36. Digging Into A Super Cool Champagne!

In Episode 36 of The Wineitupanotch Podcast, we first talk about the importance of reconnecting with old friends and the benefits of maintaining important connections in life. 

Thereafter, we dive into an exciting and educational discussion about a super cool Champagne, namely the Clos de Chateau de Bligny 6 Cépages Brut Nature (Non Vintage) Champagne. 

Anshu explains the unique aspects of this Champagne and why they are important - for example, being a grower Champagne made in a unique way. 

She provides details about this special bottle, focussing on its origins and the key characteristics that make it stand out. 

Tune in to find a new bottle of Champagne to explore and love!

Learn more about Champagne Chateau de Bligny.

Looking to learn more about Champagne and Sparkling Wine? If so, be sure to check out some of these other resources!:

• Episode 4: Gearing Up For A Good Year….and Digging Into Champagne!
• 
  
• Wineitupanotch Guide to Sweetness Levels in Champagne and Sparkling Wines!

Episode Chapters:

00:24 Exploring the Power of Maintaining Important Connections

03:39 Digging Into A Super Cool Champagne!

05:30 The Clos de Chateau de Bligny 6 Cepages Champagne - Taking a Look at What Makes It Special

10:10 Understanding the Unique Blend

15:50 Tasting Notes and Pairings

20:10 Conclusion 

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Transcript

Welcome to The Wineitupanotch Podcast, a podcast where we talk about wine, life and everything in between. My name is Anshu Grover, I am your host and I am so thrilled that you've decided to join me today. Thank you for doing so! 

Welcome to Episode 36 of the podcast. 

It is a warm, sunny day in August in the summer and I am taking in all the sunshine and the warmth. I've actually had an amazing day today! 

Do you know, sometimes when you get that opportunity to meet up with somebody that you haven't seen in a really long time, and it just ends up being the best meeting ever, even if it's short? Well, that happened to me today. 

Last week, an old dear friend of ours - both my husband and mine - reached out to me to say that she and her son were in town, in Toronto, visiting from where she lives, which is in Germany. 

And I have not seen her in... I'm going to say a good, you know, 8 to 10 years. And the last time I saw her, it was very brief. I actually know her from when my husband and I used to live in Singapore and that was a good 15 or so years ago. So it was a really long time ago. In fact, she went to school with my husband for a little while and that's how we met. 

And then we saw each other briefly at a school reunion. And since then, we've just kind of kept up with each other on social media, which to me really speaks to the power of social media. 

You know, I was having lunch with a friend yesterday and that friend was explaining that they didn't really think much of social media and had a little bit of disdain for it, for their own reasons. But I shared that I found it to be a fabulous tool for not only, you know, building my business in my presence, but also staying in touch with people and meeting new people and the like. And so, you know, I'm all about social media. I think it's fantastic. And through social media, I've been able to keep connections with friends from many, many years ago, including this friend. So when she reached out, I thought I'm going to do what I can to try to meet up with her. And she had a full schedule, you know, she was here with her son. She's actually leaving tonight. So it was a very short trip for her, about 10 days, but she was in Toronto. 

[00:02:00]

And then left and kind of came back for a day and tried to make time to meet with me of all people. Now in between there, I was traveling and I had a bunch of commitments, but we were able to make the time today. 

So I don't live very far from downtown, but I drove into the city after dropping my daughter off to camp and we caught up for about an hour. But it was such a nice meeting, just really that chance to reconnect with someone who was important to you in the past, who remains important for a number of reasons, but maybe you just don't have that much one-on-one time with. And in that short period of time that we had, we were able to connect and talk about our families and what's going on in our lives. 

And she's an entrepreneur as well. So she shared some great stories with me about what's happened in her journey and was really encouraging about what I'm up to. So just a really fabulous day for me. I love those types of opportunities to connect. I tend to work a lot by myself, just by the nature of what I do these days. I used to work a lot with teams and with people, but these days I work a lot on my own. 

So when I get these opportunities to connect with people, I love to take them, even if, sometimes I'm a little confused about how I'm going to make it work and, try to find the time. But I did it. We had a great chat. It really reminded me of the importance of good relationships in your life and having good people in your life and remaining connected. 

So take this as your message today to reach out to somebody, or if somebody reaches out to you to make the time, to reestablish a connection, that you should do it because it is so soul- warming and heartwarming and all of the good things. And you know what, there's always time for work! 

I'm still finding the time to sit down and record this podcast, which I'm excited about. Which I actually announced yesterday on The Wineitupanotch Podcast Instagram account as a bit of a teaser, because I think it's going to be a pretty cool one. So buckle up. We are about to talk Champagne! 

Now. If you saw the teaser post, you would have seen me grinning, gleefully holding a 

[00:04:00] 

bottle of Champagne. And if you're watching this on YouTube, then you get to see the bottle again. Here it is. And I probably looked a little goofy. I was definitely grinning and, you know, kind of trying to show off the bottle. And I didn't really get into why I was excited about it because I wanted you to come here to hear that. But, you know, the thing is there's lots of champagne and champagne in and of itself is very exciting. 

I think, you know, I love champagne who doesn't, it's a great celebratory drink. Absolutely. But also a great drink to have all the time. And I have talked about champagne before on the podcast. You can go back and listen to the episodes that are more (sort of) basic around sparkling wines and champagnes. 

But today I wanted to do a specific feature on this particular bottle because it is a little bit different. 

Now, let me hold this up again. 

And for the benefit of those that are watching this on YouTube, you can kind of see the bottle. I think that label may be flipped, but you can see the bottle so you'll be able to see what I'm talking about in a moment. If you're just listening to the podcast in your earbuds or while you're driving around in your car, you can't see the bottle, but you could always go back and either see it on YouTube or have a look at the post that I did on my social media. And I'll do another one on the main Wineitupanotch account in a moment. 

There's a couple of cool things happening here. One, there's the word "clos" on this bottle, which I'm going to explain in a moment. And the other thing here on the label is the number six. It says six, or sees, cépages. 

Okay. So this to me makes this very, very important and very cool. This champagne is made by Chateau de Bligny. Bligny is a small village, if you will, in the broader Champagne region. So just to orient ourselves, we're in kind of Northern France - Champagne itself is a very large region. This particular Chateau and Bligny itself are located in the Côte des Bar, which is really quite far south in the Champagne region. 

We're almost starting to hit Chablis here. It's a deeply continental environment and climate. 

[00:06:00] 

The soils are more Kimmeridigian in nature so they've got a lot more limestone and sort of crushed shells in the bedrock. And so they have a lot more minerality and generally the Côte des Bar is, you know, special for sure, but it's associated more with Pinot Noir and a cooler climate and perhaps a little bit less Champagne. Some of the main Champagne houses are certainly not located in the Côte des Bar. But Chateau de Bligny is. And it is cool for a number of reasons. 

So first of all, it is the only official Chateau in the entire Champagne region, which is, you know, very cool. Now there's a ton of chateaux all over France, don't get me wrong. But within Champagne, it is the only officially recognized Chateau. Very cool. It is, in fact, an actual Chateau. The Chateau was built by a nobleman in the 18th century. It was actually built on the foundations of an old medieval castle. And he actually did build a proper Chateau which still stands on the property today. 

There have been many changes in ownership since this noble person built the Chateau. And today it's the seventh family that owns the property. The property itself is about 30 hectares so it's quite large. In fact, uh, they are a grower producer, meaning they grow their own vines and they also make their own Champagnes all on the property, which is again, a little bit unusual in the Champagne region, unless you're talking about grower champagnes, which is a whole other movement on its own. 

But when we're talking about the larger houses that we all know and see all over the shelves (and we love, I love too!), those Champagnes are often made by grapes that are purchased from growers. So they're purchased from a range of growers and then brought into a production facility by the brand if you will, they're called "grande marques" or the "grand brands". And then they will apply their own teams and their own 

[00:08:00] 

know-how to producing those grapes into their signature Champagnes. All good. 

But the difference with a grower champagne is you're really looking at sort of a farm to bottle operation if you will, where the estate is actually growing the grapes and then also producing the Champagne. 

Chateau de Bligny, with its 30 hectares, is exactly that a - grower champagne producer, also known as an "RM" or a "recoltant manipulant" in French...I hope I said that somewhat okay! 

So - a couple of cool things are happening already. 

We're talking about a grower champagne. They have a whole range, okay. The one I'm talking to you about today is just one in their range of, I think, seven different cuvées. But all of them are made with their own grapes that are grown on their own site, where there is an actual Chateau that is the only official Chateau in Champagne. 

The second thing that's cool about this champagne is the " clos" piece. 

Now in France and in particular in French wines, the term "clos", which is spelled C L O S....I'll just hold the bottle up again; if you're watching this, you can see clos at the top there.... clos means a walled piece of property,

So something that is surrounded on all four sides, enclosed if you will, by a wall. And in the world of wine, a clos is considered to be... something special. Now that doesn't necessarily always convey that it's going to be special in my mind. You know, you could put a wall around anything, I suppose. It's really what happens within the wall that's important. But generally speaking, when there are clos, there tends to be a higher standard of wine being produced from the clos. Again, (this is) not categorically true but it is somewhat of a….let's call it a soft marker or rule that you can think about. 

And in this particular case, the clos is on the property and it was actually established by the most recent owners. 

So it's not terribly, terribly old. We're not talking, you know, dating back to medieval times when, in fact, there were grapes 

[00:10:00] 

being grown on the property. The clos has been established in the last, I believe, 25 - 30 years but nonetheless, there is a clos. And within that clos - here's the second part that's cool. 

Looking at the bottle again, you see the words "six cépages" , which means six varieties. So within this clos, there's about a little less than actually one hectare of grape vines planted. And there are six different grape varieties that are planted, which are then used to produce this wine. So this particular Champagne is made only from grapes that are grown in the clos, only grown by the owner of the property (the family that owns the Chateau) and consisting of six different grape varieties. 

That gets me jazzed! 

And the reason for that is that most champagne is actually - for those that are knowledgeable about champagne - made from three key grape varieties. 

If I pause for a moment and let you think about it, you can probably guess the three…. or at least remember two of the three if you're familiar with Champagne. But to remember all seven that are authorized in Champagne is difficult because most Champagnes are made from two to three varieties, generally three, and those remaining four varieties that are actually authorized varieties in the region of champagne by the Comité, by the governing body of the Champagne region - they don't really appear in wines very much. And they rarely all appear in a Champagne. There are a couple of examples in particular, Champagne Laherte makes a "sept cépages" or seven variety Champagne which is very well known. But it's not that common. 

And that's mostly because the land and the demand really suits itself well to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, the three main grape varieties of the region, which 

[00:12:00] 

collectively make up a really large part of the region. 

In fact, if I reference the actual Comité website, those grape varieties - the three that we've talked about - are actually accounting for almost 99% of all plantings in the entire region.

Pinot Noir is the number one planted grape in the Champagne region, presently representing 38% of all plantings. Chardonnay follows at 31% of all plantings and then Pinot Meunier represents 31% of all plantings. And there's a little bit of rebalancing that's happening in the region with more Chardonnay being planted…Chardonnay becoming a little bit more popular. 

But generally speaking, that's the breakdown. 

And when you add 31 and 31, you get 62. And when you add that to 38, you get pretty much a hundred percent. So the remaining four authorized grape varieties are a very, very small percentage of the overall plantings in the region. 

Ok. Now, what are they? 

They are Arbane,Petit Meslier, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. 

And if you are a wine lover and you drink still wines, you will be familiar with Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. Petit Meslier, maybe less. Arbane, probably very little. 

Arbane is really a traditional variety to the Champagne region but it is quite late ripening and very difficult to grow in that region where, you know, it's a continental climate and the weather can be harsh. The summers can be short - again, this is changing with climate change so we may see more Arbane as we move forward. But in the past, it was very popular and then became less so because it was hard to work with and not all that resistant to the bad weather of the region. So for a range of reasons, it became kind of less popular, but it is said to produce a Champagne that just has a lovely finesse. Sometimes you will find Arbane in other 

[00:14:00] 

Champagnes. It's rare though to find more than four grapes or five grapes in a cuvée and more particularly, when we come to this particular bottle again (I am talking about the Clos de Chateau de Bligny Champagne 6 Cépages which you can get, it is on the market), this particular Champagne is made up of the following grapes: Chardonnay. Pinot Noir', Pinot Meunier (those are the three we expect to see), followed by Arbane, Petit Meslier and Pinot Blanc - and they have left Pinot Gris out of the mix. 

Now the really cool thing here - we've already talked about the fact that I think this is cool because there are six varieties in the cuvée! - but the other really cool thing is that each of these varieties represents one sixth of the blend. So they are equally represented in the final cuvée, which I think gives this champagne a really interesting profile. 

And I'll talk about that profile in a moment, but really, here you are getting something quite unique in my view. 

I'm not saying nobody else makes a Champagne like this. If you're watching this or listening to this, and you know of another Champagne that is made by a grower that has all six varieties in equal proportions, please - I don't know everything in the world of wine! So feel free to reach out to me and tell me more about that. I would love to know and do my research and learn who else is doing this kind of a cuvée. But I'll tell you that I have not come across something like this very frequently so I'm pretty excited about it. I think it's very, very cool. 

And it's not actually all that expensive a Champagne considering the quality that is present in the bottle and what I found in the glass. It’s very hard to find in my market, which is in Ontario. Um, I think I might've snagged one of the last bottles. I got lucky! But I have seen that it is available in other markets online in reasonable quantities. 

So you can definitely get it if you're in France, of course, or London…you can get it. 

 So let's talk about what you get in the glass!

I would love to tell you that I could do a live tasting with you here on the podcast. But if you're watching, you'll see I'm 

[00:16:00] 

tipping the bottle and I'm tipping it without any cork or stopper in it because I finished the bottle. 

It was very, very good so I can't do a live tasting with you, but I can tell you what my impressions were. 

Extremely lovely, fine bead. Beautiful in the glass, a nice golden color. This wine has spent an extended time on its lees. It is a non-vintage product so it's not tied to any specific year. It is a blend of multiple years. It has about 30% reserve wine for the champagne dorks out there. That's, you know, a decent and reasonable percentage, quite high. 

It is just…. complex. You know, there's something that happens in the glass with this Champagne that really is unexpected. And there's this high minerality, high tone, of course, but also this biscuity, brioche note which we expect in Champagne. But I found that there was also a body and a depth (it must be coming from all of the grapes), coupled with a kind of linear lightness that just made it really drinkable and interesting. 

And there's a… as I said, a body to it that gave me the impression….not fully of a red wine, but almost of a red wine for me. There was definitely the typical kind of lemon curd, sort of peachy notes in the wine. I had a lot of plummy, strawberry notes as well - kind of a red profile if you will. There was a herbaceousness to the wine too, which was really interesting against those higher toned orchard fruit, and a little bit of tropical fruit notes as well. 

So just a lot of interesting things happening in there. And I was just completely stoked. It didn't take a lot of convincing to drink this bottle! 

 I think it would pair beautifully with food. I'm showing it again in case you're interested and you want to find it. 

I can see it going really well with fried food. 

I can see it going really well with seafood, of course, and raw seafood - sushi - of course, an excellent 

[00:18:00] 

pairing. I think it would do beautifully with stronger cheeses. And for me, given the complexity of the Champagne and all that was happening in the glass, I just enjoyed having it on its own. I was celebrating something so that worked for me. Uh, and you know, I also don't think that you have to treat Champagne as if it's overly precious and only drink it when you're celebrating or only drink it with certain types of food or on certain occasions. So for me to have, you know, some Champagne “just ‘cause”.... I'm happy to do that. But this is one I would say, it's got the weight and the depth and the body and kind of the intrigue to permit someone to just drink it, enjoy it, and really sort of try to pull it apart and notice that there's something different happening there because it's six different grapes, all in equal proportions. Very cool. 

So that was what I was so excited about sharing. I am definitely a wine geek - I love these things. 

I hope I have stoked your interest too. There is nothing in it for me to be showing you this particular champagne or any particular wine that I talk about. I just like to share those that I find that are interesting, where the story is interesting and when there's something cool happening, and I hope to widen your perspective when it comes to the world of wine and capture your intrigue and your imagination and perhaps introduce you to something new that you might love. 

If you can find the Clos de Chateau de Bligny 6 Cepages Champagne, I would encourage you to do so. 

Or if you can find another Champagne that has an interesting cuvée, an interesting mix of grapes or an interesting vinification method that is happening, go for it. I mean, yes, the big Grandes Marques are fantastic. They're amazing. 

I have my favorites and my go-tos, but it's always kind of cool to dip into these smaller batch productions or these grower champagnes where they're doing interesting things. Um, and maybe, maybe in some ways more traditional things, maybe in some ways more innovative things. Who knows what it is, but it's 

[00:20:00] 

just a little different. and I think it really helps us to understand the complexities in the world of wine and the complexities and the stories of the people that are making the wines. 

So I'm all for it!! 

With that, I will thank you for your time. I hope you have enjoyed this episode of The Wineitupanotch Podcast. A little different than what I've been doing for the last couple of episodes, but I will be back soon with a "test your knowledge" episode. If you were enjoying those, come back, I will do another one for you to test your knowledge on wine facts. 

In the meantime. I wish you lots of peace, love, light and of course, good wine or in this case, great Champagne! 

You take care of yourselves and the ones that you love and I will see you soon. 

Cheers!