Last year, British soul singer-songwriter
Lianne La Havas was asked to find a pairing for “Les Créations de 2004,” a
limited edition tribute comprising the latest vintage alongside the Krug Grande
Cuvée 160th Edition (Les Créations de 2004 are served in-flight in Singapore
Airlines’ Suites and First Class). The singer chose to pair that vintage with
her hit single ‘Unstoppable’ remarking, “Just as the lyrics talk about being
carried ‘to another galaxy’, if you close your eyes when tasting Krug 2004 you
are transported by its aromas and flavours.”
At the core of this Krug Music Pairings
initiative is the belief that music can influence how champagne tastes, with
the right music obviously enhancing the experience.
The link between music and wine is one that
is being scientifically studied by Charles Spence and Janice Qian Wang of
Oxford University's Crossmodal Research Laboratory, and their numerous
researches on the topic have found that what people hear can influence what
they taste, for example, the perceived acidity or sweetness of a wine.
Krug’s president, Margareth Henriquez—who
also became president of LVMH's Estates & Wines earlier this year—says she first
started to reflect on the link between wine and music in 2010 when she overheard
Eric Beaumard, the sommelier of Le Cinq Restaurant in Paris, describe wine with
music terminology a few years ago, but she really became a convert after a
memorable dinner experience in Hong Kong in 2013, when Richard Bamping, first
cellist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, was asked to make a pairing. He choose to
pair a bottle of Krug Clos de Mesnil with the Catalan song ‘Songs of the
Birds’.
“I will never forget this dinner. I had
never imagined I could feel what I felt. I felt that champagne transformed in
my interior. It was amazing,” Henriquez recalls.
Beyond the pairing of music, the Krug ID
code can be scanned to give access to a wealth of other information ranging
from the champagne’s composition to recommendations on optimum storage and
serving, which champagne aficionados will appreciate.
“The Krug ID gives you the disgorgement
date (the release of the yeast that started the second fermentation) of the
Champagne and that’s very important because that’s when the Champagne starts to
age. Most of the time you have no idea when that has actually happened. But the
longer the bottle stays on lees , the finer the bubbles will get and the
better the Champagne,” explains Mason Ng, the head sommelier of Atlas bar in
Singapore, which is home to more than 300 champagne labels, one of the largest
lists in Asia. Ng notes that although Bruno Paillard was the first house to
start giving disgorgement information in 1983, very few big champagne houses
have been as forthcoming.
Other houses are also innovating digitally
and technologically to remain relevant to a new generation of champagne lovers
and to pique millennials’ interest including some fun gimmicks. In 2015, G. H. Mumm
& Cie unveiled the first digitally connected champagne bottle. As the cork
was popped in the specially selected nightclub, it transmitted a signal that
activated an animation. These animations could vary from bottle to bottle and
venue to venue and range from a series of pictures broadcast on a digital wall
and light effect to the playing of favourite songs for a birthday.
Champagne houses are also reaching out to a
younger demographic through the use of cutting-edge design. In recent years, Veuve
Clicquot has collaborated with a range of top designers to produce eye catching
accessories, such as Porsche Design’s standalone avant-garde champagne cellar
in brushed stainless steel, with each shelf individually lighted; and
industrial designer Thomas Lemaire’s dramatic looking and Instagram-friendly
cooler, Dry Blizzard, that replaces the ubiquitous ice bucket with a
double-walled glass vessel that uses dry ice and a fan to circulate cold air
around the bottle.
But amidst this competition for eye-catching
innovations aimed at wealthy young customers, there is also a push to appeal customers’
quest for authenticity and interest in being “closer” to the source of the
products they buy, knowing where they come from.
While most champagnes are traditionally
made by négociant houses, which purchase their grapes from a multitude of
individual vineyards and then use their blending expertize to achieve their
house’s unique and consistent champagnes, there has also been growing interest in
recent years for “grower” champagnes.
Champagnes, produced using grapes grown by
the owner of the vineyard, aim to showcase the wine as an expression of place
with its creation taking on a more artisanal approach. Grower champagnes are
often drier, remarks Ng, and they are also produced in very small quantities,
making the good ones very exclusive though not always consistent.
Ng says that because these winemakers
generally prefer to keep a lower profile, they often are under the radar of
consumers, yet their champagnes are gaining traction lately, particularly in
the US. He recommends Champagne Bereche & Fils for its an uncompromising
freshness, leanness and minerality. Using wild yeast, resting on lees in
barrels and non-malolactic fermentation, Raphael and Vincent Bereche have
redefined the term ‘Terroir’ and ‘Champagne’ altogether, argues Ng: “Champagnes
here are very often dry and thus allows the wine to unravel itself, nothing is
hidden from you as it gently coats your palate with its impeccable mousse and
freshness.
Kent Law, wine specialist of Sotheby’s,
notes that while traditional houses such as Krug and Dom Perignon still
dominate the auction market with top cuvees always demanding high prices,
grower champagnes have also been getting more attention in recent years.
“It is not uncommon to find grower
champagnes asking for a hefty sum in the auction market,” he says, noting that
some can possess “great aging abilities as their more well-known counterparts.”
“I recently had a bottle of Jacques Selosse
vintage in the 1980s and it was still youthful, full of energy, and absolutely
delicious! The key is to keep the bottles on their side at 12-15˚C with little
light and humidity controlled at 60-70%. Almost all champagnes are high in
acidity, with the carbon dioxide acting as a preservative; quality champagnes
can age easily for decades,” Law adds.