The trend today is to treat champagne like every other wine. Incredibly complex and hugely different, in the various sub-regions of the Champagne region, it pairs with every meal. Rosé champagnes especially are by far the most flexible from all champagnes; you can enjoy them in breakfast, lunch or dinner equally.
To take pleasure in champagne you have to know how to select it. There are some small secrets to it. Besides tried houses, “lesser known producers can be equally interesting. We are talking about ‘grower champagnes’, a term applying to vintners/winemakers who grow their own grapes”, as sommelier Robert Bohr says.
The second step is to check out non-vintage champagnes and learn how to identify special cases. Because mostly non-vintage champagnes are out, one comes to the conclusion that vintage champagnes are rarer and hence sought after. Bohr advises to have our eyes open in case we stumble upon a 1988, a year outrageously good for Champagne.
All champagnes –save for some rare exceptions- are drunk cold, between 6 to 10 Celsius (42.8 to 48.2 Fahrenheit).
Do not drink champagne hastily, or the bubble will allow alcohol to get quicker than normal into your blood, often causing headache. Sip it slowly, so that you enjoy the wine and dilute the bubbles before swallowing. Remember, there are approximately 49 million bubbles in a standard size champagne bottle.
And of course, when you open a bottle of champagne, you should know that what we want is to hear a soft sound, what we call “the sigh of a princess”.
