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db exclusive: Annual Champagne trade tasting returns to London
Eight years after the Comité Champagne called time on its Annual Champagne Tasting in London, the capital will once again play host to a trade tasting, solely for the fine French fizz.
As db learnt exclusively last week, this year the UK is to see a professional Champagne tasting event for trade buyers and press, which will be held – as it was before – in the spring.
Organised by the UK’s Champagne Shippers’ Association, which is chaired by James Simpson MW – who is also managing director of Pol Roger Portfolio – the trade tasting is due to take place on 1 April (and yes, despite being on ‘Fools’ day’, this is a genuine event).
Speaking about the tasting, Simpson told db that the association was re-instating a “generic Champagne tasting” in a similar vein to the past annual event, which was organised by the Comité Champagne – that is, until it decided to change the format in 2017, and again in 2018, before ditching the UK event altogether (read on for more on that)
‘Getting off our arses’
Simpson, having noted that The Champagne Shippers’ Association was founded in 1913, said that a trade event by the organisation had been a long time coming: “After 112 years we have finally got off our arses,” he joked about the decision to host the generic trade tasting.
As for the date, he said, “We are holding it on 1 April, because no one else is doing anything that day,” and, as for the location, the tasting will be housed in the Tate Modern on London’s Bankside.
“We are going back to the Peretti/Comité Champagne grand plan of a generic Champagne tasting for trade and press with non-vintage and vintage self-pour tables and 50 producers, including houses, cooperatives and growers,” he told db.
He said that The Champagne Shippers’ Association had decided not to go back to Banqueting House on London’s Whitehall – which was the location for the former Annual Champagne Trade Tasting for many years – because such a venue was expensive, “and we want to be modern”.
‘Terrific wines’
Commenting that the 1 April event should be a draw for the UK trade and press, he said “The quality of what is coming out of Champagne now is terrific”, referring to releases from a string of excellent harvests in the region, particularly 2018, ‘19 and ‘20.
He added, “It’s all very well talking a good game, but we need to open bottles,” explaining the reason for laying on the tasting, which he assured would be comprehensive: “We have all the big boys signed up”, along with a range of grower-producers and cooperatives.
Simpson then commented, “We are all holding hands, everyone is on the same side, from the bottom to the middle to the top,” referring to a common aim among attendant producers to promote Champagne in the UK market.
Simpson also promised that the tasting would be a chance for the sommelier or buyer as well as the wine writer to “taste everything in one place.”
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‘It needs doing’
Acknowledging that it “was an old-fashioned thing to do,” he then said, “But it needs doing”, adding, “It also shows our confidence in the UK Champagne trade.”
More details on the event will be out in due course, but Simpson said that the tasting would start with a “press preview”, and assured it would be “trade-only” while stressing, “And visitors will be given a physical tasting booklet – they don’t want to be given a QR code!”
Finally, although Simpson said that the name of the tasting had yet to be confirmed, he told db, “We’ll probably call it ‘The Definitive Champagne Tasting’.”
An end to the old days
Back in 2016, as db was first to report, the Comite Champagne decided to end its traditional approach to presenting Champagne to a UK trade audience with a single large-scale event for buyers, called the Annual Champagne Tasting, which, for more than 20 years, had been held in central London in March.
However, following a backlash from the UK trade, the Champagne association trialled a new event in 2017 called The Official #Champagne Experience Day, which was held at a slightly later date (29 March), with enhanced content, and a novel, modern location – it was the first wine tasting to be held at design college Central Saint Martins in King’s Cross, London.
Changing the format
Following this, in 2018, the format was changed again, and the Comité Champagne decided to partner with LWF organisers, Brintex and hold a tasting within the London wine fair at Kensington Olympia.
With this development the annual tasting had again been rebranded, named Champagne Live, and housed in two neighbouring rooms at Olympia on May 22 – the second day of the London fair.
It also, for the first time, included a consumer-facing element, with a free-pour tasting for the public in the evening following the day-long event for the trade.
Themed tasting tables
Champagne Live also did away with the traditional format of individual brand tables and instead featured themed tasting tables reflecting the key styles of Champagne.
However, in January 2019, as db was first to learn, the Comité Champagne decided not to repeat Champagne Live at the London Wine Fair, nor hold an annual tasting in London.
A change of focus
This, then head of the Comité Champagne Vincent Perrin stressed, was no reflection of the declining importance of the UK as a market for Champagne – nor reduced budgets. Instead, it was part of a new strategy for the organisation, which would see it focus on smaller educational events, as opposed to one large, annual sampling exercise.
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