Last week I was chatting with a male friend about champagne; rosé champagne in particular. He claimed quite enthusiastically, to enjoying it – in the right situation- but admitted it wasn’t “something I’d be keen ordering with a group of male only friends”. When I asked why not, he told me he believed that pink wine and champagne still had some way to go, to throw off its historically feminine image.

I asked on Twitter- whether chaps would be happy ordering Rosé in all male company.

It seems that some men simply don’t rate rosé:

All male company isn’t the issue. If there’s good white/red (sparkling or not) why bother with rose? for me, it’s a poor cousin. Matt from Leeds.

Others are quite happy with rosé and their masculinity!

Yes, because I’m a real man and can cope with both rose tinted shirts and rose tinted bubbles! Douglas Blyde- Food, Wine and Travel Writer

It seems however that pink champagne might be a secret and guilty pleasure amongst men folk. Sales data on our website shows that two thirds of the chaps that place orders with us sneak some pink into the case! Of course they may be thinking of the ladies in their life……

Last month Olly Smith featured rosé in one of his articles and he certainly doesn’t think it’s just for the girls! Read his article here in which he praises a Rosé from Charles Ellner.

We’d love to know what you chaps out there think?

Cheers, Helen

Tony has found a gem of a champagne house in the Grand Cru village of Verzenay, not far from Manuel Janisson. It is Champagne Jean-Claude Mouzon and we are delighted that Cédric and Frédérique Lahemade-Mouzon are allowing us to sell their champagnes.

They say:

As you stand at the foot of the lighthouse of Verzenay, imagine the rolling swell on this ocean of vines. It is from this green tide that we draw our ‘black gold’, the Pinot grapes, and our ‘diamonds’, the Chardonnay grapes, giving rise to wines of great freshness and constant quality.

At Champagne Warehouse we are initially offering two Mouzon champagnes; a Blanc des Blanc called Cuvée Fleurie and the majestic Grand Cru Brut Intégral (pictured above). The Grand Cru Brut Intégral is also a Blanc des Blanc but it’s a vintage from the 2003 harvest -the grapes are solely from the Verzenay terroir. The wine is aged in brand new oak casks – made with oak from the forests of Champagne-Ardennes. It is then bottled and cellared for 4-5 years before disgorgement. There is no sugar added to this champagne at disgorgement but it is not dry due to the oak ageing and lengthy second fermentation.

This is indeed a very special champagne and only 1,000 bottles have been made. Each bottle is individually numbered and the corks are secured with a hemp twine and a wax seal. Each bottle comes in a wooden presentation box complete with a pair of scissors to cut the hemp twine.

The champagne delivers aromas of confectionery, nuts and dried fruits. The palate is full flavoured and achieves a  splendid balance between strength, firmness and mellowness. The final taste is marked by elegant woody notes, which draw full attention. Cédric and Frédérique say the champagne is a perfect accompaniment to the most refined dishes. We drank it with cheese when we tasted it and it was very special.

The Grand Cru Brut Intégral will be going on sale on our website at the price of £59.99. HOWEVER!  We are reducing the first 18 bottles we sell  to £49.99.  So to save yourself some money and to be the owner of a rare champagne before it goes on the website officially, please contact us by email or call free on 0800 313 4470.

Cheers,

Helen

Well, there are worse ways to spend your Saturday! Sun, Sea and Champagne.. It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it! Along with hundreds of other people, I attended the Hove Champagne Festival last week. Champagne Warehouse was invited to showcase champagnes as part of The Champagne Bureau’s tasting sessions. Following our brief to select champagnes particularly suited to the summer, we featured our fabulous Ellner Brut Intégral, our gold medal winning Roger Legros Rosé and our ever popular Charmant Rosé. Within the tastings, our champagnes sat alongside a selection of other grower champagnes, as well as well known brands.

The audience consisted of discerning enthusiasts as well as infrequent champagne drinkers wanting to find out a little more! The sessions were well received and not just because it gave everyone an excuse to start drinking champagne at 11 o’clock in the morning! Honestly!!!  It was fun and informative too! Lots of nods and smiles from the audience. I think we can safely say the champagnes slipped down very nicely!

Our thanks go to the Champagne Bureau for hosting the tasting session and for the great pictures!

Tasting in progress

If you were there, leave a comment below, to let me know what you thought!

Cheers!

Teresa

A chance to win a bottle of Ellner Brut Intégral. Please go and look at the bottle of Ellner Brut Intégral in the shop, then read the post below and comment on the bottle presentation. We really value what you have to say- so all people making a comment will be entered into a draw for the chance to win a bottle of Ellner Brut Intégral champagne.

Will Broome another of our customer’s who has ordered cases from us was chosen to ‘be a taster’.

Here’s what he had to say:

Regarding the label and bottle presentation, Will said:

Old fashioned and a bit chintzy- wouldn’t look classy enough on the shelf in my humble opinion… in fact, the exact opposite.

So did the colour of the champagne fare any better? Will said:

Nice colour- not too sweet looking or insipid.

..and how about the bubbles? were there lots or a fine stream?

Lots of small bubbles… we used flutes, looked quite inviting to drink.

Will tells us about the aromas he detected:

Fruity- crisp- clean aroma

We asked Will what the initial taste of the champagne was and what was the intensity of bubbles in the mouth:

Very Bubbly (but not too bubbly) when in your mouth.

How about the flavour? Does the champagne fill your mouth with flavour?

Yes, in short.

We asked Will about the aftertaste:

Nice long after taste that intensified for a few minutes.. but not at all unpleasant- was quite dry too.

Could Will detect any flavours coming through after a few sips?

An oaky flavour..we think.

Please rate this champagne out of ten (with 1 the lowest and 10 the highest):

8-8.5

And finally when would you think it would be best to drink this champagne?

Celebration- a tad too heavy to drink just as an aperitif or because you feel like it.

Will also made this final comment below:

We would definitely buy this from you… a really nice champagne, but get that label looking more classy… the impressionist/ faux baroque thing really doesn’t work.

A close up of Ellner Brut Integral label

So it would seem that the label hasn’t been a great hit with either of our tasters. (see Diane Flynn’s comments) PLEASE!!! tell us what you think of the Ellner Brut Intégral label- we would love to get a discussion going!

( By the way, all the Ellner labels with pictures come from part of a single piece of art purchased by the Ellner family. The picture hangs in the hallway of their champagne ‘house’.)

Cheers,

Helen

PS: The draw will take place on Monday 5th July- so get commenting! Sorry but only open to UK mainland residents. Over 18’s only. Please note only sensible comments will be accepted and entered into the competition.

CONGRATULATIONS to Paul whose name was pulled out of the hat this morning. Your bottle is on its way Paul – and many thanks for entering!

Tony and I spent a pleasant few hours ‘mooching’ round Harrogate last Saturday, what a great place to have on our doorstep. We didn’t undertake an entirely aimless wander however, and in Marks and Spencer, I finally persuaded Tony to accept and embrace the delights of the man bag. In the end it wasn’t my persuasive powers that swung it, more the fact that Tony was intending to purchase a netbook and needed something to carry it round in. After much discussion on design, styling and the merits of tan versus dark brown a decision was reached, as can be viewed above.

With that purchase under his belt and the minutes ticking away until the kick off of the FA cup it was on to netbooks. It was here it got interesting and has since given me pause for thought. We were drawn to the brands we are familiar with- Dell, Acer and Samsung, but then we got chatting to one of the guys from the store. He recommended a Zoostorm.

“A what?” was our reply.  Apparently Zoostorm is a UK based company and have won lots of awards for their computers.

This was when I began to consider what would make me move away from a familiar and /or trusted brand. Price would be factor; too low and I might be wary, too expensive would cause me to question the product’s worth. With a new brand you don’t know about it’s track record for reliability, what the manufacturer is like, or where they’re based, plus your friends are less likely to have heard of it also. I decided (while Tony was talking technical) that it would come down to these considerations plus how knowledgeable the sales guy was, had he test driven it, did he own one?

Here at Champagne Warehouse we realise it’s not always easy to stick your neck out and move to something new and out of your comfort zone. Last week before my netbook experience I developed a new customers’ comments page or ’spy before you buy’ so that you can read what other customers think about our champagnes. We also have our ‘Be a Taster’ experience where customers get the chance to taste for us and give their honest opinions. On our vineyard pages you can read all about each individual producer, then you can see what makes us tick and our aims on the ‘about us’ page.

Hope this helps! Cheers.

Helen

PS. Look what Tony bought!

Hello, Helen here letting you know about another taster report.

Last month we sent Chris Lavender from Hampshire a bottle of Charles Ellner Premier Cru champagne which we’ll shortly be offering on the website. We always ask our tasters to comment on a variety of things, firstly presentation, this is what Christine said:

The bottle is beautifully presented, classic shape with a very attractive label. However the label doesn’t give much information for those who want a little more detail about the grape varieties and proportions, etc.

(When we dispatch bottles for sale we send them with detachable labels that contain information about the blend and other details- H)

We then asked Chris to comment on colour and bubbles:

The champagne itself is a lovely light straw colour, with large initial bubbles that soon disappear and just leave a fine bubble sensation on the tongue when drunk.

This is how Chris described the initial aromas and flavours:

The aroma is not very strong, just a hint of fruitiness. The initial taste is light with fine bubbles and a very pleasant vanilla flavour.

(Some champagnes have subtle aromas and deliver more on the palate. Swirling the champagne round the glass and warming the glass in your hands can sometimes help release more aromas. Also you need to sometimes have a few sips to get grips with champagne- H)

We asked for comments about after taste:

Our initial reaction was that it was a pleasant brut but not very full flavoured at all, however the flavour then develops and lingers in the mouth leaving a slightly sweet back taste and a long pleasant after taste. The taste seems to grow in your mouth so don’t make your mind up until you’ve taken a good sip and allowed it to develop on your taste buds.

In summary Chris commented:

This is an excellent champagne and would be ideal for any special occasion or as aperitif, it would be wonderful for a summer celebration. I would certainly have this champagne again and could easily have drunk a second bottle. We would rate it 9 out of 10.

Helen on behalf of Champagne Warehouse would like to thank Chris for her kind comments.

If you can’t wait for Charles Ellner Premier Cru to be available on the website give us a call- free- as we have some in stock now. Price £22.99 a bottle, discounts for cases…

Charles Ellner Brut Intégral current stocks run out! The Charles Ellner Brut Intégral was featured in the Mail on Sunday YOU magazine yesterday. Goodness Gracious we have been inundated with orders since then!  Zero dosage champagne has proved to be very very popular since we launched it but even with it’s track record to date we didn’t expect the interest that has been shown- and our website has been fizzing with orders. We are delighted for Champagne Charles Ellner that there has been so much enthusiasm for their champagnes.

The Ellner Brut Intégral has been so popular in fact – we have  run out! The good news is that new stocks are arriving shortly so if you do want to order some  please give us a call on 0800 313 4470 or email me Helen -  helen@champagnewarehouse.com and we’ll reserve you some.

Please accept our sincerest apologies.

Many thanks for your interest in Champagne Warehouse.

Helen

Roger Legros Rosé wins Gold at Brussels Wine Awards.

It was announced yesterday that Champagne Roger Legros Brut Rosé has won a Gold medal at the Brussels Wine Awards. The competition known as the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles attracts over 7,000 participating products from 4 continents. The jury is made up of professionals of 40 nationalities, which makes for an event full of diversity and character.

Champagnes from Charles Heidsieck, Piper Heidsieck, Jacquart and Nicolas Feuillatte were awarded silver medals, but Roger Legros Brut Rosé beat them to achieve a Gold. See results

The Roger Legros Rosé is full of wild strawberry, blackberry and blackcurant  flavours- a summer pudding in a glass! All the grapes used to make this wonderful champagne are from the Legros vineyard. This Rosé champagne has red wine added to give it its colour – the red wine for this usually comes from the village of  Bouzy , but Champagne Roger Legros make their own red wine  from a single plot of vines dating back to 1969. We think that’s really special, hope you do too.

If we have set your taste buds and curiousity tingling buy some in the shop now! We offer 3% discount on a case of 6 and 5% discount on a case of 12. Alternatively sample all the delights Roger Legros has to offer and order a mixed case of their champagnes.

Coming soon to Champagne Warehouse two new Ellner products. During our visit to Champagne Ellner just before Christmas we sampled a few other champagnes from their range. Very soon we will be offering their Premier Cru Brut pictured below.

The Premier Cru is a blend of 75% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Noir, it is fresh with a fine acidity, lasting and lively.

The Prestige Millésime 2000 will also be available.

The Millésime 2000 is a a blend of 65% Chardonnay partially aged in oak barrels and 35% Pinot Noir. It is a floral cuvée, subtle with hints of nuts, toasted bread and a delicate woody touch.

Back in January Helen was looking at the travel forum on Jancis Robinson’s website and came across Darren’s plea for some names of growers he could visit during his trip to Champagne. A few emails later and Darren was all set to visit Gauthier Legros at Champagne Roger Legros. (The picture shows Gauthier in his cellar).

This is Darren’s story.

Ay, Bouzy, Ambonnay,Verzy, Verzenay, Mailly. The scenic route from our hotel in Epernay takes us through these familiar Grand Cru villages. Most of the vineyards are deserted except for a few hardy souls continuing with the seemingly endless task of winter pruning. Snow is still lying on the frozen ground and what few pruning teams we can see are wrapped in several layers of clothes and never venture far from their drums of burning pinot noir and chardonnay prunings trying to retain some warmth in such miserable weather.

Finally we reach Reims but continue straight past this centre of Champagne production heading for another village that is less familiar, Prouilly. A lowly cru normalle on the massif de St Thierry, our expectations are not high. We were about to be proved spectacularly wrong.

The house of Roger Legros, now run by Roger’s son Gauthier, works 9 hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vineyards on steep slopes that are not unlike those on the Montagne de Reims. The soil is made from chalk and calcareous deposits, again just like the montagne.

Gauthier is sensible enough to take the day off from pruning, which is lucky for me as he has the time to show me round the winery, from the modern Bucher pneumatic press, the large stainless steel fermenting vessels, the vats holding the reserve wines and also to the thousands of bottles of gently maturing champagne in the precisely – temperature and humidity – controlled warehouse. A gyropalette sits patiently in the corner, loaded with several hundred bottles, waiting for its next cycle in the automated riddling sequence.

At long last, we could wait no longer and had to test the results of all this labour, technology and years of ageing. (I’m always amazed at the patience required to be a Champagne producer – The 2002 Legros is the current vintage). Gauthier invited us into the warmth of his home and a couple of bottles were expertly popped open, the anticipation mounted, glasses were topped up and the first sips taken….

Not one for voluptuous tasting notes, I’m just going to say I came away with a boot full of Legros NV and 2002 Vintage. Need I say more?

A big thank you to Helen for being kind enough to put me in touch with Gauthier, and also to Gauthier for taking the time to show me around and being a charming host despite being kept up all the previous night by his 2 year old son!

Thanks to Darren for taking the time to write this for our website and good luck with your exams Darren…