Alright whisky nerds, see if you can guess which type of whisky I’m talking about here:
I’m from across the Atlantic
For the last 100 years or so, I’ve been marketed by large blending houses
I’m typically a blend of various age statements with various types of barrel aging
Over the last 20 years, a growing number of aficionados have been advocating for more transparency in my bottling with no additives
For most of my lifetime, drinkers have consumed me before a meal, or after a meal, or as part of a special occasion, but rarely taken me seriously as stand-alone beverage
Today, most of the geeks try to find singular expressions of me, with vintages, age statements, and site-specific details
Who am I?
If you said Scotch, you’d be mostly accurate, but I’ve played a bit of a trick on you by claiming to be a whisky.
I’m actually not a whisky.
For those of you who were in on that trick all along, surprise! I’m also not Cognac.
So who am I really?
Why, I’m Champagne: the bubblicious, sparkling wine from France that is going through one fo the most significant revolutions in its centuries-long history.
Granted, few changes can be as profound as the transformation from still to sparkling wine, which happened in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the focus on artisanal production mirrors the single malt revolution in Scotland that we’ve seen over the last decade-plus.
Fewer drinkers want dosage (added sugar) in their Champagne. Fewer drinkers are satisfied with the symphony that is a blended Champagne, opting instead for the solo performance of a single vineyard or single village wine, with all its uniqueness and terroir-driven qualities.
Back in the day, a Champagne house would take all their pinot noir and dump it in one tank, then all their Chardonnay in another. Today, however, you’re not only seeing large producers vinify their vineyard wines separately, they’re even isolating individual plots from one another, creating dozens of unique base wines that can be blended or bottled as a single expression.
A number of long-time growers are also direct to market, just like you’ve seen names such as Craigellachie, Mortlach, Royal Brackla, and GlenAllachie hit the shelf with distillery-direct single malt expressions. Rather than sell their whiskies to a blending house, Champagne growers are doing the exact same thing: making their own wines, their own labels, and creating brands that focus on the uniqueness of their particular vineyards, rather than blend them into a larger cuvée.
I’m gonna dive deeper into all of this very soon, but since we’re heading into Fall, I wanted to make sure Champagne was on your radar. As a liquid, its current evolution encompasses so many of the same exciting changes that make us passionate for Scotch and Bourbon.
-David Driscoll