[wine] Champagne prices dropping

FYI/FYBbls Bargain market for high-end Champagne drinkers Jon BonnéSunday, December 13, 2009 Falling prices mean now is the time to experiment beyond ... In Champagne, this is a year for conversions. It is not a particularly good time to be selling the king of bubbles. Shipments of Champagne to the United States plummeted 41.2 percent from January to August, according to the Champagne Bureau, the U.S. arm of the region's official trade group. Americans are the second-largest drinkers of Champagne outside France, which means a lot of bottles gathering dust in cellars in Reims and Epernay. That has opened a window to slash prices. To those of us who always wish for Champagne to be just a bit more affordable, it is a lucky year - and a chance to get out of our Champagne comfort zones. Lackluster sales are partially a recession hangover, of course, but even as money returns to wine drinkers' pockets, there is still a hesitancy to conspicuously drink the real stuff, especially at the high end. So prices are being squeezed down to size. "People don't even want to be seen buying Champagne, really," says Jean-Baptiste Cristini, export director for Champagne Salon and its sister Champagne label, Delamotte. "I'm seeing Champagne in the United States coming back to the $35 mark, which is more in line with where it is in Europe. A year ago it was closer to $50." Not every Champagne house has stepped down a peg, but consumers who keep a close eye on store shelves will find deals not only on affordable nonvintage bottles but also on some of the most rarefied bottles to emerge from the region. The current 1997 release from Salon, that exquisitely rare and timeless Blanc de Blancs from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, might otherwise approach $500, especially after blockbuster sales for its 1996 release. But it can be found for about half that on Bay Area shelves. The 2002 Cristal, the latest release of the Louis Roederer top cuvee whose fame predates the Diddy days by over a century, has dipped below $200 for the first time since the middle of the decade. These prices are still prohibitive for most of us. But for those who can go there, these are screaming deals. Even Krug's nonvintage Grande Cuvee can be found at sale prices, thanks to a series of complex pricing maneuvers. Yet many familiar names haven't wavered, which is where the conversion comes in. If you're looking for Veuve Clicquot's beloved Yellow Label at a discount, keep looking. Kyle Nadeau, manager of D&M Wine and Spirits, not only didn't reduce the price but lists it above $50, in part to encourage his customers to be more adventurous. "Any of my staff is going to try and put something else in their hands," he says. Other labels, like Laurent-Perrier, continue to struggle after ambitious price increases at the start of the recession. And sometimes pricing seems to defy logic, with more expensive vintage bottlings being discounted while accessible nonvintage wines fetch a premium. The 2002 rose from Veuve Clicquot is on shelves for around $65, barely above the $60 nonvintage rose. In the case of Salon, which sends a modest 8,000 bottles to these shores annually, the pricing is a simple reflection of reality, Cristini says. Wine already shipped needed to be sold. That's how bargains are born. It's also precisely what's required to get price-sensitive bubbly lovers to make a change. Perhaps more than any other wine, Champagne is sold on image and brand loyalty - and, likely, fear of change. A discount creates the opportunity to switch up. Do you feel like you're in a Champagne rut? Are you even just a bit curious? It's time to taste around. When bottles of prominent but lesser-known houses like Gosset or Hiedsieck Monopole hit shelves for $30, or when Delamotte appears at $35, that's opportunity knocking with Champagne flutes in its hand. Hence why, at K&L Wine Merchants, sales of big-name Champagne dropped 44 percent in the year ending in August, while sales of the small grower Champagnes it imports directly, like Franck Bonville and Tarlant, rose by 11 percent. "I don't think that it's trading down for somebody to go from a $40 bottle of stuff that's not that interesting to a $30 bottle of something that's really good," says Gary Westby, K&L's Champagne buyer. "I see that as a customer trading up and saving $10 at the same time." Grower Champagne, the small-production wines made by vintners who also grow the grapes, is particularly poised to notch up its profile. It now accounts for 4 percent of the U.S. market, according to the Champagne Bureau. As larger houses were starting to quietly offer discounts earlier this year, some importers of the grower labels asked their producers to roll back costs. That allowed Michael Skurnik Wines, which handles the Champagne portfolio of Terry Theise, who introduced Americans to grower Champagne, to start offering discounts on popular nonvintage bottles like those from Pierre Peters, Aubry and Chartogne-Taillet. Orders are also surging for many rare grower wines, including those from cult producer Vilmart & Cie. and the many Special Club bottlings, top estate-made cuvees from a band of small growers. While expensive, these bottles are often far better deals than the top wines from larger houses, like Moet et Chandon's Dom Perignon. So business is plenty solid, says Kevin Pike, Skurnik's national director of sales and marketing. "We're ecstatic, actually. Not only is it better than '08, we're coming up against '07 numbers" at the height of the most recent boom. Which leads us again to that conversion moment. Since Champagne is bought as much on fear as taste, switching brands is often as simple as putting a glass in someone's hand. That requires an incentive. And this year the incentive is as simple as finding a bargain. Champagne houses willing to take the gamble might find new converts when the boom times return. For more on the terms used to describe Champagne go to sfgate.com/ZITH Jon Bonnés The Chronicle's wine editor. Find him at jbonne(a)sfchronicle.com or twitter.com/jbonne. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/13/FDC61B0MMK.DTL This article appeared on page K - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *