SIPPING CHAMPAGNE ... VIA ZOOM
Some face time with the celebrated Chef de Cave from Moët & Chandon
The subject line read simply: “You’re invited: Moët & Chandon virtual experience with Benoît Gouez.”
Curious, I clicked the email to read more.
To celebrate the “rise of rosé” and discuss the company’s Rosé Imperial, a handful of Canadian journalists were being invited to sign on to Zoom for some socially distant face time, and sips with the celebrated Chef de Cave. Needless to say, I agreed to join. On a sunny morning in midmay, I logged on to the video call. Set to start at 9 a.m. here, to accommodate the nine-hour time difference in France, I chose not to pop my bottle of pink bubbles, instead, joining the discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on the 277-year-old company’s winemaking processes, its overall outlook, and Gouez’s take on where the business will go from here.
“This is the first time we’re doing this live with a group of journalists,” Gouez said. “So, it’s very exciting.”
After eight weeks of quarantine, Gouez explained the company, headquartered in Épernay, was starting its “de-confinement” process.
During the shutdown, many people within “la grand maison” continued to work because, as Gouez explains, “nature can’t wait.”
“All the people in the vineyards have continued to prune and to do all the things that had to be done in the vineyards,” he says. “We’re on time for what we need to do.”
The winemakers at the largest estate in the Champagne region also continued to make blends for bottling, though, admittedly in a bit of a different way than in previous years.
“The harvest is coming, so we have to empty the tanks to have room to receive the new juices,” Gouez says.
Working for the company as a winemaker since 1998, and in the role of Chef de Cave since 2005, it was the first time Gouez could recall carrying out tasting duties remotely with his team. While the virtual meeting format seemed to work for journalists, it proved too displaced for some of his processes.
“I tried once,” Gouez says of virtual tastings of new blends. “A Zoom tasting with the team doesn’t work because, if you’re not in the same environment with the same conditions, you don’t really have the same perceptions. And, we all have our own habits.”
Since then, Gouez has returned to the winery to conduct socially distant tastings with his team.
“No mask, obviously, because it’s not that easy to taste and drink,” he says with a laugh.
“Doing that, we have been able to make decisions and to find blends to give for bottling.”
What may prove to be a hurdle during the return-to-work process is the availability of vineyard workers, who, Gouez says, often come from various corners of Europe. It’s an issue wineries in B.C. are also facing.
Gouez says the Moët & Chandon team has a plan.
“We’ve been here since 1743. We have known wars and crises so many times … And we are still here,” he says. “We find solutions, but we won’t compromise.”
Gouez said it will be all hands on deck during harvest time, with all employees expected to take part, if needed, to help pick and press grapes. After all, without harvest there is no wine. And, without that, well, there’s no future.
“For me, we have to come back stronger,” Gouez says.
“And, obviously, there are financial issues, there are social issues, and there are human issues, and we have to fix them, but it can’t be against quality. That’s my priority.”
With an estimated yearly production of 28 million bottles, rosé makes up about 20 per cent of Moët & Chandon’s production. While the oldest proof of the production of rosé the winery has on record dates back to 1801, when Napoleon ordered 100 bottles, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the winery ramped up its production of the pink drink.
“We have invested a lot in the category, investing in the vineyards and the viticulture,” Gouez says. “We have invested in people, because in Champagne there is no real savoir faire.”
It’s for these reasons, coupled with the steadily increasing popularity of rosé in the wine world, that the category has been one of growth for the French producer.
At the centre of the Moët & Chandon rosé realm is Rosé Imperial,
a dark coral pink potion that Gouez says harbours “two secrets.”
“One is that we don’t use only Pinot Noir for making our red wine. The tradition in Champagne is Pinot Noir. But we have decided to use also Meunier,” he says.
“One of the issues with Pinot Noir is sometimes there is a kind of greenness that can come . ... That can be nice in a vintage if you have time to soften the greenness into a nice structure, but in the case of a non-vintage it’s a shorter maturation and it’s not always appropriate.”
Meunier, which is a mutation of Pinot Noir, has “much less tannins” and is a more “tender variety.”
“By turning Meunier into red wine, we can create red wines that are colourful, that are very aromatic, but that are light in structure,” Gouez says.
The second secret, according to Gouez, is the use of thermovinification in place of the classic maceration method for the Meunier. The process sees the grapes heated to break down the cells of the skin and access the “aromatic precursors” within minutes.
“There is no skin contact. There is no seed contact. There is no extraction of grape tannins from the seeds, and all the fermentation is made in liquid phase. Therefore, we can control the temperature and control the expression of the aromas,” Gouez says.
“And it helps us even more to create wines that are very colourful and aromatic, but also very lightly structured.”
That vibrant colour and light structure is what causes some confusion when pairing rosé with food, Gouez says.
“Be careful with rosé and sweetness,” Gouez cautions.
“Sommeliers tend to reserve the rosé for the dessert. Big, big mistake. Rosé is often fruity, right. Fruity doesn’t mean sweet . ... The misconception is that there’s a link between fruitiness and sweetness. There’s no link.”
Rather than stick to the sweet stuff, Gouez recommends pairing rosé with something light and savoury that has a bite of salinity.
“A very nice beef carpaccio with a very fine olive oil and just a hint of pepper and basil. That’s just perfect to me,” he says.
“Beef or crab or shrimp tartar is also very nice. Ratatouille. Fresh, colourful vegetables — aubergine, tomatoes — with a light seasoning. Always something fresh. Always something simple.”