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Is Champagne’s bubble about to burst?
France’s historic region says it can preserve the legendary sparkling wine, but its hedonistic subtleties can be reproduced in other parts of the world.
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Global demand for champagne has not been this weak since 2002, a period when the world was still reeling from the 9/11 attacks and the dot-com crash.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Lara Williams
Champagne and its bubbles are at an existential crossroads. And it’s not just because US President Donald Trump has threatened to place a 200 per cent tariff on wine from the European Union
I got a sense of a broader and deeper crisis from Ms Severine Frerson, the first female Chef de Cave at the 200-year-old Maison Perrier-Jouet. We met in the producer’s luxurious tasting room — something you’d get if you crossed an art nouveau wine bar with a sci-fi laboratory. It has raw stone-lined walls and a central lighting podium can be summoned out of a long white table, rising to illuminate champagne samples, so tasters can better evaluate their colours.
