WineParis champagne

Champagne is mostly drunk and served by the rich and famous. There are a lot of good houses (as we call them). One of the most well-known is called Bollinger. Thanks to the movies of special agent James Bond this brand became more famous.
In 1929 Joseph Jacob Placide Bollinger helped to establish the house of Bollinger. He worked together with a business partner. Later on Joseph became the solo leader of Bollinger. It’s a very unique house because the family owns 170ha of vineyard. Nearly all the vineyards have a Premier or Grand Cru status. They provide for 60% of their production. For the rest of the production they have to make contracts with other  winegrowers in the region. In the village of Aÿ, where Bollinger is, they have 28ha of vineyard.
I was so lucky to taste their excellent champagne Bollinger R.D. Vintage 2008. The wine is a little bit expensive. It’s costs € 444,- if you buy it at Bollinger directly. But they only ship inside France. And yes this champagne is excellent. R.D. means ‘récement dégorgé‘. At that moment (after eight or even twenty years of maturation in the cellar) the sediment in the bottle will be removed. Before putting on the final cork the ‘liqueur d’expédition’ (a mix of sugar and wine) will be added. The amount of ‘liqueur‘ added determines the type of champagne (from dry to sweet). https://www.champagne-bollinger.com
The name of M. Hostomme didn’t ring a bell. The family name is Scandinavian. They produce one special champagne named ‘Vikka Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru 2010’ Immersion 2022. The name Vikka was chosen as a token of esteem to their ancestors and as a sacrifice to the sea. Vik means ‘the bay’ and Vika ‘adventurer’ in old Norwegian.
‘Blanc de Blancs’ means that they can only use white (wine) grapes. The only one allowed in this wine region is chardonnay. The other ones you can use for producing champage are Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. But they have a dark skin. If you only use the juice from these grapes, you produce a ‘Blanc de Noirs’ champagne. The juice of all grapes is colourless. The skin of red grapes gives the wine his rose or red color.
For this champagne they used wine from 2010. And 2022 is the year this product came on the market. Immersion means submersion. The champagne ‘Vikka’ is produced in the village of Chouilly in the department of Marne. This is a ‘Grand Cru’ municipality; the highest quality for champagne. Some of these bottles were kept for 12 month in the Atlantic Ocean (nearby the coast of Bretagne) on 13°C degrees on a dept of 60 meter bellow sea level. The dept or the influence of the salt keeps this product pure, fresh with a salted hint and an little taste (in the mouth) of oysters and ripe white fruit. The mousse inside the bottle also benefits from this proces. But does it make the product very special?
Champagne Hoxxoh is very different from all the other ones. If you read the name from the left to the right or otherwise it remains the same. Every living creature has a hox gene in his body. It results in balance in your body. The owners of Hoxxoh own 23 hectare of vineyard. All the different types of champagne are provided with a light in the bottom of the bottle that gives light for max six hours. On the bottles you can find rubies or gold leaves. Publicity wise it‘s a nice gimmick. But are the champagnes any good? Yes, I think so.

In the type champagne ‘Grand Cru’ there’s a drop of a bottle of ‘Heidseck Monopole 1907’. 1907 was an exceptional year for champagne. They shipped 3000 bottles on a ship called Jönköping; destinated Tzar Nicolas II of Russia. The ship sunk somewhere near Scandinavia. The ship was sunk by a German submarine in 1916. In 1998 the crew of a Swedish submarine (on expedition) found the ship again with 2400 bottles remained. One bottle of ‘Heidseck Monopole 1907’ costs € 30.000. The celler master was very impressed by it’s quality.
Champagne is getting more and more expensive. Because the demand for it, it remains high. If the price of certain champagnes is justified, I don’t know. What I do know is that the method of manufacturing champagne can be very costfull and long.