Les Grandes Marques de Champagne
Grandes Marques de Champagne (or the great brands of Champagne) refers to the internationally known Champagne brands like Moet, Krug, Veuve Clicquot, Bollinger, etc. Compared to the small producers, these big companies have a global presence and produce much larger volume of Champagne to fill the shelves that we see at our local wine retailers. The Grandes Marques will usually have a marketing department, sales teams, and if you go to the Champagne region, they’ll actually have staff to lead tours in different languages.
But besides that, did you know that each brand has their own story and signature style? On my visit to the Reims, I visited three of the Grandes Marques- Ruinart, Clicquot and Pommery to discover their stories and taste the different styles of their Champagne wines.
Ruinart is the oldest Champagne house in the world and have been making Champagne since 1729. The signature style at Ruinart is the Blanc de Blancs, meaning that for these wines they only use Chardonnay grapes, as compared to blending the Chardonnay with other grape varietals. They also make other Champagne like rosé and a few other selections that are blends of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Veuve Clicquot is my favorite Champagne story because of Madame Clicquot’ s daring personality. She and her husband had a vineyard pretty much like everyone else in the region and were making Champagne as a side gig. But as Champagne’s popularity grew which meant increased demand, they began investing more time and resources into their winemaking. But then Mr. Clicquot suddenly passed away leaving his wife, now a widow or “veuve” (veuve means widow in French) not only as a single mom, but as the one responsible for the home and business. The problem was that at the time, women were not allowed to be business owners. But thanks to a loophole in the Napoleonic codes which made exceptions for women who were widowed, Veuve Clicquot was granted permission to continue selling Champagne.
I say that I admire her daring personality because during the wars, she would smuggle her Champagne to enemy territory, the Russians, who also happened to be her main buyers. Of course this was considered contraband and had she been caught, she would’ve gotten into serious trouble. But money talks and though illegal, she continued business as usual with her loyal customers. Meanwhile, Veuve Clicquot revolutionized the Champagne industry when she introduced the riddling rack, a wooden table with holes in it. Her thinking was that if the bottles were tilted at an angle, the sediment over time would fall to the neck, making for a clear and better product. Her idea worked and til this day is now the industry standard in Champagne making.
Veuve Clicquot was the first woman in history to run a Champagne company. She was also one of the first women to own an international business, and did you know that the idea of rosé Champagne started with her? She was a smart and gutsy woman and I love that!
The riddling rack is used til this day and is considered the industry standard in the Champagne making process.
Pinot Noir are the grapes of choice at Maison Clicquot, making fuller bodied Champagne as their signature style.
Maison Pommery is another example where a woman made history in Champagne. Her name was Louise Pommery who was also a widow having to take over the business when her husband died. Veuve Pommery later came up with the idea of carving out “crayers” or underground cellars, which for the first time allowed for temperature controlled bottle ageing. Soon thereafter the other Champagne houses followed. As part of this construction project, a local artist named Gustave Navlet decorated these cellars with sculptures that you can still see today and are now included on the Unesco World Heritage list. Veuve Pommery too had a daring spirit when she decided to step outside of the norm and created the first “Brut” or dry style Champagne at a time when everybody else was making the traditional sweet Champagne. Her courageous idea was a success and today Brut continues to be the best seller in the world of Champagne.
Maison Pommery’s signature style is Champagne that is elegant with rich aromas and flavor.
