Monthly Commentary

Thoughts and Ideas to Ponder

Well known equals quality in Champagne, right?

Elegant tiny bubbles make my heart race with delight in anticipation of that first marvelous sip. Champagne has an extraordinary ability to charm the soul and turn any occasion into celebration. Open a bottle of Champagne next Tuesday to prove this to yourself.

All wines that bubble, however lovely, are not Champagne. Not all grapes are graced with chalky soils and marginal climates. No, the Champagne region is special and Champagne the wine is the result. True Champagne has elegance and liveliness that is never quite duplicated elsewhere and so for me, it is the ultimate wine with bubbles.

If producer really did not matter then the story ended in the previous paragraph. In real estate the key is “Location, Location, Location.” A wine’s home turf is critical but for true greatness it is, “Producer, Producer, Producer.”

Most of us are familiar with the major houses like Bollinger, Moët et Chandon, Taittinger and Krug, but there is another side to Champagne. Champagne has an alter ego, the individual grower. The difference is easily compared to the chasm between large negociant firms of Burgundy and individual family wineries. Negociant Champagne producers purchase grapes and juice in order to fill the demand for their market. Domaine producers only use grapes from their own property.

Those Champagne producers who buy grapes, juice or wine from outside their own property are designated as Negociant-Manipulant (NM) on their labels. Champagne makers who use only estate fruit are designated Recoltant-Manipulant (RM).

I just adore RM Champagnes because of their individualism. Instead of blending from all over the region they have only their little piece of ground. While this adds risk in a marginal climate like Champagne, it allows wine drinkers a chance to taste the uniqueness of a single location. Like the great vineyard designated wines of Burgundy these RM bottlings speak of the earth from which they came.

I would never tell you that the Negociants are not good wines. Quite the contrary they are very good to excellent, but individual vineyards get swept away in the wake of house style. The counter culture of Champagne is RM wine. Each year these unsung heros make individualism triumph over logic.

Here are some RM suggestions from my tasting notes that are sure to please:

Pierre Gimonnet Cuis 1^er Cru Blanc de Blancs – Disgorged 2005, Blend of 2002 (80%), 2000 (5.5%), 1999 (4%) and 1996 (10.5%) - lemon, pound cake, peach, pear, apple, smoke, excellent texture and a finish of bruised lemon and whip cream

Jean Milan Oger Grand Cru – Only grows Chardonnay, 2001 (50%) , 2002 (50%) – Yeast, English tea biscuit, texture that you will not believe, green apples, lime, finish is clean, elegant and awesome with lime and short dough

Guy Larmandier Brut Rosé Vertus 1^er Cru – smoke, wild strawberry, raspberry, cocoa powder and a mushroom meets cured meat combo in the finish, long and elegant with no dosage so it is very racy. It is great pinot noir with bubbles. I served it to a group of collectors who liked it better than their $250 special cuvee rosé from a NM held in awe, which they were drinking in the other glass! This cost ¼ of that!

Guy Larmandier Cramant Grand Cru 1998 – again no dosage!– talcum powder, cocoa, brown sugar cookie in the nose, steely and neon bright in its flavors with ripe apple, tons of tree fruit and lemon, finish that lasts for minutes. Wow!

Jean Lallement et Fils Verzenay Grand Cru, Cuvée Reserve–All 2000 and disgorged in 2005 – Pear eau d’vie, canned pear, brown butter, Fino sherry & bruised lemon in nose; awesome texture, wild strawberry, meat, cocoa and Macintosh Apple mixed with Fino in the finish, WOW!

Vilmart et Cie Grand Cellier Brut–1/3 each of 2000,2001,2002, disgorged 11/04 – bacon, vanilla and smoke from barrels, pineapple, saline, chalk, great texture, beginning of Meursault and finishes like Krug. Very impressive!

Developing a Wine Program for a Casual Restaurant

Casual Restaurants are Wine Playgrounds

by Ron Edwards, M.S.

Where is America most often dining? At local, casual restaurants that give people the dining out experience without the fuss of getting dressed up. Casual was once synonymous with inexpensive and average, but is no longer. Today, more casual restaurants sport interesting and exciting wine programs than ever before.

If you are developing a wine program for such a restaurant, here are key elements that should be accounted for in it:

Type of cuisine
Check average
Table turnover time
Importance of wines by the glass
Keeping your regulars returning
Wine menu design
Every listing counts

Cuisine is the first and most important consideration when building your wine program. If you’re running a casual Italian trattoria, then why in the world would you have a California focused wine program? ("When in Rome…") La Bécasse, a small French bistro in Northern Michigan, took my advice on this, and took their selections to 90% French from 50% California. Wine sales went up and the feel of the restaurant turned decidedly French, which is exactly the point of a French bistro.

Most casual restaurants have a wide range of flavors represented on their menus. It is important to have a similar range of wine types and styles to accompany them, and usually that means having wines from several regions or countries represented. (“Variety is the spice of life…”)

A restaurant’s check average suggests where wine prices, regardless of markup, should be focused. If you have a check average of $20 per person, most wines on your wine list should be in the $18 to $40 range, since very few customers are going to be interested in wines that are three or four times the cost of the typical meal. On the other hand, a check average of $40 per person attracts guests who will spend more money on wine—certainly up to $80 or $100 a bottle.

To find out how far your customers are will to go up the price scale, experiment. Add one higher priced wine here and there, and see what happens. I recommend that you never write a wine list that is top-loaded with high priced wines—relative to amount of the average check in that restaurant, of course. One more suggestion: Make sure that you have wines in each $10 price bracket, from your lowest to your highest priced wine. This gives customers who want to spend a little more money on wine the opportunity to do so.

The frequency of table turns is another factor which certainly will shape your wine program. Table turnover times of one hour or 75 minutes—so typical in many casual restaurants--suggest that wines by the glass will be the primary focus of the wine program, and not bottled wines because the selection and service process with bottled wines is relatively time consuming.

Wine by the glass programs in casual restaurant should feature: 1.) several price tiers (low to high); 2.) higher markups on lower priced wines and lower markups on higher priced wines; 3.) one or more high profile wines to add wine excitement to the selection and to help build check averages; and, 4.) a means of preserving open wines, such as a gas dispensing system. This latter issue is critical, because tired or oxidized wines lead to disappointed guests and to lost profits.

Regulars are the lifeblood of nearly every restaurant. To keep your customers coming back to your casual restaurant, keep their experience of it fresh, comfortable, and ever-evolving. An easy way to excite regulars who are interested in wine is by frequently changing your selections (by the glass and on the list) and by showcasing these new selections to customers. When I worked at both Five Lakes Grill and Tapawingo (both in Michigan), I knew what wines our regulars had and had not yet tried, and had at least one new wine suggestion for them ready, or even waiting at the table when they were seated their next time in the restaurant. This is a sure means of generating wine excitement.

Casual restaurants call for wine menus that are short and easily absorbed. The menu should be more than a list, since menus that look boring don’t add to the guest’s experience of the restaurant, when, with a little creativity and thoughtful design, they could. Add graphics, color, maps, simple wine descriptions, food suggestions, and/or humor. The wine menu should be easy to use and to read, and make the wine selection process enjoyable, even fun.

And make every wine count. A great deal of effort should go into making sure that every listed wine is the best choice in the market for its price, style, type, and region of origin. Becoming known as a wine destination, whether as a casual or a luxury restaurant, starts with the premise that every wine offered to customers is a reflection of the restaurant’s commitment to the guest’s experience. To paraphrase: “As a restaurant, you are what your guests see.”