Champagne
Our new series on Australia’s sparkling wines
The financial crisis made even the wealthiest wine drinkers realise, that there is more to sparkling wine than just Champagne. We’ve been following a few wineries here in Australia working on their own Sparkling wine in the past months to meet increasing market demand.
A Magnum of Dom Perignon Champagne
The production of sparkling wine itself is quite an interesting process and the results are sometimes rewarding, sometimes it has to be realised that the French did quite well to secure the term ‘Champagne’ for themselves. It takes quite a long time and experience to be listed in the top restaurants, brands such as Dom Perignon are unique and have a close following around the globe.
Follow our new series on Australian Sparkling from this week onwards: how to make a new sparkling, what grapes work best, bottle fermented or methode champagnoise, why can’t we just name it Champagne – and so on.
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Seit einigen Monaten begleiten wir eine kleine Anzahl an Winzern, die ihr Weinsortiment um einen eigenen australischen Sparkling erweitern werden. Wir haben dabei eine Menge gelernt und werden in den kommenden Wochen darueber in unserer neuen Serie ‘Australian Sparkling’ berichten.
Ihr Michael Brecht
Happy Mother’s Day
Tasmanian Sparkling for Mother's Day
It is Mother’s Day in Australia and millions of mums were treated with breakfast in bed or taken out for lunch today. My wife’s treat was an extensive brunch hosted by our children with lots of presents usually prepared in school or in the early hours of this morning.
Tonight we will open a nice bottle of Australian Sparkling – which reminds me of a great saying by Napoleon Bonaparte about Champagne:
“I drink Champagne when I win, to celebrate … and I drink Champagne when I lose, to console myself.”
Well, the reason today is a special one: cheers to all the mums, whether in Australia or somewhere else in this world.
Michael Brecht
Blame it on the French – Champagne gets our NRL and AFL players drunk
I was amazed to read in the local paper that the sales of French Champagnes went up last year here in Australia. More than 3.5 million bottles were imported in 2008, an increase of 10% on 2007 according to the Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne. No sign of crisis, imports in the UK and US were down 8 and 20 percent.
And where did we see this Champagne go to? Here is my guess: in each Australian pre-season of footie sports such as NRL or AFL, the papers are full of headlines with players getting drunk and starting to harass men and women around them in pubs, nightclubs etc. I know some of these guys and can confirm that they are clearly capable of drinking beer like a horse and still behave pretty normal.
So why do they get drunk at this particular time of the year? According to a friend of mine (a doctor), these players face the tough challenge of having to cope with their normal intake ‘beer’ and the mixing with ‘high profile’ drinks at pre-season opening ceremonies. Mixing beer with Champagne helps you get drunk four times as fast, this is according to my friend the doctor.
And this is where the Champagne comes in: luckily for the French Champagne industry we have these pre-season celebrations: our NRL and AFL players, who aren’t used to drinking bubblies have to obey the rules of politeness and drink a few glasses of these as well as their usual intake of beer, and off they go.
Blame it on the French.
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Die Verkaufszahlen franzoesischer Champagner in Australien sind im letzten Jahr um 10% gestiegen, mit 3.5 Millionen Flaschen wurde so viel wie nie zuvor an diesem Getraenk hier downunder verkauft. Kein Wunder, dass unsere AFL und NRL Helden zu viel davon trinken, sind sie doch eher ein paar Bierchen gewoehnt.
Ihr Michael Brecht
