Don’t Miss: Farmer-Fizz-Friday Champagne Tastings

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Steffen Rasch, GoLocalProv Wine Writer

The local food and produce movement is equally vibrant in the world of wine, and a great local event plans to highlight that element in Champagne--Farmer-Fizz-Fridays.

While the Champagne region of France remains dominated by a handful of brand names who mass-produce more than 80% of the total output, smaller independent producers continue to chip away at the market shares each and every year. An interesting fact about Champagne is that while the large Champagne houses, négociants and cooperatives, like Moet & Chandon (2 million cases) and Veuve Clicquot (1 million cases) produce the most wine, they actually only own about 12% of the vineyards in Champagne. This makes them dependent on outside growers to keep up with production. Most of the wines produced by these large brands are blends made of grapes sourced from dozens of growers.

Grower-Champagne

The bubbles made by independent farmers are often referred to as ‘grower-Champagne’. These wines have long been sought-after by connoisseurs and collectors who appreciate them for their diversity and for having more distinctive characteristics than the bubbles from the larger Houses. The ‘grower-Champagne’ market is growing making these delicious bubbles more readily available. A lot are even making their way into our small market.

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Over the past months the folks at Campus Fine Wines, who specialize in small production and hard-to-find wines from small family-owned producers, have tasted through hundreds of ‘grower-Champagnes’ and are gearing up for a month of Farmer-Fizz-Fridays, which starting this coming Friday, December 7th. As during every Friday wine tasting, the Chez Pascal truck will be parked right outside our door (FYI, pate and bubbles go great together!). The tasting starts at 4pm and runs till 7pm. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to try this amazing category of wine. Campus is located at 127 Brook St. in Providence, Rhode Island. (401) 621-9650.

Enjoy!

Steffen Rasch CSW is ready to answer any wine-related questions, comments or concerns you may have. Feel free to email him at [email protected]. And as always, don’t forget to follow GoLocalProv’s Wine Cellar on Facebook and sign up for one of his tastings through the Providence Wine Academy.

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