The world's oldest champagne opened last week
1825 Vintage Perrier-Jouët, 184 years old
The world's oldest champagne, bottled before Victoria became Queen, is still drinkable, with notes of "truffles and caramel", according to the experts.
An "addictive" bottle of 1825 Perrier-Jouet was opened at a ceremony attended by 12 of the world's top wine tasters.
Their verdict: the 184-year-old champagne tasted better than some of its younger counterparts.
There are now just two 1825 vintage bottles left - and Perrier-Jouet has no plans to open them soon.
The wine and champagne experts convened at the winemaker's cellars in Epernay in France, for a "once in a lifetime" tasting of the 1825 champagne - officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest.
British wine writer John Stimpfig described the "reverential silence" as Perrier-Jouet cellar master Herve Deschamps eased out the cork, followed by a round of applause as the champagne was poured.
"It was a memorable evening, and tasting the wine was like tasting history in a bottle," he said.
The 184-year-old cork was in good condition, helping to preserve the wine
As for the flavour of a wine bottled just 10 years after the battle of Waterloo, Mr Stimpfig said he drank it more out of curiosity than for pleasure.
He said: "The wine was heavily oxidised, with a sherry-like character.
"However I did taste notes of truffles, caramel and mushrooms.
"Most of the bubbles had disappeared, although there was a slight spritz left."
But Serena Sutcliffe, the head of Sotheby's international wine department, who helped organise the tasting event, described the wine as "addictive" with a complex flavour of figs and even a "slight nose of the sea".
She said: "What was interesting was that I preferred the 1825 champagne to later vintages we tasted, dating from 1846, 1848 and 1874."
She said each sip would have been worth "hundreds of pounds" if it had been sold at auction, but added: "It is virtually impossible to assign a value to the 1825 vintage - we've never seen anything like it on the market."
Wine tastes have changed over the past 184 years - the 1825 vintage was sweet, and even had a little brandy added at the "topping-up" stage.
But it was this very sweetness that experts believe helped the wine to survive for so long, together with the five to six atmospheres of pressure within the bottle.
No guarantees
"It's the bubbles that kept it younger," said Ms Sutcliffe.
She added there was no guarantee that the remaining two bottles of 1825 would be as drinkable as the one she and fellow experts sampled, to mark the release of a new Perrier-Jouet vintage.
"They could last for years, and they might be better or worse, " she said.
"At this age, wine tends to go its own way and a lot depends on the cork which in the case of the champagne we drank was in very good condition."
Mr Deschamps said Perrier-Jouet intended to keep the remaining two bottles for some years yet.
"I don't expect I will ever open another bottle like it," he said.
"That is a treat for the next generation."
Source:
BBC
Perrier-Jouët
Perrier-Jouët was established in 1811 by Pierre-Nicolas-Marie Perrier, adding the maiden name of his wife, Ad le Jouët, to name the house. They established themselves in the town of Épernay, and set about building up their brand and exploring foreign markets; by 1815 they were already exporting wine to England, and within a few more years they added the USA to their list of export destinations. Such success obviously led to a greater demand for their wines, and the family were soon acquiring or planting new vineyards in Aÿ, Avize, Cramant, Mailly and elsewhere. Many were planted with Chardonnay, bringing a delicacy to the Perrier-Jouët style, a style said to have been favoured by Pierre-Nicolas-Marie, and a trait that can still be found in the wines of Perrier-Jouët today.
Although off to a flying start it was the next generation, in the shape of Charles Perrier who succeeded his father, that did most to build up the reputation of the family business. Thanks to Charles, the wines of Perrier-Jouët soon found their way onto the tables at several European courts, and were increasingly exported overseas. The range expanded, and in 1854 Perrier-Jouët became the first house to release a dry Champagne, a style subsequently imitated across the region. At the time the wines were prevailingly sweet, and by this action Charles Perrier was essentially the creator of the Brut designation that is the predominant style today. His innovations did not stop there, however, as Charles was also an early advocate of the single vintage Champagne, as well as greater transparency of labelling, sometimes featuring the names of the villages on the labels, a practice that remains rare in the region even today. Such dedication naturally brought reward and recognition; in the latter half of the 19th Century the wines of Perrier-Jouët were consumed in Queen Victoria's court, as well as that of Napoleon III. Such success secured the future of the business, and also financed the construction of a fine chateau on the Avenue de Champagne in Épernay, a fine building which remains the Perrier-Jouët headquarters to this day.
After Charles Perrier there was no natural heir, and thus control of Perrier-Jouët passed with Charles' blessing to nephew Henri Gallice, and then in 1918 to Louis Budin, Henri's brother-in-law, a family member only by marriage. After thirty or so years he was succeeded by his son, Michel Budin, and it was Michel that was the last in the line to maintain complete control over his Champagne house. Since this era Perrier-Jouët has, as is the case with many Champagne houses, been the subject of outside investment and even complete takeover. In 1959 the Mumm group took control, although Michel stayed on with the company, and it was he that oversaw one of the great additions to the range of Champagnes produced by Perrier-Jouët, the prestige cuvée La Belle Epoque (known instead as Fleur de Champagne in the USA). Subsequently the house was purchased by Seagram, and this story of takeover continued throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries; the current owners are Pernod Ricard, who completed a successful takeover of previous owners the Allied Domecq Group in 2005.
Without doubt the stand-out wine in the Perrier-Jouët range is the aforementioned Belle Epoque. Although conceived by Michel Budin, marketing director Pierre Ernst and cellarmaster André Bavaret in the latter 20th Century, its origins are actually much older than this date suggests. Their inspiration was the discovery of a beautifully decorated bottle, dating from 1902, found long neglected and gathering dust in a cupboard in a back room. The bottle bore enamelled artwork by the glassmaker Emile Gallé, a panoply of glazed and delicately hued anemones. It would seem that Gallé had created the bottle at the request of Henri Gallice, as a symbol of the glorious 1890s, but why it lay undiscovered for six decades is not clear. Today Gallé is renowned for the high quality of his glasswork, and is rightly regarded as instrumental in the art nouveau movement in France; it is unsurprising that this serendipitous discovery prompted Ernst and Bavaret to create a Champagne worthy of such a fabulous piece of art. The first vintage of Belle Epoque, a Brut style, was the 1964, released in 1969, and sold exclusively through a small number of select outlets. It was subsequently joined by the La Belle Epoque Rosé in the 1976 vintage, and later by the La Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs.
The straight Belle Epoque is a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir and 5% Pinot Meunier. The strength of this prestige cuvée is finesse and elegance rather than power or fruit, so for this reason inexperienced critics have been known to discount Belle Epoque, having been underwhelmed on first tasting. Some have even accused Perrier-Jouët of putting more effort in to the design of the bottle than the wine that goes into it. These critics have laid bare their lack of understanding of a wine that possesses impeccable balance, something far more valuable than powerful fruit. With appropriate bottle age these wines reveal their true class, the high quality origins of the fruit from some of the best sources in the region.
The Belle Epoque Rosé is made by the addition of red wine rather than the saignée method, with a final blend otherwise very similar to the straight Belle Epoque, with the Chardonnay sourced from Cramant in each case. This is also the source for the Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs. There was also a Réserve La Belle Epoque released in the 1995 vintage, bottled in 2000 jeroboams, with a whopping price tag - although the price did include a room for two with dinner at the Maison Belle Epoque, the Perrier-Jouët guest house which is crammed with art from the nouveau period. The remainder of the Perrier-Jouët range includes the non vintage Grand Brut, 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Meunier and 20% Chardonnay, and the vintage Grand Brut, a similar blend with just 10% more Chardonnay and 10% less Pinot Meunier than the non vintage cuvée. Both can be excellent. In addition there is Blason de France, a non-vintage cuvée launched in 1965, which is is a blend of almost one third of each of the three main Champagne grapes and which is seldom seen at tastings. There is also the more frequently spotted Blason de France Rosé which has a little more Pinot Noir and less Chardonnay. (6/4/04, last updated 8/1/08)
Contact details:
Address: 28 avenue de Champagne, 51201 Épernay
Telephone: +33 (0) 3 26 53 38 00
Fax: +33 (0) 3 26 54 54 55
Internet: www.perrier-jouet.com
The world's oldest champagne, bottled before Victoria became Queen, is still drinkable, with notes of "truffles and caramel", according to the experts.An "addictive" bottle of 1825 Perrier-Jouet was opened at a ceremony attended by 12 of the world's top wine tasters.
Their verdict: the 184-year-old champagne tasted better than some of its younger counterparts.
There are now just two 1825 vintage bottles left - and Perrier-Jouet has no plans to open them soon.
The wine and champagne experts convened at the winemaker's cellars in Epernay in France, for a "once in a lifetime" tasting of the 1825 champagne - officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest.
British wine writer John Stimpfig described the "reverential silence" as Perrier-Jouet cellar master Herve Deschamps eased out the cork, followed by a round of applause as the champagne was poured.
"It was a memorable evening, and tasting the wine was like tasting history in a bottle," he said.
The 184-year-old cork was in good condition, helping to preserve the wineAs for the flavour of a wine bottled just 10 years after the battle of Waterloo, Mr Stimpfig said he drank it more out of curiosity than for pleasure.
He said: "The wine was heavily oxidised, with a sherry-like character.
"However I did taste notes of truffles, caramel and mushrooms.
"Most of the bubbles had disappeared, although there was a slight spritz left."
But Serena Sutcliffe, the head of Sotheby's international wine department, who helped organise the tasting event, described the wine as "addictive" with a complex flavour of figs and even a "slight nose of the sea".
She said: "What was interesting was that I preferred the 1825 champagne to later vintages we tasted, dating from 1846, 1848 and 1874."
She said each sip would have been worth "hundreds of pounds" if it had been sold at auction, but added: "It is virtually impossible to assign a value to the 1825 vintage - we've never seen anything like it on the market."
Wine tastes have changed over the past 184 years - the 1825 vintage was sweet, and even had a little brandy added at the "topping-up" stage.
But it was this very sweetness that experts believe helped the wine to survive for so long, together with the five to six atmospheres of pressure within the bottle.
No guarantees
"It's the bubbles that kept it younger," said Ms Sutcliffe.
She added there was no guarantee that the remaining two bottles of 1825 would be as drinkable as the one she and fellow experts sampled, to mark the release of a new Perrier-Jouet vintage.
"They could last for years, and they might be better or worse, " she said.
"At this age, wine tends to go its own way and a lot depends on the cork which in the case of the champagne we drank was in very good condition."
Mr Deschamps said Perrier-Jouet intended to keep the remaining two bottles for some years yet.
"I don't expect I will ever open another bottle like it," he said.
"That is a treat for the next generation."
Source:
BBC
Perrier-JouëtPerrier-Jouët was established in 1811 by Pierre-Nicolas-Marie Perrier, adding the maiden name of his wife, Ad le Jouët, to name the house. They established themselves in the town of Épernay, and set about building up their brand and exploring foreign markets; by 1815 they were already exporting wine to England, and within a few more years they added the USA to their list of export destinations. Such success obviously led to a greater demand for their wines, and the family were soon acquiring or planting new vineyards in Aÿ, Avize, Cramant, Mailly and elsewhere. Many were planted with Chardonnay, bringing a delicacy to the Perrier-Jouët style, a style said to have been favoured by Pierre-Nicolas-Marie, and a trait that can still be found in the wines of Perrier-Jouët today.
Although off to a flying start it was the next generation, in the shape of Charles Perrier who succeeded his father, that did most to build up the reputation of the family business. Thanks to Charles, the wines of Perrier-Jouët soon found their way onto the tables at several European courts, and were increasingly exported overseas. The range expanded, and in 1854 Perrier-Jouët became the first house to release a dry Champagne, a style subsequently imitated across the region. At the time the wines were prevailingly sweet, and by this action Charles Perrier was essentially the creator of the Brut designation that is the predominant style today. His innovations did not stop there, however, as Charles was also an early advocate of the single vintage Champagne, as well as greater transparency of labelling, sometimes featuring the names of the villages on the labels, a practice that remains rare in the region even today. Such dedication naturally brought reward and recognition; in the latter half of the 19th Century the wines of Perrier-Jouët were consumed in Queen Victoria's court, as well as that of Napoleon III. Such success secured the future of the business, and also financed the construction of a fine chateau on the Avenue de Champagne in Épernay, a fine building which remains the Perrier-Jouët headquarters to this day.
After Charles Perrier there was no natural heir, and thus control of Perrier-Jouët passed with Charles' blessing to nephew Henri Gallice, and then in 1918 to Louis Budin, Henri's brother-in-law, a family member only by marriage. After thirty or so years he was succeeded by his son, Michel Budin, and it was Michel that was the last in the line to maintain complete control over his Champagne house. Since this era Perrier-Jouët has, as is the case with many Champagne houses, been the subject of outside investment and even complete takeover. In 1959 the Mumm group took control, although Michel stayed on with the company, and it was he that oversaw one of the great additions to the range of Champagnes produced by Perrier-Jouët, the prestige cuvée La Belle Epoque (known instead as Fleur de Champagne in the USA). Subsequently the house was purchased by Seagram, and this story of takeover continued throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries; the current owners are Pernod Ricard, who completed a successful takeover of previous owners the Allied Domecq Group in 2005.
Without doubt the stand-out wine in the Perrier-Jouët range is the aforementioned Belle Epoque. Although conceived by Michel Budin, marketing director Pierre Ernst and cellarmaster André Bavaret in the latter 20th Century, its origins are actually much older than this date suggests. Their inspiration was the discovery of a beautifully decorated bottle, dating from 1902, found long neglected and gathering dust in a cupboard in a back room. The bottle bore enamelled artwork by the glassmaker Emile Gallé, a panoply of glazed and delicately hued anemones. It would seem that Gallé had created the bottle at the request of Henri Gallice, as a symbol of the glorious 1890s, but why it lay undiscovered for six decades is not clear. Today Gallé is renowned for the high quality of his glasswork, and is rightly regarded as instrumental in the art nouveau movement in France; it is unsurprising that this serendipitous discovery prompted Ernst and Bavaret to create a Champagne worthy of such a fabulous piece of art. The first vintage of Belle Epoque, a Brut style, was the 1964, released in 1969, and sold exclusively through a small number of select outlets. It was subsequently joined by the La Belle Epoque Rosé in the 1976 vintage, and later by the La Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs.The straight Belle Epoque is a blend of 50% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir and 5% Pinot Meunier. The strength of this prestige cuvée is finesse and elegance rather than power or fruit, so for this reason inexperienced critics have been known to discount Belle Epoque, having been underwhelmed on first tasting. Some have even accused Perrier-Jouët of putting more effort in to the design of the bottle than the wine that goes into it. These critics have laid bare their lack of understanding of a wine that possesses impeccable balance, something far more valuable than powerful fruit. With appropriate bottle age these wines reveal their true class, the high quality origins of the fruit from some of the best sources in the region.
The Belle Epoque Rosé is made by the addition of red wine rather than the saignée method, with a final blend otherwise very similar to the straight Belle Epoque, with the Chardonnay sourced from Cramant in each case. This is also the source for the Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs. There was also a Réserve La Belle Epoque released in the 1995 vintage, bottled in 2000 jeroboams, with a whopping price tag - although the price did include a room for two with dinner at the Maison Belle Epoque, the Perrier-Jouët guest house which is crammed with art from the nouveau period. The remainder of the Perrier-Jouët range includes the non vintage Grand Brut, 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Pinot Meunier and 20% Chardonnay, and the vintage Grand Brut, a similar blend with just 10% more Chardonnay and 10% less Pinot Meunier than the non vintage cuvée. Both can be excellent. In addition there is Blason de France, a non-vintage cuvée launched in 1965, which is is a blend of almost one third of each of the three main Champagne grapes and which is seldom seen at tastings. There is also the more frequently spotted Blason de France Rosé which has a little more Pinot Noir and less Chardonnay. (6/4/04, last updated 8/1/08)
Contact details:
Address: 28 avenue de Champagne, 51201 Épernay
Telephone: +33 (0) 3 26 53 38 00
Fax: +33 (0) 3 26 54 54 55
Internet: www.perrier-jouet.com
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