Champagne, uncorked : the house of Krug and the timeless allure of the world's most celebrated drink

243 Pages·2016·6.4 MB·English

by  Tardi

Copyright © 2016 by Alan Tardi Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a Member of the
Perseus Books Group.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs,
250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.
PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations,
institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department
at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call [phone],
ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected].
Set in 11.5-point Goudy Oldstyle STD
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Tardi, Alan, 1956– author.
Title: Champagne, uncorked: the house of Krug and the timeless allure of the world’s most celebrated drink
/ Alan Tardi.
Description: First edition. | New York: PublicAffairs, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016007400 | ISBN 9781610396899 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Champagne (Wine)
Classification: LCC TP555. T37 2016 | DDC 641.2/224—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016007400
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To all the people of Champagne, past, present, and future, who through their
limitless passion, consummate skill, and unshakeable commitment make
Champagne the superlative libation that it is.
And to Fernanda and Lucia, who put the sparkle into my life.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THIS is a work of nonfiction, although I have taken the liberty to interpret
events and motives, and some of the names of people I encountered on my visits
to Champagne have been changed. Information deemed confidential or
proprietary by Krug has been omitted.
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Prologue
Rue Coquebert
PART I: IN THE BEGINNING: THE BIRTH OF CHAMPAGNE
1 What Lies Beneath—La Champagne Viticole
2 Into the Vineyards—Vintage 2013
3 Growers, Suppliers, Presses
4 Vendange
PART II: COMING OF AGE: LA BELLE ÉPOQUE
5 Fermentation
6 Tasting, Tasting, Tasting
7 Assemblage
PART III: MATURITY: THE POSTMODERN ERA AND THE
REBIRTH OF CHAMPAGNE
8 Let There Be Bubbles
9 Maturation and Disgorgement
10 Into the World
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Notes
Resources
About the Author
PROLOGUE
GENIE IN THE BOTTLE
WINE exists on two different levels. One is earthly: a comestible beverage, a
source of calories, an everyday ritual, a commodity, and, for some, a means of
income. The other is extra-terrestrial: an agent of transformation, a mysterious
elixir that can stimulate profound sensory experiences, stretching our capacities
to smell, taste, see, and even touch; a potion that can magically lift us out of the
daily routine and transport us to other times and places, nearby or far away, real
or imagined, while at the same time locking us even deeper into a moment; a
libation that can bring us from the earthly banal to higher realms of the poetic
and even the divine.
These second-level transformational experiences don’t have to be earth-
shattering events announced by the sounding of celestial trumpets. They are
often quite subtle and very brief, and their occurrence is unpredictable and
impossible to induce. But anyone who truly loves wine will remember having
had experiences like this.
There is also, perhaps, a third level on which wine exists: non-existence.
Some people don’t drink wine for medical reasons, some just don’t like it, and
others have either never had it or not yet developed a taste for it. And that’s
where I was for the first twenty years of my life.
I was born in Chicago and grew up in a suburb adjacent to the city that was
“dry.” Illinois was not (and probably never will be) a wine-producing region,
and wine was not a fixture on our table. Even on the rare occasions when it was
there, such as Christmas dinner with the entire extended second-generation
Italian family, the sour stuff was of no interest to me whatsoever. I much
preferred the syrupy sweet carbonated beverage that midwesterners call pop.
Many years and two colleges later, I found myself in New York City and,