The first wine trade show I attended was a trip. The bustling ballroom was packed with the most influential food and beverage professionals in the state. We jostled for prime position around 50 tables so packed with bottles that I legitimately questioned its structural integrity.
I imagine it was like what a contest winner from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory felt, surrounded by all the splendor and an endless supply of candy (in my case, booze). You’re having the time of your life, but wrought with the understanding you should probably leave before you make a fool of yourself and are rolled out the door, blue in the face.
I knew I didn’t belong. I hadn’t earned my place yet. I was a kid fresh out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa who lucked into a desk job at the largest wine distributor in the nation just a month prior, which is why I tried to keep my mouth shut to conceal my lack of knowledge. That didn’t last long.
My partner and I finally got a place at the Champagne table, the equivalent of catching a club bartender’s attention during peak hours and were asked our thoughts after tasting through the lineup.
“Uhh … I liked this one the best,” my partner said, pointing at the least expensive bottle on the table. I agreed wholeheartedly while the pourer looked downtrodden having wasted some of his rarer, more expensive offerings on plebs like us.
We preferred the Champagne houses nonvintage blend over their vintage bottling. A nonvintage (usually shortened to NV) is made with juice from grapes harvested from more than one year with the goal being to produce a consistent “house style” year after year. This is always the Champagne house’s least expensive option. The more expensive vintage bottling comes from grapes harvested in one year (listed on the label).
Legally, only 80% of each year’s harvest can be used for vintage bottlings to ensure quantity of reserve wines for use in the nonvintage blend. While vintage Champagne is a showcase of what a house can do in one vintage, it often requires some aging to reach its full potential, whereas NV Champagnes are made for immediate deliciousness and have been carefully blended as such.
Here are two gorgeous nonvintage Champagnes that showcase serious complexity due to the addition of older vintages, and mastery of blending across them.
Champagne Louis Roederer, “Collection 242,” NV
Roederer, of Cristal fame, is a house draped in history.
Not one to rest on its laurels, it introduced the “Collection” line three years ago to combat the warming climate while guaranteeing the freshness of the wines and continuity of the universally loved “Louis Roederer style.”
While most of the blend is from 2018, a portion of “perpetual reserve” wine — started in 2012 vintage with juice from each subsequent vintage — is added, creating a complexity that could only happen with time.
Cost: $65/bottle.
Champagne Lanson, “Pere & Fils,” NV
Founded in 1760, Lanson is another example of a long-standing house that created a recently debuted bottling featuring NV blends of longer aging.
“Pere & Fils” features 35% of reserve wines in their blend and is additionally aged for another five years before released, further adding to its intrigue.
As serious as it may sound, this was created with the sole intention of pouring by the glass at restaurants and is priced to overdeliver.
Cost: Price varies by restaurant.
Chris Ramelb is an award-winning master sommelier, and director of education and restaurant sales manager of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits of Hawaii. Watch him on the “Wine & …” podcast, and follow him on Instagram (@masterisksomm).
