Fizz with food
"You wouldn't drink the same kind of Champagne at a shooting party as you would at a cocktail party in Paris, now would you?" begins Guillaume Bruneau, the well-groomed marketing man for Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC). The UK journalists round the table snigger quietly.
The setting is Dominique Giraudeau's Michelin-starred restaurant Le Grand Serf in the heart of the Champagne region. The conversation is part of CIVC's valiant effort to enlighten us in the art of drinking Champagne with food.
"We realised," Bruneau continues, "that in France, Champagne was being drunk only twice in the meal - as an aperitif and with the dessert. We thought there might be other circumstances in which Champagne may be consumed. This goes hand in hand with the fact that the characteristics you find in the wine are very different all over the region. Yes, Champagne's diversity, that is our message."
An extremely civilised ruse to get us to drink more bubbly? Or a practical, rather special, even economical (one argued) way to enjoy a meal?
Sommelier Emmanuel Defever from London's Capital Hotel was not convinced. The rest, a group of wine writers, hovered between an immense regard for the wines and pairing experiences that stopped at Champagne and shellfish.
"It's a big mistake to think that we are trying to promote Champagne as the most versatile of wine that goes with everything," warns Bruneau. "We can talk about and try the dishes that go well with Champagne, mostly very simple things, but we also want to find some unusual marriages, some real harmony." Venison with Veuve Clicquot Rosé? Or how about Champagne with cheese?
We tried Chaource (a local cheese) with Pol Roger Brut 1988, which stunning results. But, even armed with this extra knowledge, how do you persuade the UK restaurant customer to order Champagne with his meal?
Champagne is recovering nicely from its horrendous fall in the early 1990s. In fact, the 1994 global shipment total of 241.5 million bottles is the second largest ever recorded from the cellars of the Champagne producers, with a total of more than 17 million bottles exported into the UK last year.
As the crisis in Champagne abated, the CIVC moved with the times and updated its Champagne message with various promotional tools. One of these is a rather silly chart for the back office and consumer alike that prompted giggles from the group. Les Champagnes: Les mots pour le dire lists the range of terms associated with Champagne then relates them to the senses, and not just taste and smell.
There is passion, sensuality, tenderness, even feelings of ecstasy encouraged by Champagne, it claims.
A booklet entitled Les Carnets de Champagne, available soon in English from the Champagne Information Bureau (0171-495 4909), gives simple explanations of the different types of Champagne, together with descriptive terms and useful advice on matching foods with Champagne.
A lot of the diversity of Champagne comes from the individual blending of the three grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. If a blend is mainly Chardonnay, the Champagne will be elegant and fruity. If the higher proportion is Pinot Noir, it will be robust and full-bodied. More Pinot Meunier and the wine can be woody, rustic and fleshy - good for more fatty dishes, charcuterie and so on.
The emergence of the back label on the Champagne bottle will do a lot to aid our understanding of the blend - Champagne de Venoge was the first to take the step earlier this year.
There are a few guidelines when planning or advising on a meal with Champagne that are pretty safe to follow: the wine's high acidity means a match will end in divorce for certain foods. Avoid chocolate, raw onions, garlic, citrus fruits, strong cheeses and rich complex dishes. Giraudeau now never uses cream when creating a dish for Champagne.
A useful principle is to build on the preceding Champagne, serving progressively more full-bodied wines, for example, follow a blanc de blancs with a bottle of vintage, followed by a rosé.
The tastings
Giraudeau emerges from the kitchen with a portion of crayfish in Champagne sauce and a portion in straight wine sauce. We were not told which was which. A British recipe columnist had dared to question the merits of using Champagne in a sauce.
But the yeasty, savoury side of Champagne's aroma in the first dish hit you immediately. "It is those qualities that we are looking for," says Giraudeau, looking pleased with himself. "I am not trying to recreate the delicate complex aromas of Champagne, but I am trying to get the balance between acidity and yeast." Washed down with Champagne J Lassalle Blanc de Blancs, it holds the creaminess of the sauce brilliantly. "The length of both the sauce and the wine is the same!" proclaims Defever. One-nil.
Even better was the roast red sea bream with basil and tomato sauce. The floral notes of the Champagne Delamotte 1985 teamed up with the basil, the roasted skin of the fish partnering to perfection the additional smoky element of the Delamotte. "It actually brings out the herbaceous elements of the sauce," says wine writer Susy Atkins.
The restaurant's sommelier looked dejected as the chicken stuffed with crayfish in a cep sauce was pronounced too complicated to stand up to the Piper Sauvage 1982, but perked up when Wine magazine's Charles Metcalf announced "how daring" the match was between Champagne Louis Roederer Sec and the "corne d'abondance aux poires confites": the crisp, dry, sugared pastry stuffed with caramelised pears, hints of vanilla and infusion of rosemary amazingly brought out the same characteristics in the wine.
Worthy partner
Food pairings took place at other Champagne houses visited, notably Ruinart, Vilmart and Pol Roger, but this was the most successful of the four. There were more successes with cheese - a slightly chalky Brie de Meaux (too ripe would have killed the wine) with Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 1988, instead of the Dom Ruinart Rosé 1986 which was originally chosen (the Blanc de Blancs also slid down well with the Lobster salad dressed with a touch of balsamic vinegar). A Maroilles (another northern cheese) sat well with Vilmart's Grand Cellier Rubis. The buttery character of Pol Roger's Brut 1988 faired well with the butter cep sauce on the roast pike-perch.
In most cases, Champagne proved itself to be a worthy partner. It was true that with certain dishes while the carefully chosen Champagne was an adequate match there would have been a far more obvious partner found south of the region.
But the general feeling was that it does have a place at the table, especially as a match with a suitable first course - handy for those customers who order a bottle as an aperitif and then abandon the half-finished flute.
