In a world increasingly joining the sparkling wine party, with bubblies made everywhere from Sussex, England, to Khao Yai, Thailand, it seems like the category has grown to become more than just the drink of choice for celebrations, and instead has become something of a flex for New World winemakers! Make a solid fizz and you could put your winery and country on the wine map with just a pop! Whilst on the other side of the coin, the world simply can't get enough of the bubbly! And hence it seems as though these New World winemakers have found a way right to the hearts of wine lovers - will it pan out and give Champagne-makers a run for its money? That remains to be seen.

For now it's worth going back in time to learn how Champagne's most illustrious and recognisable houses - the Grand Marques - made sparkling wine what it is today. For all the world's sparkling winemakers looking to make their mark, it was nevertheless the Grand Marques whom they owe a debt of gratitude to, for it was their genius and shrewdness that brought the category to fame. And so we're here with Part 2 of Praelum and Convivial's Champagne History! 

| Read: Champagne History Part 1 - Exploring Champagne's Historical Origins In Three Bubbles: Gosset Celebris, Dom Perignon & Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs

Two incredible bars tell the history of one of the world's most admired regions!

Praelum is of course the spiritual home of Singapore's aspiring sommeliers (and was most recently added to the Star Wine List), whilst Convivial is a dedicated Champagne bar - in fact, the only from Asia on the Star Wine List with a focus on Champagnes!

As a quick recap, this is part two of a three-part series held by a collaboration between both bars that will take place over the course of several months, divided into three eras of Champagne history – Part 1: The Pioneers, Part 2: The Revolutionaries and Part 3: The Visionaries. And so for each edition, we’ll explore a different part of Champagne’s history in the form of a masterclass and also a Champagne buffet – both of which will feature a different selection of Champagnes that fit in with the part of Champagne’s history that we’ll be covering.

And so in Part 2: The Revolutionaries, we'll be exploring how some of the world's most iconic and lauded Champagne houses played a role in bringing Champagne forward, with enhancements and development made to its taste, packaging and perhaps most importantly its standing in mainstream consciousness. Many of these houses have thus successfully navigated decades of history to becoming amongst the most prosperous and are often known as the Grand Marques. Today we'll be exploring the 1700's to 1900's of Champagne history in three glasses - the Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle No. 26, Louis Roederer's Cristal 2008, and finally the Bollinger R.D 2008. It's worth noting that Convivial and Praelum have taken painstaking efforts to ensure that all three Champagnes of the flight hail from the 2008 vintage! 

Taking us through the masterclass today, we have again the very engaging Gerald Lu, who helms the Praelum Wine Bistro, and is also the President of the Sommelier Association of Singapore! Let's go!

Change Is Afoot! Champagne Undergoes Successive Enhancements That Are Standard Practices Today

Headed into the late 1700's, Champagne as a sparkling wine category that stood on its own began to see a series of refinements, ranging from packaging to taste. Many of these enhancements are today widely accepted as industry standard, and have thus shaped what we typically associate with and enjoy from the region.

For example, the clarity that we now appreciate about Champagnes came as a result of customers rejecting cloudy and sediment filled Champagne from as early as 1806, prompting Madame Clicquot (of the house Veuve Clicquot) and her assistant Antoine Muller to figure out that if they used their kitchen table as a rack to gently turn, tilt and direct the sediment to the head of the bottle, they could trap it and have it removed from the rest of the Champagne - as a result, the practice of Remuage, or more commonly known as riddling, was born! By 1884, Armand Walfard would invent the second half of the process known as disgorgement à la glace, where the sediment-filled head of the bottle is frozen, allowed to erupt with the sediment pushed out, and then quickly re-corked leaving only clear Champagne in the bottle.

1884 would see the invention of the famous metal wire cage, called the muselet, that we now see used to secure the cork to the bottle across all bottles of Champagnes (and really all sparkling wines as well!). This was the work of Adolphe Jacquesson (of Champagne Jacquesson; also rumoured to be Napoleon's favourite) who had realised that the methods of the time used to seal sparkling wines was not only inconsistent and fared poorly at doing its job, but really was outright unsafe! He would even create the metal plaque cap to go with said muselet.

Champagne Goes Brut!

As alluded to, not all innovations in Champagne were on the aesthetics of the famous sparkling wine. Some enhancements would forever influence the taste of Champagne! Between the 1700's to 1800's, Champagnes were incredibly sweet. The English preferred 22-66 grams of sugar per litre, whilst the French opted for 150 grams/litre, and the Russians would top the (liquid) cake with a whopping 250-300 grams/litre - that's almost 3x the amount of sugar that's in the world's most well-known soda!

In 1848, Perrier Jouet would thus debut the first Brut Champagne at just under 20 grams/litre, which as one might imagine was not immediately favoured at the time, leading to its name "Brut" (taken to mean the latin word "Brutus" which carried with it then a negative connotation). Yet, this was incredibly forward sighted on the part of Jouet, and by 1885, Perrier Jouet was handsomely rewarded for the bet and was able to sell for more than 3x the price of the legendary Lafite at Christie's auction!

Further changes to Champagne's taste were afoot. In 1887, a young Mathilde-Emilie Perrier would unfortunately find herself a widow upon the sudden death of her husband. Needing to press on, she would helm the house and to signal the change in leadership, she would thus change its name to Veuve Laurent Perrier ("Veuve" meaning "Widow"). She would catalyse a series of changes starting with the creation of the Grand Vin Sans Sucre (or literally "Great Wine Without Sugar") which she launched in 1889 much to the shock of the entire industry. Nevertheless this would as a result firmly establish Laurent Perrier as the champion of freshness and purity in Champagne!

But that wasn't all! Successive generations of the Laurent Perrier house would pass on the baton of taste innovation, where in 1959 Laurent Perrier would release what would become the first Prestige Cuvee of Champagne, specially made of multiple vintages, but only of those representing its most exceptional years, assembled into one wine. It would be a great wine worthy of the century it was made from, and it was thus named the Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle! Each release since has been named an "Iteration", and is today a blend of three distinct declared vintages from only Grand Cru vineyards, and contains a specially selected blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The 1960's would see Laurent Perrier become the first house to fully integrate the use of stainless steel tanks that significantly allowed for freshness of the wines to be preserved, whist in 1968 the house would go on to debut the first ever 100% Rose Grand Cuvee Champagne made from macerated Pinot Noir, and then in 1982, it would also launch the highly sought after (yet unfortunately discontinued in 2004) Cuvee Alexandra Grand Siecle. Through decades and generations of constant innovation, Laurent Perrier has established itself as one of the foremost Champagne houses, expanding its sales from 300,000 bottles to a whopping 7 million bottles sold per annum!

Which brings us to our first glass of the session - the Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle No. 26!

Champagne Review: Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle No. 26

The Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle No. 26 is the house's 26th release (in 2023) going all the way back to 1959 - which means just 26 times the Prestige cuvee has been made in 64 years! - and for this iteration, the 2012 vintage of Pinot Noir is used, alongside the 2008 vintage (across both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), as well as the 2007 vintage of Chardonnay. It is therefore 58% Chardonnay and 42% Pinot Noir, harvested across 8 Grand Crus including Le Mesnil, Oger, Cramant, Avize, Tours-sur-Marne, Ambonnay, Bouzy and Verzy, which was then fermented in steel and aged for 10 years (at minimum) on the lees. It's got 7 grams of residual sugar and sees just over 25,000 bottles per release.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Straw

Aroma: Rather doughy at the offset with a dusting of powdery flour. It's alittle chewy with a slight buttery quality to its aromas that's then filled in with gooseberries, mangosteens, pears and pineapple. It's delicately tropical and musky, with a layer of darker fruits of plums and prunes just below. It's incredibly aromatic, with this depth of mustiness, with layerings of brighter and darker fruit. More on yellow raisins, quince paste, fruit leather and some dried dough. It's supple, firm and rich, with great concentration. The fruits are spread across the spectrum of fresh to reduction and then to dried. 

Taste: Medium-bodied here, really firm and with good concentration and richness. It leads with tropical fruits of pineapples, mangosteens, gooseberries, with just a touch of glistening honeyed brightness. More on yellow raisins and apple compote. It's still showing some doughiness along with the musky fruits, expressed with light fizz to its otherwise plush and supple body.

Finish: It persists with a candied brightness of maltose, and then progresses on to dried apples, bruised apples, pineapples and mangosteens. It's noticeably more malic and savoury here, showing a more oxidative character. It's rich and firm into the finish with a lingering bit of dried honey, along with more of that musty aromatics, as well as dried fruits and dough.

My Thoughts

This was impressively well-composed with layers upon layers of fruits that not only calls to great depth but also expands in different directions, going from bright to darker fruits, and then also from fresh and musky tropical fruits to fruit compotes, fruit leather and dried fruits. It's nevertheless delicate and elegant, with all these nuances expressed subtly, calling for time and attention to savour and appreciate it. Yet in its entirety it's quite the progression and development, really taking you on a journey through its different episodes. It sort of reminds me of the 2000 Disney movie Fantasia. 

That aside, I found the aromas thoroughly enjoyable and expressive, if gentle, again it is that subtle complexity, and as we move through to the palate, it's begun to give more of a tropical fruit character. The finish takes a more candied turn with more dried fruits showing up, and lands at being balanced between freshness and a more oxidative style. Nevertheless the Champagne across the entire tasting experience itself traverses from fresh to oxidative, leaning just that much more towards the fresher side of things. It's really layered and evocative and just incredible elegant with great firmness, concentration and contrasts.

The Establishing Of A New Champagne Order: The Grand Marques

In 1882 and 1912, the Syndicat du Commerce des vins de Champagne and the Negociants en vins de Champagne were respectively formed, and yet not long after, the two associations would merge in 1945, however, this merger would prove short-lived, with the Syndicat du Commerce des vins de Champagne declaring themselves now the Syndicat de Grande Marques de Champagne in 1964.

Consequentially these founding Grand Marques would number 25 houses, and are the following: Ayala, Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger, Veuve Clicquot, Delbeck, Deutz, Heidsieck & Co. Monopole, Charles Heidsieck, Irroy, Krug, Lanson, Massé, Moët & Chandon, Montebello, Mumm, Perrier-Jouët, Joseph Perrier, Piper-Heidsieck, Pol Roger, Pommery, Prieur (Napoléon), Roederer, Ruinart, Salon, and Taittinger.

The coming decades would see several changes with some houses acquired, whilst others became newly elected, the new members included: Canard-Duchêne and Henriot (because they were taken over by Veuve Clicquot), Mercier (because it was taken over by Moët), Laurent-Perrier, and Gosset.

Cristal is perhaps most recognisable for being wrapped in gold cellophane, which is practiced so as to protect the otherwise clear glass bottle from light strike (or light damage) given its unique transparent glass.

Of German Book Keepers And One Very Paranoid Tsar 

Yet for all the grandiosity that the Champagne houses had fought hard to evoke, many of them had in fact much less enthusiasm for the business side of things, and were content to focus on the savoire-faire whilst having Germans run their bookkeeping. Germans were at the time well known for being highly meticulous accountants, and as a result intertwined in the stories of many a famed Champagne houses are the work of sharp witted Germans who ensured the financial success necessary for the longevity of the house. Nicolas Henri Schreider was one such German accountant who would eventually pass along his winery, Dubois Pere & Fils, on to his nephew Louis Roederer in 1833. The house would henceforth be named accordingly.

Into the mid-1850's and on, Champagne had found great popularity with the Russians, and it was estimated that about 2.5 million bottles were shipping to Russia annually, with Roederer's being particularly favoured. At its height represented 10% of Champagne's total production, and Roederer in particular would export about one-third of all its Champagnes to the country.

Tsar Alexander II.

Fatefully in 1876, Russia's Tsar Alexander II (also the grandfather of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia) was set to have dinner with the King of Prussia and the Chancellor of Germany as part of his visit to Paris for the grand Exposition Universelle, and would thus approach Roederer with a very particular request - he had wanted to commission an exclusive cuvee for the Russian Imperial Court, but there was just one condition: the Champagne had to be housed in clear bottles in order to prevent any attempts to poison him, and that it would further require a flat base that would disallow any explosives from being hidden on the bottle (it was harder to detect in the usual dark green bottles). Said Champagne would go on to be named Cristal, often billed as one of the most formative Prestige Cuvees. But talk about paranoid! Well, just 5 years after, Tsar Alexander II would find himself assassinated by a bomb that was thrown into his carriage. Nevertheless Cristal lived on!

The turn of the century saw unfortunately great rife and conflict, with the Champagne region caught right in the thick of it. WWI would result in the deaths of over 160,000 Champenois. In what is often called the most violet vintage of Champagne, the 1914 harvest saw 20 children die from gunfire as these kids had volunteered to help pick grapes on behalf of their mothers, whilst their fathers were out fighting the war. As such the vintage is tragically nicknamed Les Petits Enfants and yet stands as one of the greatest and most long-lived vintages of Champagne produced in the 20th Century. When all was said and done, an estimated 60-70 million bottles were lost during the war.

Camille Olry Roederer (left) presenting her Champagnes at the San Francisco Opera in 1954.

Nevertheless, the spate of tough times could not keep the fighting spirit of the Champenois down! Camille Olry Roederer would bring the Roederer house forward in spite of her husband's death in 1932, and through WWI, the Russian Revolution, Prohibition and the Great Depression. By the time WWII had struck, Madam Roederer was a veteran in difficult moments, and would even crucially reposition Roederer as a luxury house as she went on a spree acquiring Grand Cru and Premier Cru plots in the wake of the devastation, allowing for subsequent generations to succeed.

Today Louis Roederer is run by Madame Roederer's grandson Frederic Rouzaud, who represents the 7th generation, with access to a span of 240 hectares of vineyards that ensure supply for 70% of all of the house's production. All vineyards are farmed organically, with half even additionally certified as biodynamic, making Roederer the largest in Champagne to hold said certification. Into 2025, the house was recognised as one of the world's most admired Champagne brands for the 6th consecutive year!

With that said, it's time to try the legendary Louis Roederer Cristal 2008!

Champagne Review: Louis Roederer Cristal 2008

Debuted in 1945 (after years of being exclusively supplied to the Russian Imperial Court), Cristal was the first ever vintage-only Prestige Cuvee, and has since been the crowd favourite amongst aristocrats and pop culture icons.

The fruit comes from a mixture of Grand Crus including Le Mesnil, Cramant, Avize, Verzy, Verzenay, Beaumont and Aÿ. It is 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, with 25% fermented in oak casks and 20% going through malolactic fermentation. 

The 2008 Cristal was disgorged in 2017 with 8 months of additional rest, including a minimum of 8 years of ageing on the lees, and comes in at 8 grams / litre of residual sugar. On average 700,000 bottles are released each vintage.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Straw

Aroma: It opens incredibly doughy and buttery, giving fresh cold butter with a sprinkle of salt flakes. It's almost reminiscent of shio pan dough (Japanese salt bread). It's plush and buttery, really fresh and precise, with a great aromatic texture and depth.

Taste: Medium-bodied here, it's firm and more concentrated here, filled in with a spread of gooseberry, quince, apples and pears. It's fresh and balanced with a slight oxidative character of bruised apples. Touches of musky fruits, it's plush on the body with an even and present carbonation. With time, more on dried apples, yellow raisins, dates, all lightly drizzled in honey.

Finish: Seamless, those bruised apples persist. It's still very much firm and concentrated, here with a more pronounced umami savouriness of bruised orchard fruits. As it lingers, it's continuing to give dough and green pears.

My Thoughts

In many ways, a taste of Cristal almost immediately explains and justifies the sort of cult success this particular expression has achieved (beyond of course a great backstory!). For all it's repute - at times even domineeringly so - it is in fact a really accessible wine that's appealing and really easy to get into. It's uncomplicated and in fact strikingly representative of what you think Champagne is - whatever you think "Champagne" is, that's Cristal, except it's of course done a great job of being incredibly elegant, balanced and precise. It's got an incredible aroma of doughiness and salted butter, with then all these orchard fruits and musky fruits drizzled with honey coming through on the palate, leaning fresh yet with also a counterbalanced finish that is more oxidative. It's lighter bodied, not quite so rich, yet really firm and with great concentration - that is, it's not flabby or overripe. It's seamless and crisp to the finish, really firm and again with such great definition and precision. It's exactly what Champagne needs to be to a tee with no surprises (good or bad) and encapsulates that saying "simple things, executed to perfection". It just feels like the most reliable quintessential Champagne that just hits the category nail on the head. You could say it's the most Champagne Champagne.

French President Charles de Gaulle was well known for his love of Champagnes!

The Band's Back Together And Promoting Champagne As A Unified Front

With WWII over, the changes that would sweep Champagne was far from over. The US-led Marshall Plan aimed at financially supporting Western Europe would help drive technological growth and economic recovery, with the Champagne region seeing a four-fold increase in footfall from visitors, whilst wineries would themselves start to learn about and begin to emphasise wine ageing.

Providing crucial organisation and structure to the growing Champagne trade, the Comite Interprofessionel du vin de Champagne (CIVC) would lay important groundwork for protecting and expanding the reputation of the region's most famous product. The organisation would establish assistance for manpower, set price baselines and ceilings, working to foster strong relationships based on healthy cooperation between growers, negociants and producers. From 1950 to 1976, Champagne would see its production numbers expand significantly from 20 million to 100 million bottles sold annually. The marketing front would see producers work to uphold and strengthen the global image of Champagne and its wines. Foreign dignitaries, aristocrats and celebrities were introduced to its wines and craftsmanship, creating a powerful upward momentum. In fact, arguably the biggest advocate of all of the time was none other than French President and war hero Charles de Gaulle!

Lily Bollinger was often seen cycling around her vineyards on a bicycle.

A Masterclass On How To Win Friends And Influence People With Champagne

Nevertheless, much of this drive to promote Champagne had to of course stem from the houses themselves! Lily Bollinger would play a important hand in doing just that - at the height of WWII, she would take over her husband's estate and would singlehandedly restore the business under the guidance of her husband's philosophy; that was to balance modernity in the farming practice whilst preserving traditional vinification. Madame Bollinger would take all that she had learnt going through the war and would conclude that patience and fortitude were her bestfriends. She would begin ageing her Champagnes on the lees for extended periods of time, with disgorgement dates proudly emblazoned on the bottle labels. She would also work to protect and recognise old and rare untouched vines known as vieilles vignes.

Madame Bollinger had fostered a strong relationship with President Charles de Gaulle, and even the likes of Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy, which allowed for her to promote Champagne as a beverage of choice amongst the inner social circles of America's elite. Known for her charm, kindness and generosity, demonstrating great resilience with her rise from humble beginnings, she was thus nicknamed the "First Lady of France"!

Over time, other houses begin to appreciate what soft power could bring to Champagnes, and so the likes of Moet, Pol Roger, Charles Heidsieck, Taittinger, Roederer and Krug would all work to contribute to the palates of the rich and famous. Coco Channel, Karl Lagerfeld, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Jay- Z, are but a small handful of names in a proverbial universe of who's who who've become some of Champagne's most elite band of advocates.

Which brings us to our third and final Champagne of the masterclass - the Bollinger R.D. 2008!

Champagne Review: Bollinger R.D. 2008

Short for Recemment Degorge, or "Recently Disgorged", the Bollinger R.D. was first introduced in 1967 with the inaugural 1952 vintage - in those 58 years, the R.D. has only been produced just 26 times, with the 2008 vintage standing out as one of the best vintages of recent times.

Grapes from 18 different crus are used, with a focus on Aÿ, Verzenay (for Pinot Noir), Les Mesnil, and Cramant (for Chardonnay). 84% of the fruit used comes from Grand Cru plots, where the cuvee is composed of 71% Pinot Noir and 29% Chardonnay, that's 100% fermented in old oak barrels for 6 months. Each R.D. expression has 14 years at minimum of ageing on the lees, with just 3 grams / litre of residual sugar. On average, 30,000 bottles are produced for each vintage declared.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Straw 

Aroma: Intensely aromatic! It's doughy and buttery, vibrantly expressive and well defined with these notes of cold butter and a lactic chew of freshly pulled dough.

Taste: Medium-bodied, firm, rich and with great concentration. It's giving quince, pears, mangosteens and apples, all mixed in together, structured and almost interwoven and well-bounded. Still a touch buttery and doughy, with more tropical fruits of starfruits and pineapples beginning to show with time. It's rounded and alittle more luscious, with bright yet smoothened acidity.

Finish: More of that tropical fruit juice here, little bit of dough and butter here and there. It's firm and seamless, really rounded, through the finish. It holds on to that freshness, before developing into a more savoury umami hit of bruised apples that lingers. It's really compact, with good richness and a more perky acidity here. 

My Thoughts

Really enjoyable wine that has great presence and aura, it's commanding yet so fun! It's definitely got a more rounded and richer body, yet packs it with all these orchard fruits and tropical fruits that's impressively still very much well-structured and bounded on the palate, offering up this sense of tautness and compactness. The aromas are incredibly vibrant yet well defined, focused on that doughiness and buttery aromatics. Into the finish we see alittle bit more of that oxidative character come through, balancing the impeccable freshness of the body, with then more of a perky acidity towards the end.

I find the R.D. perhaps alittle more beginner friendly with that very generous richness and roundedness, yet at the same time makes clear that it's not to be trifled with, with those intensely vibrant aromatics on the nose, making clear what that over decade long of lees ageing has achieved! Great perky freshness with just a nip of savoury umaminess into the finish that almost feels like a boulder rolling down the hill at high speed is just so elegantly and deftly stopped by just a little wedge. Ridiculously pleasurable!

Into The Final Leg...

That brings us to the end of Part 2: The Revolutionaries from Convivial and Praelum's three-part collaboration exploring (and tasting) the history of one of the world's most storied and celebrated beverages - Champagne. 

Keep your eyes out for Part 3: The Visionaries, which will be hosted by Convivial and Praelum into the end of 2025. But why wait? Hit Convivial and Praelum up for great wines, food and company!

Kanpai!

@111hotpot