GH: Historically there has been a stylistic difference between what the French and Europeans drink and what North Americans drink. Is that a fair statement?
TT: To put it into the crudest possible terms: the cliché is that the French tend to like their wines very young and brisk. The British, on the other hand, appreciate a patina of antique flavour in the wine. And the theory is that the Americans like the sweet stuff. Some of those perceptions are self-fulfilling prophecies. I know somebody who worked as a cellar rat at one of the big commercial houses and he told me that the blend for the British market was given a dosage consisting of Spanish brandy to give it a little of that oxidative, antique character. And he said this in very hush-hush tones because it’ s not legal. That strikes me as a kind of craftsmanship for the production of a product to serve a market’ s taste preferences, and I don’ t think there’ s anything wrong with that. It’ s not inherently dishonourable to make industrial products by industrial protocols. What is dishonourable is to wrap them in this specious kind of marketing romance about how this is supposedly“ fine wine” and Champagne is inimitable, and all this stuff.
GH: Do you think that grower Champagnes benefit from this image that has been created by the négociants? In our market, whether it comes from a grower or a négociant, Champagne is an expensive wine.
TT: Yes; the difference is that the grower’ s price is based on what it actually costs him to produce and his need to feed his family. The négociant’ s cost of production is enormously lower, because they have economies of scale that the grower doesn’ t have. So what we are paying for is a négociant’ s advertising and PR budget, including product placements in films, at sporting events and all the rest of it. The price, at least in the U. S., for a Non-Vintage Brut, between a grower and a négociant is roughly the same. The difference is, with the grower, you are actually paying the price for his wine. But I agree with you: Champagne, by its very nature, is not and can never be a cheap, everyday wine. One of the reasons I got into the business— apart from the overriding philosophies and so forth— was that I couldn’ t afford to drink Champagne as often as I felt like drinking it. This was a way I could drink Champagne more often without having to pay retail for it. It was just pure, unseemly sensual greed on my part. I just wanted to be able to drink Champagne in the style to which I hoped to become accustomed. �
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