Introducing Rob Rand, UK MD of Lanson and our speaker for the night, Hilary Reid Evans commented that he was ‘almost a local’, having gone to school at St Edward’s and played cricket on the Dragon grounds – not to mention playing against our very own VP, Jasper Morris.
But that was before champagne got him in his grip. He’s now had twenty years in the champagne trade – and never a glass of Prosecco has touched his lips (he said…).
Champagne is the wine for awaking and celebrating emotional bonds, a wine with a touch of magic about it. For this reason many people develop a strong attachment to a brand. It’s also an extremely complex wine with a production process to match. Maintaining the acidity of the wine is critical – hence chef de cave Hervé Dantan’s consistent stress on freshness and elegance.
After a glass of Lanson Le Blanc de Blancs NV (RRP £76) – see below for detail – to freshen our brains, Rob then launched us into a game of Lanson-themed ‘Heads and Tails’. Ten questions and last one standing to be the winner. The date of the founding of the House? 1760 of course. And, as we learnt later, that’s a highly significant point of reference for the Lanson labels. Each of their Création range is numbered with reference to the number of harvests since 1760. Thus, wine no 2, Le Black Création 258 Brut has the 2018 harvest as its base wine, while wine no 4, Lanson Le Rosé Création 67 is the 67th incarnation of their rosé.
The ’Heads and Tails’ questions came thick and fast: how many million bubbles in a bottle of champagne? 49 million. How many bottles do you need for a champagne bath? 350 please. Was it on Marie Antoinette’s right or left breast that the champagne coupe was supposedly modelled?
Two members were left standing when Rob ran out of questions – congratulations to guest Tricia Miller and Club member Brigitte Blakey! Their reward? A Lanson Pink Brolly and Lanson cufflinks. And congrats to the Club as a whole – no other audience who played the game had got beyond eight right answers.
Perhaps in return for his questions, members fired their own champagne queries at Rob. What temperature should champagne be stored at for the long term? Just match the year round 12° of the Reims caves and you’ll be fine. And serving temperature? Trickier – but 6-8° should do fine. for most situations. For most fridges that means 24 hours worth of chilling. Whatever the area of questioning – marketing, production, history, storage, serving, food matches – Rob was generous with his knowledge and his time.
As we moved through the tasting, we learnt that there are 1 billion bottles stored in Champagne’s cellars, that around 300 mn are shipped each year with the best ever year being 2022 when 324m were transported. Britain is the world’s no 2 export market, taking 30 mn a year (just behind the US at 35 mn) but the French still lead the field – 140mn bottles a year. The US figure may drop this year – as it does every time there’s a change of president. Who knew? On average 25% of the harvest each year goes into the stock of reserve wines which are essential to maintaining the year to year consistency of the Lanson wines. That’s an average figure – in high yield years such as 2017 or 2018 it can reach 35-40%. 2024 was a poor year in terms of volume (so less into reserve) but the quality was very good so these will provide base wines . Climate change means riper grapes and thus lower dosage. The recent changes in UK duty structure may have a long term ‘gravitational effect’ which will pull the typical champagne ABV down from 12.5% to 12% - thus saving the consumer 10p a bottle in tax.
But, back to the wines themselves. The first of the six we tasted – the Lanson Le Blanc de Blancs NV is 100% Chardonnay, mostly from the Cote de Blancs but some from the Montagne de Reims to add complexity. The composition is 60% base wine from the 2018 harvest with 40% reserve wines. In a word, the aim of Dantan and his 8-strong team of winemakers is purity. 7% dosage ; citrus and a touch of brioche on the nose and a strong sense of minerality (even salinity). Rob’s advice – always leave a bit in the glass and come back as the wine warms to get the full sense of complexity and character.
Wine no 2 was Le Black Création 258 Brut (RRP £43). Lanson now provide detailed information on the composition of each wine – including the base harvest year – on the back label rather than simply saying ‘NV’. This wine is 50% Pinot Noir (giving length and weight), 35% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Menier. Pears, apple and citrus on the nose with a touch of fresh-baked pastry; grapefruit and mandarin orange in the mouth and a long generous finish. A question about the difference in bubble quality between wines 1 and 2 gave Rob the opportunity to talk about the under-rated importance of ‘texture’ in champagne while contrasting the more ‘aggressive’, ‘chalkier’ bubbles of wine no 1 compared to wine 2, both of which had been aged for the same time and were from the same base harvest.
Wine no 3 was Lanson Le Green Bio Organic (£58). This is a biodynamic production – with five underlying principles: maximise bio-diversity in the vineyard (apparently having three metre tall trees in the vineyards reduces yield by 25% and forces the vines to push their roots deeper – both good things); grass cover throughout the vineyards (minimises soil erosion); no heavy machinery (nothing but hands and horses); what grows in the vineyard stays in the vineyard and lastly no pesticides or herbicides. Eschewing pesticides can produce problems in damp years like 2024 – there are no natural remedies against mildew which can kill a crop in 24 hours. Recently, Voltis became the first grape variety resistant to downy and powdery mildew to be approved for use the Champagne AOC. Currently, said Rob, the taste of Voltis is not brilliant but they are continuing to work at it and with it.
The demand for organic (and biodynamic) wines is ultimately driven by consumers and there are now both retailers and restaurants that only sell organic product. The Rivoli Bar at the Ritz for example serves only biodynamic wines and Lanson is its champagne of choice. In the long run Rob sees it contributing towards Lanson’s drive to long-term sustainability in Champagne. Le Green is a classic blend (46% PN, 36% Chardonnay and 18% Pinot Meunier) with a 6% dosage and four years of ageing. Based, like previous wines, on the remarkable 2018 vintage, it showed pear, peach and apple on the nose plus a hint of citrus; opening in the mouth and finish to smokier and spicier notes. Ideal with food – especially Asian cuisine.
Wine no 4 was Lanson Le Rosé Création 67 (£44). This is based on the 2019 harvest with Pinot Noir making up just over 50% of the blend. The salmon pink colour comes from assemblage rather than the saignée method – meaning that 6.6% of the final blend is made up of still red wines, mostly Pinot Noir from Bouzy and Les Riceys. ‘Bouzy Rouge’ – the still red wine of Champagne – has always had an almost mythical appeal but, according to Rob, in reality it’s not up to much. ‘Insipid’ was his summary… Definitely better to put your Pinot Noir into champagne…particularly when it comes from the Aube, which more or less meets the top of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or.
On the nose this had strawberry, rhubarb and a touch of darker fruits with light floral notes on a palate dominated by strawberry and redcurrant. Although the Lanson approach is to avoid malolactic fermentation as far as possible since it reduces the sense of freshness, it’s unavoidable with older wines stored in oak and around 25% of their rosé has gone through MLF (which is also becoming harder to avoid in a warming climate). In response to a question about pressure, Rob gave us the rule of thumb used in the trade: each one gram of sugar in the liqueur de tirage (used to start the second fermentation) generates around 1 atmosphere of pressure in the bottle. This wine has been a big success in the soaring UK market for rosé. It now accounts for around 27% of champagne sales – compared to around 10% for organic.
The last two of the tasting were both vintage wines: Lanson Le Vintage 2013 (£50 RRP) and Noble Champagne Brut 2004 (RRP £150).
2013 was another high-quality vintage – despite being the only harvest to be picked in October this century. August is now the norm. Similarly, the old rule of thumb that from flowering to harvest would demand 100 days is now broken. These days it’s down to 88-92 days and the earlier, warmer spring months put other pressures on the vines – and the viticulturists. If January and February are warm, then the vines wake up … and then get hit by frost which can destroy 30-70% of the crop.
Le Vintage 2013 – just 53% Pinot Noir and 47% Chardonnay – is produced only from Grand and Premier Cru sites. No Meunier, no malolactic – resulting in a wine with focused elegance, freshness and intensity. Initially, orchard fruits dominate the nose but lead to notes of hazelnut and honey and then a touch of citrus and citrus blossom. Serve it at 8-10° to bring out the flavours – perhaps to accompany dishes with a touch of sweetness (and nuts) in the sauce.
The final wine came accompanied with stories of Champagne and war. In the 19th century trampling armies resulted in what Rob called the ‘greatest sampling exercise in history’. Marauding soldiers took the taste and the memories back to royals and nobles – who then bought in quantity. Apparently there are no hidden caches of wine in the Lanson cellars, though one Pol Roger forklift driver who knocked down a wall (by mistake!) was rewarded by the discovery of wine concealed from the occupying Germans. Saved him from the sack, at any rate.
Lanson is fundamentally a Pinot Noir house but the 2004 Noble Champagne Brut proves they can do wonders with Chardonnay. The blend is 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir – all from Grand Cru sites; one being a walled clos in Reims itself. The Noble is only produced in exceptional years and this was one of them – summer 2004 was cool and damp but September more than made up for it.
A beautifully complex nose – just a touch of rancio, giving a hint of blue cheese and spicy sous-bois – and an evolved and harmonious palate. This wine was bottled in 2005 and so has had nearly twenty years of ageing in bottle with no exposure to oxygen. Open it and the wine instantly explodes into life as it hits the glass. Magnificent! Drink with lobster or rabbit was Rob’s recommendation.
A final question probed the issue of ‘grand marque’ versus ‘grower champagne’. The complexities of Brexit mean that grower champagne is now hard to import in small quantities and is mostly consumed in France these days. A shame, yes, but with grand marque champagnes of this quality we can hardly feel we have lost out too badly!
This was a superb and generous tasting. A generous offer too – which members took full advantage of. Thank you, Rob, for a great experience!
Venue TCB Marquee
GH: 13/11/24