Getting to know Moët & Chandon
Wanted travelled to Epernay in France to the home of the famous champagne house, Moët & Chandon to understand its history and what makes it so special
Moët & Chandon is arguably the most famous champagne in the world, which is not surprising when you consider that it was also the first champagne house on the main road through the village of Epernay in France, the centre of the champagne region.
Today it is the M in Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), but Moët & Chandon has been crafting champagne since 1743 and owns 1,180ha of the 34,300ha of vineyards across the area, a unique region where the European continental climate crosses with the climate from the Atlantic Ocean to create the perfect environment for growing grapes.
The pinnacle of the Moët & Chandon range is Moët & Chandon Imperial and who better to explain its culture to Wanted than winemaker Marie-Christine Osselin. Sitting in the tasting gardens behind the company’s popular visitor centre on Avenue de Champagne, she told us that Imperial was first created in 1969. Each year the winemakers take the best from the variety of wines and blend them together to create the vintage.
Three grapes are used — chardonnay, pinot noir and meuniet — which are then combined with a number of special reserve wines. No matter the harvest, Osselin says that Imperial must always taste exactly the same.
That was true for decades, but then in 2002 the decision was made to introduce Imperial Rose, which now accounts for 20% of Moët & Chandon sales. It went even further in 2011, creating Ice Imperial, something that might seem sacrilegious to many. However, cellar master Benoît Gouez told us that they realised many people were adding ice to their champagne, which dramatically alters the taste, so rather than ignore this they decided to make a variant that reacts to the ice in the way the house of Moët & Chandon would like.
To assess this, we obviously had to undertake a taste test, under the tutorship of sommelier Fernand de Britto. First though, the question of pronunciation. Everyone has their own way of saying Moët, but De Britto explained that it is always Muu-wet. We are not sure if the written version translates properly but what you need to know is that it is not Mo-a, or Mo-et. Now you know.
At the turn of the last century it wasn’t always the winemakers choice to throw grapes or wine away though, it was Mother Nature’s. In 1900 the decision was taken to find a solution for damage to the vineyards caused by the Phylloxera insect. The company built the Ecole Pratique de Viticulture Moët & Chandon, which was later renamed Fort Chabrol, a facility that worked with all the champagne makers of the region to eradicate the insect. A solution was found in grafting a new type of vine, one that was resistant to the insects. This saved the vineyards in the region and possibly the whole champagne industry.
The facility continued to conduct scientific research into sustainability and biodiversity, both of which are now very high on the agenda for the business. They are currently working with private grape suppliers across the region to create ecological corridors that span 100km and are constantly improving the ecological practices of both the winemakers and the vineyards.