subject: Low Dosage Champagne – A New Trend Emerging [print this page] Low Dosage Champagne A New Trend Emerging
Unless you've been spending your time on Mars for the last year or two, it won't come as a surprise to know that world economies have been in a bit of a mess. We've been experiencing what the old Chinese saying euphemistically calls 'exciting times'.
But what one person regards as a obstacle is an opportunity for another and this is very much true in Champagne.
After cruising through over 30 years of uninterrupted growth, sales of champagne decreased in 2008 compared to the previous year. The same was true in 2009, but when you take a closer look you find something interesting. Yes, the sales of the well-known mega brands have slumped and they represent a huge chunk of the entire market, but at the same time sales of the many hundreds of small champagne - sometimes called grower champagnes have risen. How can this be explained?
Well, for one thing the less well-known brands are often less pricey than the famous ones and so if you have a budget to stick to - and who doesn't ? - these less expensive brands have attracted more customers.
A few people would say that they're cheaper because they are poorer quality. This may be true in a few cases, but there is a growing number of smaller champagne makers who are producing quality that is every bit as good as the brands you are more familiar with.
The result is that you're getting great quality and more appealing prices and when you put these together you get outstanding value for money.
There's something else however that makes the smaller champagnes more and more popular and that's the fact that the best of them are being very creative in what they do and nowhere can you see this more clearly than in the move towards champagne to which very little extra sugar has been added. These are called low dosage champagnes, dosage being the French word for the process of adding sugar to the champagne.
Let me explain....
By the time champagne has finished the fermentation process, it is absolutely dry; every bit of sugar that was in it has been used up to produce alcohol. At this point champagne is so dry that it was assumed that not many drinkers would actually like it - at least that is the traditional way of thinking - so a little sugar was added to make it more suited to the average champagne lover's taste.
Almost all champagne that is made falls into the category of sweetness called Brut - not too dry and not too sweet. In technical terms Brut has between 6 and 14 grams of sugar added per litre of champagne
Now, one of the claims to fame made by all the big brands is that their champagnes are of an unwavering taste and quality year after year. That's comforting for the consumers, but the downside is that it's very hard to modify the style of champagne without confusing, and perhaps alienating, your regular fans, so you can't tinker around much with the sugar level.
The smaller makers don't have such a problem so they are free to experiment and more and more of them are making champagne with little or no added sugar.
You can recognise these champagnes from the words Zero Dosage, Brut Nature, Extra Brut. that you'll find on the label.
These all have less than 6 grams of added sugar per litre and, judging from the sales figures, lots of people like what they are tasting.
If you're already saying to yourself "Oh, that would be too dry for me" or "That's not what I like at all", keep an open mind for a moment.
The most skilful of the smaller champagne makers create champagnes that don't come across as too dry at all.
These people have good business awareness as well as being fine champagne makers and they are well aware that they can't offer the public something that is just too dry to enjoy.
As a matter of fact the best of these champagnes are well balanced champagnes with oodles of flavour and a silkiness in the mouth that more than compensates for the lack of sugar. Yes, there's a crisp, pure tang to them, but nothing too off the scale.
Perhaps the real plus of these low dosage champagnes is that they allow the makers to express much more clearly the local differences between one champagne and another, one type of grape and another and even between one plot of vineyard and another because these slight nuances are not hidden by too much sugar.
Discovering these champagnes is like a journey round the entire Champagne region whereas the big brands offer you a steady, but more uniform version.
There are so many of these great little champagnes to choose from that it's almost unfair to mention just a few, but some worth trying are, Tarlant, Penet-Chardonnet, Francis Boulard, Agrapart, Pascal Doquet and Arnaud Margaine but remember, these are just the tip of the iceberg.
The real proof of the pudding is to try some of them for yourself. I think you'll enjoy the experience.
