Jiles's Blog

Who Am I?

17 years spent living and working in Champagne has allowed Jiles to build up a vast amount of knowledge about all things bubbly as well as a very extensive network of contacts, especially amongst the smaller and less well-known champagne makers whose champagnes will probably amaze you with their quality and diversity.

A job as area manager for Asia and Australia with Moët et Chandon was what first drew Jiles to Champagne after completing an MBA in Luxury Brand Management at ESSEC, a prestigious business school just outside Paris.

After nearly 9 years at Moët Jiles moved back to the UK where he started one of the first online businesses promoting and selling grower champagnes,

However the draw of ‘The King of Wines and the Wine of Kings’ once again proved irresistible and another 8 year stay in Champagne was the result. During this second stay in Champagne Jiles worked with the Syndicat Général des Vignerons de Champagne as an accedited consultant for small, independent champagne makers before setting up his own consultancy.

Jiles now spends his time between England and Champagne.and puts his knowledge and contacts to work helping wine lovers everywhere learn more about champagne and helping businesses and individuals to create their own private champagne brand.

He is the author of two books on champagne, several concise guides to champagne  and is the creator of an online champagne study course called My Champagne Expert

 

 

Champagne Harvest 2013 - Bulletin 3

Jiles Halling

Lucien-Roguet-sign225I recently met a champagne maker called Samuel Roguet of Champagne Lucien Roguet and I was immediately impressed. Certainly by the champagnes, but more so by the man who seems to have a real sense of who he is and what he wants to achieve

In the coming weeks I'll be doing a few more articles and videos about this champagne that I suspect will be one that will be increasingly talked about in the years to come, but for now here's a short video in which Samuel tells us a little about the village of Mailly Champagne, where he has his vines and also explains the system of Réserve Individuelle

 

 

 

 

2013 Champagne Harvest Experience

Jiles Halling

Harvest-benne225It's Harvest time in Champagne and if you plan to be here in the next few weeks then one of the leading small champagne makers is offering you the chance to join in, have a lot of fun and take home some wonderful memories, not to mention tasting some superb champagnes.

The house of Penet-Chardonnet, here in the Grand Cru village of Verzy is offering a Champagne Experience when you get to go out in the vineyards, cut some grapes, watch and learn as the grapes are pressed and have a champagne lunch with the harvest team.

You can find full details HERE

and if you're tempted please contact us as soon as possible to make sure you have a place

Contact details are also on the link above

Champagne Harvest 2013 - Bulletin 2

Jiles Halling

Oger-sign-225For Bulletin 2 from the 2013 Champagne Harvest I went down to Oger, a Grand Cru village in la Côte des Blancs, to speak with Elodie Higonet of Champagne Chapuy which Elodie manages with her sister, Aurore.

You can see what Elodie has to say about the prospects for this year’s harvest in the video at the foot of the page and to put things into context a little, below are a few more interesting facts and figures about the harvest.

 

 Weight of the bunches

Chardonnay-ripening-2-225Elodie mentions that this year’s bunches are not as heavy as she would like. Typically a good bunch would weigh about 125-130 grams, but so far this year they are still below 120 grams and picking is due to start in most areas within a very few days.

The loss in weight per bunch can be made up simply by picking more bunches but that’s more work for the pickers and potentially more costly for the people who are paying them.

 

 Ripeness of the grapes

Champagne makers are really looking for enough sugar in the grapes to produce a minimum of 10% potential alcohol before they will start picking. This year it is touch and go whether they will get to 10 or not.

The samples taken at regular intervals in the vineyards in the run-up to the harvest have been showing 9 or barely 10, but these samples often give a higher reading than  you actually get when the grapes are pressed.

In addition there’s quite a wide variation across the region and amongst the different grapes varieties. The uneven ripeness of this year’s harvest could be a real logistical challenge for those organising the picking teams with the very real possibility of more than one pass in certain vineyards: once for the ripe grapes and again a few days later in the hope that the rest of the grapes have ripened by then.

For now the weather is fine - very warm in fact - so a few days’ wait is not too much of a problem, but if rain comes later on, then the grapes won’t get any riper and so there’s no point waiting to pick; the grapes will have to be gathered in as they are.

All will be revealed in the coming days and weeks so do come back soon for more interviews and more insights into the world of champagne.

You can keep up with things on Facebook too, at My Man In Champagne, and do please 'Like' the page.

Thanks

Jiles (Your Man In Champagne)

 

 

 

Champagne Harvest 2013 - Bulletin 1

Jiles Halling

Harvest-dates-2013-Overview

 

The CIVC has just released the start dates for this year’s harvest in Champagne

Here’s a snap shot of the document

Lots of columns and figures, and I suggest that you enlarge this image and the ones below, to see all the detail.

So much for the information, but what can we understand from this?

 

Actually an awful lot that you might, at first glance, overlook and it all makes the organisation of the harvest much more complex than you might imagine…

Grower Champagnes, part 2 - A Few Misconceptions

Jiles Halling

Benne-of-Pinot-Meunier225In part I of this article on Grower Champagnes we discovered that the difference between the large champagne brands (NM) and the grower champagnes (RM) is that RM don't have the right to buy in more than 5% of the grapes they need – 95% or more must come from their own vineyards.

The two little letters - RM - on the label are what you need to look for on the label to help you identify these small scale champagne producers, but as with so many things, it is easy to over simplify and this can result in people thinking that anything that is not RM is really not worth bothering with.

That’s a huge mistake and if you believe that you will very likely miss out on some fabulous NM champagnes. Let me explain why…