Or that only grapes grown in approved plots can be in a bottle of Champagne?
- Champagne (the region) has over 15,000 growers who work together to grow the grapes used in Champagne (the wine).
- Champagne is composed of one or more of these authorized grapes: pinot noir, pinot menier, chardonnay (98%), but can also include pinot blanc, pinot gris, arbane, petit meslier.
- Champagne is the furthest north region of France to grow wine grapes.
- Champagne’s chalky soils are ancient seabeds full of fossilized sea urchins and squid which bring minerality to the grapes.
- Champagne used to explode so often each spring that they used to conduct exorcisms to release the demons inside.
- Champagne is so expensive in part because it costs two to three times what it takes to produce a Napa wine.
- Champagne should be enjoyed in a tulip shaped glass to enjoy the aromas and flavors, a flute to experience the bubbles.
Learn more about what makes Champagne Champagne here.
How should you enjoy #ChampagneDay this Friday Oct. 21? It’s as simple as finding a bottle of Champagne from France, popping the cork, and sharing with others on social media what you’re drinking and what you’re toasting! Last year, we toasted with Champagne Jaquart which you can read about here. Find and attend one of the many worldwide events!
Que Syrah Sue and I are getting a headstart on Friday’s festivities by getting #PiperReady and heading to Los Angeles for #DinnerUncorked, a $75 per person Piper-Heidsieck four course Champagne dinner on Tuesday, October 18th at the Tuck Room Tavern at 10850 Wilshire Blvd. Founded in 1785 by Florens-Louis Heidsieck in Reims, it’s one of the oldest champagne houses of France.
Florent-Louis Heidsieck, you see, fell in love with a gal from Champagne—and with the wine too! His reputation quickly spread beyond the local region and when he won favor at court, he achieved his dream “to make a cuvée worthy of a queen.”
photo from Facebook page; I am sure we’ll find plenty to write about for Champagne Day at the dinner at Tuck Room Tavern in LA!
By the 1820s, the Champagne house passed on to his nephew who joined forces with a man named Piper; when the nephew too passed on in 1835, and when his wife married Piper in 1838, PIPER-HEIDSIECK was born.
The Tuck Room at the Tavern has been getting a lot of great press, so we’re excited to go, and the menu looks amazing and daring for a Champagne dinner: ahi tuna poke with a Champagne cocktail, shrimp and beet salad with Brut, braised beef short ribs with Rose, strawberries and cream with the Cuvee Sublime… See the complete menu and register here.
Can’t make it tonight? Need more bubbles in your life after Friday’s Champagne Day?
Tickets are available now for The Cave’s annual Champagne and Sparkling Wine Tasting Sunday, December 11 from 2-4pm!
- $65 gets you music, appetizers and tasting of 25+ sparkling selections from around the world, including France of course! Tickets for this event sell out!
- Tickets are also on sale for the Ventura Wine Cave’s Annual Customer Appreciation Kick-Off Wine Tasting on November 6th from 2-4pm. For $45 taste over a hundred different wines that you can buy at the Ventura Wine Store. Music and passed appetizers and more.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 