CHAMPAGNE prices are at their most affordable since the mid 1980s.
There are more grape growers in the Champagne region’s 33,000ha than there are in the whole of Australia. And that is just the tiny Champagne region, and, in comparison, the Margaret River wine region alone has potential space of 25 times that at nearly 750,000ha.
The Champagne region also has nearly 4500 producers that sell at least some Champagne commercially – nearly twice the total number of Australia’s wine makers. Very few of these brands reach Australia.
Of those that do, the quality and high-profile labels sell for between $80 and $110 for their well marketed and most popular non-vintage (N/V) brands.
These occasionally come down to between $49 and $79 when ‘on special’ and, for example, Veuve Cliquot is currently available at $58.80 at the Dan Murphy’s Group in any (mixed) six-bottle buy.
In today’s commercial world there are major producers price-fighting second-label brands competing for market share with the carefully selected but competitively priced labels from the Champagne region’s ‘co-ops’.
These are selling at well below $40 and often at below $35.
The finest of these reasonably priced champagnes are excellent value for money and are marvellous drinking but they do not provide the ultimate quality that wine lovers expect from the “delicious mouthful of flavour” that Champagne is meant to be.
There are really two Champagne markets.
There is the traditional and quite expensive quality sector and then there are the four or five brands that often sell at under $40 fighting it out for market share and, in the process, introducing far more people to the wines of Champagne.
Among the most widely distributed of the reasonably priced group are the Pol Gessner non-vintage from BWS and Dan Murphy’s and the Pierre Gimonnet range from Liquorland and Vintage Cellars.
Piper Heidsieck is the best-value, generally- available Champagne.
In a recent masked line-up of the big names versus the best of the fighting brands, the Pol Gessner Non-Vintage “exclusive” BWS and Dan Murphy’s import was a number of people’s best- value selection ($42.95 at BWS single bottle and $38.65 in any six-bottle purchase, $31.50 at Dan Murphy’s single bottle and $29.90 in any six-bottle purchase).
The Vintage Cellar’s Pierre Gimonnet Non-Vintage was also in the line-up but the other big winner in the reasonably-priced sector, and clearly my favourite, was the Piper Heidsieck N/V which is available from both major chains and from many independents at prices that make it WA’s best champagne buy. (Dan Murphy‘s - $36.70 single bottle and $34.60 in any six selection. Vintage Cellars currently have this at $33 per bottle in three-pack buys – but be warned, this price finishes this Wednesday, when it will return to $41.95.)
The supporters of the Pol Gessner Non-Vintage style found it appealing, mouth-filling and already mellowing into completeness, while the internationally highly reviewed Pierre Gimonnet is in the longer, fuller and more powerful camp.
The Piper Heidsieck is in contrast to those two as it is lighter, fresher and younger – and perhaps a touch simpler – but with a life and texture that dances across the palate. (18.3 points)
Of the high-profile names, the four releases that stood out included the Veuve Cliquot Brut N/V (18.7pts) which was big, full, complex, balanced and textured…best with nibbles.
The Gosset Grande Reserve Brut (18.8pts), while being complete and delicious now, was bubbly, fine and provided lovely fresh drinking with a lovely finish and after-taste.
Both the Pol Roger 1999 Vintage Champagne (18.8pts) and its Non-Vintage Brut Reserve sibling (18.7pts) showed the pleasing and mellowing complexity and toasty roundness gained with even a few months more age. Both were balanced, long and complete and are at their best right now.
The Bollinger Special Cuvee (19pts) polarised the tasters with its powerful, dry and uncompromising structure but it shows the great length of an aristocratic wine and the finish and after-taste are lingering, dry and marvellous.