I always used to tell people that a hectare of prime vineyards in Champagne - in a Grand Cru village - would set you back about a million euros. It seems I'm way behind the times.
I was chatting to a prominent vigneron the other day, who has a very substantial estate, and he told me that he had recently been offered a hectare of Grand Cru at 1.8 million euros! That's a lot of money and it fact it's so much that you'd never get your money back from making champagne - or to put it another way, starting a champagne business these days is simply doesn't make economic sense.
To underline the point, so my source told me, here's what's happended to a few prices over the opast 10 years:
- the price of a hectare of vines has gone up 72%
- the price of a kilogram of grapes has increased 20%
- but the selling price of a bottle of champagne has gone up a mere 1.5%
Who'd be a champagne maker eh?
Never mind, it's much easier being a champagne drinker!
Stay Bubbly
Jiles
Here's a story about a champagne maker who not only 'talks the talk' when it comes to looking after the environment, but 'walks the walk' as well.
Anyway, François has recently announced that from next January he is changing the colour of the bottle for his rosé from clear to amber.
Why not? Well for a start clear bottles aren't re-cycled, at least not as clear glass.
Hello everyone,
Yesterday I visited #Champagne Tarlant in Oeuilly. Many of you may know Tarlant already. It's one of the more prominent 'Grower Champagne', it's exported to many countries around the world and it's by far and away the most active on social media, so there's no excuse for not finding out about it.