July 31, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Slow Train to Champagne
By ROGER COHEN
ÉERNAY, France
Uniformity of style is one of the depressing aspects of globalization, and nowhere more so
than in the wine business. The global craving for big, fruity, caramel-laced reds, heavy
on berry-filled taste but short on structure, has caused winemakers the world over to jump
on the easy-drinking bandwagon.
I drink Chiantis these days that have nothing to do with the wonderful, rough, tannic wine
I consumed by the fiasco when a student in Florence in the 1970s. They.ve gone all soft
and facile, their distinguishing tannins and acidity smoothed away for the global palate.
A peasant wine has been smartened up and undermined. Many Spanish Riojas have undergone
similar taming.
The result is wines well-adapted to our instant-gratification world, offering a blast of
flavor followed by a great void. Because the new wines yield so easily, they have nothing
left to give.
The years cannot soften nonexistent tannins; fruit cannot be offset by nonexistent
acidity. Aging is pointless. The Californization of Chianti is globalization at its
banalizing worst.
France has not been immune to this rush for a global taste; some wine-growing areas have
had trouble competing with aggressively marketed New World wines. But this is a
conservative country that knows that ease and good wine are rarely bedfellows, and a visit
to Champagne remains a comforting experience.
Here, all the talk is of a redefinition . read modest expansion . of the wine-growing area
that has had the right to produce Champagne since a 1927 law set boundaries defined by
soil, sun, moisture and the ineffable ingredients forming what the French call .terroir..
Champagne is a name and trademark that have been vigorously defended over the years
against everything from Spanish manufacturers of sparkling wine to French perfume makers
who thought they could exploit the name.s effervescent associations. Any change in what
defines it is controversial.
It is especially so when demand for the celebratory drink from high-rolling new consumers
in Russia, China, India and other wealth-accumulating economies has sent the value of land
certified to make Champagne spiraling. At the high end, rather than imposing uniformity,
globalization accentuates the quest for premium distinctiveness.
The question therefore arises of whether Champagne, in revising its 1927 law, is merely
trying to cash in. That would be as depressing, in its way, as the rush to red-wine
sameness.
But a conversation with Ghislain de Montgolfier, the co-president of the Champagne
producers. committee overseeing the revision, was reassuring.
De Montgolfier.s work has been painstaking. Five years have already passed since the
decision was taken to look again at whether 81-year-old criteria for the land that can
produce Champagne needed updating.
It resulted last March, after extensive review, in 40 communes being added, and two being
removed, from the list of almost 320 entitled to Champagne.s Appellation d.Origine Contrô
(A.O.C.), France.s coveted certification of quality and origin.
That decision, taken by the national institute overseeing A.O.C..s, is, however, only the
beginning. .Now we will have to go field by field in these communes to determine those
able to produce Champagne,. de Montgolfier said. .The first drop of new Champagne will not
be made until about 2020..
Once each field has been analyzed . a process that will take at least four years . vines
will be planted, a time-consuming process that also involves getting approval from the
European Union. After planting, a minimum of three years is needed before vines produce
grapes apt for Champagne.
.In the end,. de Montgolfier, .we will have better overall quality because the new
criteria are more precise than the old..
That.s change I can believe in, at least where wine is concerned, one that takes 17 years
or so from onset to completion. No rush to accommodate the global palate is at work here.
The fact is, of course, Champagne has no need to hurry change. It.s a recession-free zone.
Indeed, some people allude to the current economic slowdown as a .Prosecco recession. . an
allusion to the cheaper Italian sparking wine Germans in particular love to serve as a
Champagne-substitute. That.s to say, a recession that affects ordinary mortals but not the
global elite.
Despite some slowing in the U.S. market, Champagne sales remain strong, spurred by the new
markets of an upside-down world.
.Champagne has been brilliantly positioned as the wine of celebration, of special moments,
the high-quality aperitif,. said Jéme Philipon, the managing director of Bollinger, one of
the finest Champagne houses. .This branding, along with consistent quality, explains our
growing global appeal..
Bollinger has just started selling a superb Roséhampagne, its first new product since
1976. The wine.s development took a mere eight years from idea to the market: more
snail-paced change you can believe in.
It.s holiday season. My wine curmudgeon.s advice: shun instant-gratification uniformity
for the slow, more difficult pleasures born of stubborn tradition.
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* 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 *