Pop Champage II

(*warning I am having blog formatting problems...again...)

Times right now are tough...
and probably getting tougher...

• but that doesn't change our soul's desire

  to still cling to our celebratory champagne this time of year...

  it is an exciting and wonderful time...the holidays.

  
  

  Nothing better exhibits our joys, our hopes, our lifted spirits,

  our desire to be better and do better,

  than a golden, sparkling, bubbly glass of champagne...

  
  
  
  Without going into too much detail...because I have other things I need to do today...the history of this amazing celebratory beverage is in itself a rebirth and triumph over adversity. Some of you know this, so I apologize in advance, but Champagne is not a grape but a region of France. This is why "the only thing that can call itself Champagne is from Champagne...everything else is just sparkling..." You can see how much we respect that here in the Americas.
• So your Christmas story - short and sweet version because I have a ton of work to do, then presents to wrap, etc. - is that the soil in Champagne is quite chalky...okay ridiculously chalky and their wine had these annoying bubbles that would crop up. In a still wine (non-sparkly) bubbles are obviously unwanted. Eventually, as the boots of time marched on folks in Champagne started to embrace the bubbles and then started adding sugar to their bubbly wine (thus, sec). Then they started to reduce the sugar (thus, extra dry, brut).
• So Champagne is the wine equivalent of of lemons to lemonade...only in this case, it is chalk to Champagne...or something like that...
• Now, Champagne unlike any other wine is all about the blending. (I know there are blended reds and white...but this is different.) The skill required to understand the perfect combination of still wines from different varietals and vintages is truly an art. One that continues to evolve and improve.

These are the faces of some of the most notable contributors to the great art form of Champagne. May I introduce you to Madame Clicquot and a lil ole monk Don Perignon...

Bon Jour!

Who have given us (respectively)...






Again...I am shooting for brevity today...but my naturally long-winded nature is compromising me...in their own lives, both the widow Cliquot (widowed at age 27 and took over her in-law's business and turned it into a generational dynasty) and Don P (a monk sent to wrestle with the devil's brew - no he did not "invent" champagne) have interesting stories of overcoming adversity and defying the chalk in their own soil to blossom into true art...

Christmas is a time of presents and love. It is also a time of reflection. A time to remember that many of things we love and appreciate today were first chalk in soil...and look at what we have now...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...