagne reaches a decade or more in the bottle, it takes on far more complexity and subtlety. When it comes to drinking Champagne with food, I have always been quite sceptical – not that it can’t be done, but that other wines do it far better. However, I am nothing if not open-minded.
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| Christian checks the quality of the Krug '89 |
In my quest to discover how great French chefs deal with this, I recently went to Le Cinq at the George V in Paris, where Christian Le Squer, the three star Michelin chef, recently took over.
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| You will have to take my word for it that there was a chunk of Dover Sole underneath the Albas... |
One of his signature dishes was created specifically to be an accompaniment with old Champagne - Dover sole cooked in milk and smothered in slices of white truffles from Alba. We ate this luscious work of art with Krug 1989, served in large balloon-shaped Burgundy glasses. I will never again say Champagne doesn’t go with food – it was a revelation to see how the fish and truffles teased out lingering flavours from this quarter of century old Champagne.
It is not straightforward to uncover the best smaller producers. Part of the problem is that Champagne houses spend small fortunes promoting their brands, so it is easy to presume that, say, Dom Perignon is sans pareil. After all, Prince Charles and Lady Diana served magnums of the 61 at their wedding. LVMH refuse to reveal how much of this ultimate luxury product is produced, but those in the know say it is in the millions of bottles.
Just before the last Millennium, I helped purchase six figure amounts of vintage Champagne for a music producer, who was banking on the price rising markedly (which it did) when the centuries changed. Because of the volume involved, I was invited to stay at Chateau de Seran, the headquarters for Dom Perignon and Moet et Chandon in Reims.
There was a tasting dinner with only Champagne served for each course and of course, lots of old and rare bottles of Dom Perignon, their grandest Marque. (I must confess that it is not a Champagne that has ever impressed me, because it is too fruit-driven, even grapey, compared to others such as Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne or the even greater Salon, which was once described as Batard-Montrachet with bubbles.)
The evening was enlivened by the presence of Andrew Parker Bowles, who by the final course was happily shearing off the tops of bottles with a sword. The next day, a magnum of 1964 Moet was wheeled out – this is the lowliest vintage brand of the house, so not much was expected of it except to still release the odd bubble before consumption. It actually blew me away and remains the greatest Champagne I have ever tasted – it had pronounced toasty, brioche flavours almost verging on the caramelised. Yet, this costs a fraction of the older Dom Perignon bottles we had drunk earlier.
The best way to explore great Champagne from small producers is to visit Adrien Butko, the head sommelier at Texture, the Michelin starred restaurant off Portman Square in London Sadly, since closed and the chef has returned to Iceland). Adrien serves around 150 different Champagnes in their bar, many by the glass. Before he came here, he worked at Les Crayeres, the finest restaurant in Reims. It is only through exposure like this, you can appreciate the variety available and at similar prices to the industrially produced ones. I asked if he could prepare a Champagne pairing for lunch, including tricky dishes like Pigeon and only serving Champagne from relatively obscure family run houses. The highlight was a Chartogne-Taillet 2008 with yellow fin tuna tartar. Again, the food brought out another level of complexity and lingering minerality – and this for a Champagne that retails around £35 a bottle. There was also success with the Anjou Pigeon – a non-vintage Rose from Veuve Fourny. It had the spine to deal with the intensity of this sought after bird and cleanse your palate for the next mouthful.
There is plenty of perfectly acceptable Champagne available for well under £20 a bottle which is perfect for a party. Drink it with abandon, but when it comes to just a handful of friends, explore the obscure with the help of someone with the knowledge of Adrien and an entirely new world will suddenly open up and last far beyond the festive season.