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MICHAEL FRIDJHON: French bubbly no bog-standard fizz
For intellectual property in the world of wine, the prize for the ultimate brand must go to Champagne. The area, a few hundred kilometres to the east of Paris and which used to battle to ripen its grapes sufficiently to make decent wine, enjoys the rights to the world’s most recognised alcoholic beverage. Before climate change, only a few vintages every decade yielded fruit worth transforming into table wine. Cold winters further retarded the evolution of the wine in cask. This meant that, come spring, there was still a post-fermentation fizz in the wine. Capturing the bubble and controlling the extent of it was the work of centuries, and the names of many of the brands in the market today celebrate the innovators who played a role in this process. The varieties that are associated with Champagne are the survivors of a Darwinian elimination. Chardonnay (which gives freshness and age-ability to the base wine), pinot noir (mouth feel and complexity) and pinot meunier (easy and early d...
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