Why is champagne getting a bad reputation?

I remember I was once in a wine class and we were talking about champagne. Of course, as a champagne lover, I was a bit animated discussing the topic on not only sparkling wine but specifically in the sparkling wine of champagne. I mentioned that champagne is not only for celebratory moments but like any other wines can be drunk daily. It should be respected like any other Grand Cru wines of Bourgogne or First Growth of a Bordeaux. My classmates had a grasps of air and sneered. Why is champagne getting this bad reputation of being only a wine that we drink during “special occasions”?

Winston Churchill once said, “I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it.”

Coco Chanel once said, “I only drink Champagne on two occasions: when I’m in love and when I’m not.”

Both Winston Churchill and Coco Chanel understood champagne can be drunk in any occasions, good time or bad times. It got me thinking to where I was first introduced to champagne. I was introduced to champagne since I was a kid as my mom loves sparkling wine. It was not until in my clubbing years that I understood what champagnes means to the clubbing crowd.

The cheapest bottle of champagne in a club would costs upwards of USD$200-USD$300 depending on how “prestigious” the club was. A “table/bottle service” would mean a minimum charge that would be spent on dozens of champagne and giving you access to your own table in which you could “entertain” your friends and acquaintances. In a standing crowd having your own table and champagne delivered to you just like in the photo above means you could spent upwards to USD$1000 or more on a table for the night.

I took the photo above during many of my clubbing nights. I usually observe the crowd and their demeanour. A club is the perfect environment for a social experiment or even understanding human nature in general. I usually observe the patrons especially at the table devouring their champagne. How many of them actually know what they are drinking? Or because of the success of the marketing of champagne, they know champagne equates to success and good times.

Perrier-Jouët is a famous Grand Marques, Champagne House, of Champagne. The entry cuvée, Brut, is a fantastic wine. In the photo, the club definitely had a deal with Perrier-Jouët or should I say Pernod Ricard who actually owns Perrier-Jouët. This particular club only serves champagne from Perrier-Jouët. Their Tête de cuvée or top of the house champagne is the famous, Belle Époque which is a beautiful vintage champagne.

So after a night of Perrier-Jouët Brut champagne costing upwards of USD$200 a bottle, I went to a local supermarket the next day and to my surprise, they do sell exactly the same bottle of champagne. It costs USD$50. In essence, I was paying 300% more for that bottle in the club last night. Why are people willing to do so?

One summer I’ve visited Champagne and a number of different champagne houses, négociant manipulant, and grower champagnes, récoltant manipulant. These are the champagne that you will never see in a club but a bottle actually can costs USD$300 without any mark-up. These are the wines that make wine snobs love champagne. No disrespect to Perrier-Jouët, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and many of the biggest names in Champagne. The reason being is that these biggest names in Champagnes are now own by major luxury good conglomerates such as LVMH for Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot and Pernod Ricard for Perrier-Jouët just to name a few examples. They are in the business to make a profit to the general consumers. The name champagne houses, négociant manipulant, means that they do not grow all their grape vines but purchase many of the grapes from growers who only sell their grapes to these champagne houses. It is a win-win relationship to some as the growers always have someone to sell to and the big champagne houses will always get enough grapes to vinify their wine. At least, in theory, this is how it should work. Compared to grower champagnes, récoltant manipulant, they grow if not all, most of their grapes and vinify them themselves. They are the pioneers to bring champagne as a wine for the serious connoisseurs. Champagne made from a single plot of vines were unheard of in the old days before the grower champagne winery’s decided to showcase the “terroir” of champagne to the world.

This post is not about the different types of champagne or the champagne AOC laws that governs them but to argue that champagne is a wine like any other to appreciate and enjoy every day. Champagne laws states that only sparkling wine made in the region of Champagne can be called champagne. When you see the words Champagne on the label, you are given a guarantee. A guarantee that the wine is made by the traditional method, without going into details, it basically means the wine has been gone through a second fermentation phase in the bottle. This second fermentation phase in the bottle is what gives the wine the bubbles. Carbon Dioxide is a natural by product of yeast eating up the sugar in the wine. They are then trapped in the bottle during second fermentation thus creating the bubbles. The laws also stipulates many minute details in the whole process from only allow harvest by hand to the number of months of aging in the bottle for specific champagne.

This is why I always say champagne is worth every penny. It doesn’t matter if it’s a USD$50 Perrier-Jouët or a USD$300 Jacque Selosse, the basic champagne laws governs all of them. If your wine is made in Champagne AOC then you have to abide by the law of this AOC.

Back to all the clubbing days, yes, they overcharge immensely, but it is all due to the marketing of champagne as a celebratory wine. It doesn’t matter if it’s a USD$50 Perrier-Jouët and it doesn’t even matter if you know Perrier-Jouët or not but you only need to know the brand of Champagne. Champagne is a brand. A luxury brand like many in the LVMH empire. A brand that brings the psychological high when you consume it. A brand that means prestige. A brand that says you are in an in-group. A group that enjoys the finer things in life. It doesn’t matter if you know the Champagne AOC laws. It doesn’t matter. You drink champagne.

This is why champagne is getting a bad reputation as not being a wine to be enjoyed like any other wine. This is why my classmates gave me that sneered. Champagne is a wine like any other wine. Champagne is a wine to be respected not because of its brand but because of how champagne is made which is unlike another wine in the world. Champagne is special in the world of wines because champagne is only made in Champagne.