- Speaker #0
All right, welcome everyone. Welcome to this second episode of Behind the Label. I'm super happy to be with you today. And as a guest, I have Maxime from Aberger Champagne.
- Speaker #1
Thank you to welcome me. It's a podcast. It's always interesting to have this type of experience. So thank you very much to welcome me.
- Speaker #0
Thanks for being here. So you told us a few weeks or a few days ago that you are currently in Hong Kong.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
And so we're like... Let's do something together.
- Speaker #1
Short organization, but we are together, so it's good.
- Speaker #0
Very short organization. So before starting, can you start by introducing yourself?
- Speaker #1
Yes, sure. So I'm Maxime Pierlot. I'm from France, from Champagne. I'm born close to Champagne region in Ardennes. So the only department in Champagne-Ardennes where we don't produce Champagne. But I'm inside since I'm very young because I have a lot of friends. in this region and many are growers now, and son of growers. So it's like this, I discovered the wine. And I entered in this business by Adrien, so by my boss now. It is a friend since a very long time. But it's by him I discovered this part of the business of wine. So yeah. It was like this. I am coming in this business. So I am the export manager of Aberger. So a family estate. I will give more information about the estate after. But yes, so I travel around the world for present the diversity of Champagne and the typicity of Berger.
- Speaker #0
Amazing. thank you very much for this maxim so the goal today is that we have three glasses in front of us um and there are two games inside of that first is champagne or not champagne okay and the second one is uh abergère or not abergère because one of them is one of your champagne so we'll have the opportunity to to taste all of that let's start with glass number one so we have the numbers of the glass and we'll debrief this at the end. of the episode let's taste the first one yes cheers already at the nose it's uh it's it's close to uh to champagne yes could be traditional method as we uh the
- Speaker #1
color yes a little bit cold but with some green uh very fine bubble
- Speaker #0
It became a little bit warm because we installed everything for the episode. So it's a little bit warm, but it's okay.
- Speaker #1
Yes. So it's good. This is the first time. This is very interesting. I'm pretty sure it's not champagne.
- Speaker #0
Pretty sure it's not champagne.
- Speaker #1
It's by the bubble for me. Because I think the wine, it was during some minutes. We wait for due and I think we lost too much bubble compared to. So maybe we add a great aging. I think it's with a traditional method, but more short compared to champagne. So maybe some months, but not a long aging on the lease for the second fermentation.
- Speaker #0
Yes.
- Speaker #1
It's always complicated. to do and to be sure because blind testing it's always uh difficult um and we need to be humble on the when you when you do so so we will see but absolutely in my head it makes this no
- Speaker #0
no 100 agree and you know the number of times you think that you're tasting something and actually it's not this at all yes like you know in your mind you're like yes Zippen of the winemaker style of making wine.
- Speaker #1
Because if you use a lot of barrels or different types of vinification, it has an impact on the wine. So it's always interesting, but complicated when you are in blind tasting, to be sure. So, yeah, it's just a pleasure to discover. Because I think we produce wine not for blind tasting, but for sharing moments with... person with the people uh with friends family people we just met and uh it's very Important, I think, to continue to have this spirit in wine, to just take pleasure. You have some people, they haven't the knowledge for really appreciate the details, but they appreciate the wine. And the moment they share with the person they are in the moment of opening. So it's very, very important, I think, to continue to be in this spirit.
- Speaker #0
Absolutely. And we do this blind tasting, but we do it nicely. So we do two things at the same time, a wine geek stuff and sharing a good moment. So it's a good balance. Maxime, talk to us a bit about Aberger. So it's a grower champagne.
- Speaker #1
Yes.
- Speaker #0
But can you tell us a bit more about the story of it and the philosophy around this champagne?
- Speaker #1
Yeah, it's a very particular... house in a grower grower philosophy because we we are owner of all hectares we so this is why we are grower so for the story the is now the fifth generation on the estate it's adria but all generations gave something to the next one and the two third generation was more focused on it's like many, many estates during this time, before the Second World War, there was only producer of grapes and sell to international brand. During this time, the international brand was the estate producing the wine and sell to the world. It's the third generation, so the grandfather of Adrien, decided in 1949 to create the brand a point berger a point berger why ah it's because since five generations all given name starts by a so it's very uh traditional now and we continue because the the son and daughter of adrian and the same for the sister of adrian they continue to to do this this tradition um and i think it's something very good uh like this we don't need to change the brand
- Speaker #0
Fortunately, my name is Antoine, so I can join the family anytime.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. And so the grandfather created the brand in 1949, like I told. But the father of Adrien was more in the philosophy of the two first generations. He wanted to expand the vines. So he started with six hectares. And now we are owner of 65 hectares.
- Speaker #0
Wow.
- Speaker #1
So it's a real success. and he was very focused to produce a very good quality of crops and sell with a good price to international brands. So like this, he can expand and can give to the next generation something very special because now Adrien has three terroirs from different places in Champagne.
- Speaker #0
The hectares is huge.
- Speaker #1
Yes, we just use 45 for Berger because we have 20 hectares in... the department of haine so between champagne and paris for a moment adrian prefer to separate because the profile of wine you have after with these graphs is completely different and they prefer to be focused between code de blanc valley du pimoin suits of code de blanc and cezan so it's a region where we are present for the production of berger we have mainly Chardonnay for 70%. 20% of Pinot Noir and 10% of Manille. So it's really since Adrien came back in 2014, we changed our philosophy from the vines to the wine, but we always have the link because without the good grapes, you can't produce a good champagne or good wine in general because we are wine before champagne. And yes, Adrien, so when he came back, he wanted really to identify. each terroir from the family and promote to and show to the people the quality and the diversity we have in Berger.
- Speaker #0
Yeah and really of terroir champagne because one of the two differences that we have in champagne is that you have very big houses on one side making like good product but standard products that are nice and very well distributed and on the other hand you have smaller houses and more dedicated on identifying the terroirs, making wines that really reflect a specific place of Champagne and not like the whole Champagne. Yes,
- Speaker #1
it was a big change since I think in the 20 last year. We had a new... New champagne philosophy in general. You have the international brand continue to do very, for me, a very good champagne because, you know, like a big one. I don't want to give name, but they produce millions of bottles. And for me, the quality for a million of bottle produce is great. But it's more classic. They wanted to, and I think it's great to give a product a little bit more standard. But I appreciate it and it opens the door for discovering the rest. It's like the first cuvée of Berger. I always tell to the people, we need a very great product for people who want to go to a very special prestige wine. So I think we work well together. Everyone can give something to the region. They do a lot of marketing in the world. For this reason, I think now I can be in Hong Kong because without the work they made during a long time, the grower was just a producer of grapes, but not a producer of wine. So I think we work together for champagne. But after, it's the goal to grow, to present a new diversity and a new wine. It's now a little bit more like Burgundy. I think not, you know, precise like a plot wine. We do some plot wine too, but it's not, if we have around 135, 39 plots, we don't do...
- Speaker #0
139 different bottles.
- Speaker #1
So we are a region of blend. So we continue to blend, we continue to build in tradition. After the grower now can produce some different wine for show. a special soul special variety because we do some Pinot Petit Melietto. Petit Melietto is an old and forgotten variety and it's very interesting to now do a new wine with this cuvée so it's 100% Melietto it's a very intense variety but but need to be in the right condition for doing this wine. And with the climate change, yes, we have now the possibility to do new wine. We will talk about some other wine after. But yes, it's great to have a grower on the international board. We work together, I think.
- Speaker #0
Let's taste the second one.
- Speaker #1
Yes. Cheers.
- Speaker #0
We are in China. We need to cheer every time we drink. but i think in france too the profile of this one is very different when i when i first made it i was like this is a decider because you have a lot of yes apple in the nose it's very impressive the bubble is very fine too yeah very fine bubble you feel um You feel also a bit of yeast when you taste it. I'm not sure it's a traditional method, this one.
- Speaker #1
Yes, compared to the first one, it's more short. Yeah, we are more in the young wine form. Maybe the first one was a little bit more older, maybe a vintage. This one, I think we are...
- Speaker #0
Yeah, or a bit of wood, maybe, on this one. Yes,
- Speaker #1
yes.
- Speaker #0
This one, for me, is potentially a petnat, you know, like an ancestral method.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, more a charmat method. Yes. Yeah,
- Speaker #0
maybe. We'll see that in a minute. One of the things that is very important when discussing about André Berger, at least for me when I discovered what you do, is that you have different champagne for... very different moment and you are for me you are very gastronomy champagne meaning that i don't know if i would drink andré berger just you know at beginning of the night with friends i think you must have a brut that you can make it but i mean by that that a lot of your wines can pair extremely well with with food yes i think it's wine in general and
- Speaker #1
Adrien, when he came back, he wanted to promote the terroir. And it was not for to be fashion. It was because we had some particularity in the soul, in the vines. It can be interesting to promote after in wine. But when you have something good in vines... you need to transform to be good in wine. So it's after many years with the experience, he decided to produce some plot wine. And this experience gave to him some, again, some experience. So he made all the wine in the same spirit. When you do a blend, you need to have a very good product. For me, when you want to know about were estate you need to start to taste by the first one because it's easier to produce a plot wine compared to a more important cuvee like for berger origin origin it's 50 of the total production so it's a huge volume compared to a to plot wine when you have a two thousand or three thousand bottle um so it's i think it's the spirit of berger is to produce always great wine but you can appreciate with knowledge and without knowledge because it's in the world the consumers are not in the same level and we need to to give to them the possibility to to really appreciate it's true when you go in the plot wine i think it's not great to start by this it's better to to have a sommelier for explain you and to have a food because wine for me, it's a moment of sharing. And when you share, often it's with food. So it's always in this idea. It's not, Adrien don't want to be only focused about restaurants for distributed wine. And I think we can drink a plot wine only for aperitif. But yes, in the reality, it's great. to see the wine with a great chef in the world can transmit emotion with the food and the wine. So this is what we want. Every estate wants to be only in restaurants because you have all these emotions. But I think it's great to have some wine for a moment of life, easy moment for celebrate life, because champagne continues to be the wine for celebration, for celebrate. waiting, born...
- Speaker #0
Yes, every moment of life. Exactly. And I think,
- Speaker #1
yeah, we need to keep this philosophy. But close to this philosophy, we now... It's in some years, we see the champagne changed. Champagne changed a lot in restaurants. Before, it was only for aperitif. Now, it's two in the menu, in the pairing menu. And we can really appreciate the champagne in a restaurant for different... Yeah,
- Speaker #0
plus I think that having sparkling at a certain moment can be super nice. You know, like if you do a full menu with food and wine pairing, you take a bit of sparkling, like in the middle of the menu, like, you know, an aged vintage plot, something. So it's already super complex, but it does the transition between whites and reds.
- Speaker #1
it refreshes the the mouth and stuff like it's really uh really good yes definitely and uh you have some gastronomy like the japanese gastronomy work perfectly with champagne because they are on the product the fish and they don't um they don't do a lot of sauce like in france we we like to have a juice with the beef and the sometimes it's more spicy or more fat uh it's great because me i I like this food. But when you go in Japan... I think the precision of champagne with the precision of gastronomy in Japan, it's just perfect. You take a blanc de blanc with just the fish, it's perfect.
- Speaker #0
Yeah, I can imagine that it's amazing, the type of things I love to do. You told me you're not a super fan of... non-alcoholic drink.
- Speaker #1
Yes. Yes, it's because I think the wine is a product created during... It's not, you know, just created since two years or three years. It's very old. It's by tradition. And no alcoholic wine is not natural for me. We need to eat. I can understand some estates in some regions, they want to produce for touch and new consumers. But for me... It's better to produce a great juice of grapes, but not to change the consumers. Because it's all the industry sometimes. So we think it's great for some years, but for the business, for doing some revenue. But we need to see for the 10, 20 next years. And if all the young generation start to drink no alcoholic wine. uh it will be a disaster for many estates and we lost for me the spirit of wine is not to to to be a completely drunk and i think we need just need to educate people about for drink better less but better wine um our spirit too because you have a very great spirit spirit but yeah we i think we need to do to educate more kids uh about about wine more earlier to be sure they don't go into the extreme of consumption. And they will appreciate it at the end more compared to what they do now. And I think it's the goal of all estates to do this because the consumers can be lost now. We have a lot of different possibilities. The diversity is higher. It's great, I think, for the consumer to have the possibility to change, to test, to discover. But the non-alcoholic wine, I have a problem with this because it's the name wine inside. It can be a new product with a new name, but it's not wine. Wine, if you go in the dictionary, it's... with alcohol it's not a result and we lost the new consumers for me it's better to do a good juice you have a wine juice grape juice, what you want but wine stay wine and yes the method for do it's not good for me it's a ecology too and maybe we need to be more like we want we need to do better you
- Speaker #0
non-alcoholic things like you know when you look at soda it's a it's a nightmare like yes the cola whatever it's just full of sugar industrial like you drink i would i would 200 better drink a good champagne than a cola actually yes definitely so it's a natural sugar it's not a natural process it's fermented it's Like you take one glass of this or one glass of cola, I think you're better off with a glass of champagne.
- Speaker #1
But I think it was for the social part too because some person want to be, you know, if you have wine and a person close to you have cola, in the past we were not just with the person. Why you don't drink wine? I think it's okay. People were a little bit... but now i think the new generation like personally i don't care sometimes i drink alcohol sometimes i don't if you don't want to drink no problem but um but i think so they have now this wave of no alcoholic wine uh for um on the yes i think the marketing is on the pregnant uh yeah um woman it's for um for yes it's it can be yes a product but for me there was a term wine is not adapted. It's a new category. If this can help some growers actually in the big region where they produce a lot of juice and they don't find the distribution for the wine, can be a solution. But for me, it's not a solution for long term. It will be fashion and I'm not sure we will have this category for a long, long time.
- Speaker #0
And we've been drinking wine for 3,000 years, so we'll probably continue drinking wine for about 3,000 years.
- Speaker #1
We need to be strong to continue. But yes, drink better. You have, and it's not just a question of price. You can drink a very good wine for a good price. And this is a responsibility of estate too, to be better and not search only margins, but search the white. price for the product for me we need to respect the consumers and we need to respect the market because the market is always different you can see during 25 it was a very busy year for me we work two times more for the same result but It's important to continue, yes, to be precise in the price too, in the wine definitely, but in the price for the new generation can continue to drink.
- Speaker #0
Speaking of choosing good wines, we'll go to the next part of this show with our game, which wine would you choose? So we just need a little bit of logistics. Perfect. So... Maybe for people watching, you know the rules, but we have prepared a small game. The game is which wine would you choose? So I'm going to display a few wines that I'm sure you know of, and I will show you some situation and you need to tell me which wine would you choose for this situation. So here are the wines. We can take a few seconds to have a look into it. And the first question is...
- Speaker #1
which wine would you choose to celebrate new year definitely champagne definitely champagne and um but um we have a plot was it um i think 2009 for
- Speaker #0
remember vintage for the next year to remember all the resolutions yes that you failed in the engine and 2009 is only in magnum so it's a perfect format
- Speaker #1
for the new year so definitely 2009 we've a potash so i think in the in this list we can use two we are from champagne so i think a lake law so uh the hundred percent money can be very interesting because we we have a great structure it's from red red grabs so black grabs so it's very uh Anton Meunier with a lot of freshness. so it can be nice i don't know after what we have for uh so but the fairway ange rouge the couture champion 100 percent pinot noir from fairbriange it's a very great choice for the poté maybe i i take the fairbriange rouge like this i have i continue with some champagne you still have some and which one would you choose for milestone birthday
- Speaker #0
milestone birthday can you explain me like you you add some goals to achieve and you celebrate you know this milestone or yeah wedding anniversary I remember saying behind the camera so
- Speaker #1
birthday can be a champagne too the rosé de seigneur so it's a very interesting rosé de seigneur in Berger because we have 50 chardonnay 50 pinot noir but it's blend before before bottling so it's during the maceration we we put chardonnay and pinot noir together um it's uh rosé but with a very intense and very fresh because we have the part of chardonnay gives this freshness so yes for this rosettini which one would you choose for a reunion with old friends ah we can use a wine from from other region old friends so it can be Chateau Langebache nice Pauillac great great Bordeaux with great structure so we can can be the last boat which
- Speaker #0
one would you choose with chow's cheese try to be a regional you need to know
- Speaker #1
I'm not
- Speaker #0
I don't eat cheese so this podcast
- Speaker #1
ends today but I after many experience and I made some some great I tried to to do some some pairing and I think Fairbriange Blanc can be a great option definitely white wine for majority of cheese is better and Fairbriange Blanc 100% Chardonnay is a very great option and that's it
- Speaker #0
That was the last one. Thank you very much for doing this. We have the perfect recommendation for each occasion. Let's taste the third wine.
- Speaker #1
Cheers.
- Speaker #0
Cheers.
- Speaker #1
Santé. I think I know what is this wine. For me, Berger is in this glass.
- Speaker #0
yeah for me too for me it's a vintage that's an old one but um if i know what we have normally in hong kong so it's uh i'm not in the very i mean blind tasting but i know some someone we are here or not um on the what uh or earlier so the missing bottle my partner in hong kong have so yeah i think under we tested this wine yesterday so it helps yes so i think yeah i know what is it yeah for me in the three um i
- Speaker #1
think this one is champagne when i first smelled it i thought it was a blonde blonde it is a blonde for me and um And what's amazing is that the...
- Speaker #0
complexity of it is a is really nice like it's really uh uh depth and and rich in mouth it's it's from the soil because uh if i'm right i think it's uh the peanuts it's on the post and chardonnay from auger with a lot of shark and with the tipsy of salt with so shark but sand and give a lot of minerality in wine so yes i think it's it is it's fine but we tested many times yesterday during the tour with aurelien for a visit some clients um we had this uh this qv and it's vintage 2018 and it was very i tested a lot this qv why it's because it was the first time we decided to do experimentation between caps and cork for the second fermentation in bottle. So in 2018, Adrien decided to do half with caps and half of the production with cork. And at the end of this experimentation, we decided to use cork for all plot wine and all vintage wine in estate. Why? It's because you need minimum five years to see a difference. But after five years, your wine will be better. And in the estate, plot wine and vintage stay more than five years on the leaves. So it makes sense to use cork for this aging.
- Speaker #1
What's amazing is how long it stays in the mouth after that. It's a really long end of mouth. It's really amazing.
- Speaker #0
But I think it's, you know, we can sometimes, some people say, why is this? It's in Premier Cru, Grand Cru. But the majority of Grand Cru in Champagne, mainly in Côte d'Eblanc, we know why. Because the structure of the Chardonnay, the long taste we can have with the wine. We have 50% vinificate in barrels, barrels of 228 liters. So Burgundy style. It's so great structure too, but we don't search the toasted. Why? It's because we think the barrels for Adrien need to follow the wine, but need to touch too much. And during the process of making barrels, we ask all suppliers for not a lot of toasted. Yeah,
- Speaker #1
not too strong, not too warm.
- Speaker #0
Don't crack too much wood. for we want the micro-oxygenation but we don't want to give other too much flavor after I tested some wine with this philosophy it's great but it's the philosophy of Adrien and Berger no
- Speaker #1
amazing one so I hope we are right yes we'll be good in it
- Speaker #0
Everything is in the camera.
- Speaker #1
If we're wrong, it's terrible.
- Speaker #0
We can't do it again.
- Speaker #1
Let's maybe welcome Aurélien to do the reveal. And then we have one bonus Maxime told us.
- Speaker #2
Yes.
- Speaker #1
So we welcome Aurélien for the next minutes of the show. Thank you very much for welcoming us at CLN.
- Speaker #2
thank you guys it's me again so back to the back to the show so this time i will try not to uh make any mistake with the name so i know we're having maxim maxim with us and not not andre so yeah
- Speaker #1
time for the reveal uh let's uh let's take the first one
- Speaker #2
So the first one, do you guys have any idea? Like a champagne method, maybe like Péthier Naturel, country, region?
- Speaker #1
So for me, this one is a champagne method because I feel the aromas of like a li, you know, li aging. So this is the type of things I'm feeling. But I think it's not champagne.
- Speaker #2
do you have any idea about where this one is from?
- Speaker #1
So me, I think it's from Spain, but I'm not sure.
- Speaker #2
You think it's like a traditional method?
- Speaker #0
Yes, traditional method. But without, like we told during the podcast, I think it's not a long, long aging on the leaves for the second fermentation. Yeah.
- Speaker #1
Yes, for me. I think traditional method, but not from champagne, for sure. Time for the reveal.
- Speaker #2
So it's a famous winery from New Zealand. I'm sure you guys know very well. It's called Cloudy Bay from Marlboro.
- Speaker #0
Cool.
- Speaker #2
So it's their Pelorus cuvee. It's a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
- Speaker #0
On the nice place. Nice place.
- Speaker #1
And is it traditional method as well?
- Speaker #2
Traditional method, yes.
- Speaker #0
So we were good on the Marlboro region.
- Speaker #2
Marlboro region, yes.
- Speaker #0
So Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
- Speaker #2
Chardonnay and Pinot. Great.
- Speaker #1
no it's two grapes that you guys uh you know yes yeah um no it's uh it's amazing because we uh we thought it was not champagne so so first it's a good one we had the traditional method we just didn't have the the place yeah but for a cuvee like that it's difficult to have the place because it's a brutal uh brutal one so you know the the terroir is not the thing that they are looking for it's a standard kind of a standard product so so it goes well with what but very interesting very interesting and um yeah
- Speaker #0
We see more and more a great sparkling wine, not only in New Zealand, but in UK too. You have some place in Belgium. Some people now start to produce more and more sparkling wine, good sparkling wine. I think the climate change do a lot for create a new place for you. But after, yes, I think it's just a question of method. It's different. And the terroir, naturally, is different too. But it's very interesting to taste. I like to see the difference in champagne, but in those origins.
- Speaker #1
So the good news is that we tasted a wine that is made exactly with the same methods and varieties of champagne, but we felt it was not champagne. So it means something. Not being too French here, but... Champagne is safe for now. Let's go for the second one. For wine number two.
- Speaker #0
yeah for me it was
- Speaker #2
Not champagne, this is what you mentioned as well.
- Speaker #1
Not champagne and not traditional method. Yes,
- Speaker #0
yes, for me too. For me,
- Speaker #1
more petnat.
- Speaker #0
Petnat method or something, because the bubble was not enough for me to have this spirit of sparkling.
- Speaker #1
And maybe for me, if I have to try to guess a place, I would say something in Italy, maybe.
- Speaker #2
And maybe a grape?
- Speaker #0
The grape, I don't know because for me, it smells more like an apple.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
So I think it's a young wine. It's not an old one or long-aging. We have more yeast, and this comes back again now. We had the fresh apple in the beginning, and after it was more open with a great flavor of some fruit, white fruit. But now we come back to Apple, a little bit more strong. No, I can't really. I'm embolized.
- Speaker #1
I don't know. Guys, I mean,
- Speaker #2
well done. So it's not a traditional method. It's a pet nut from Loire Valley. It's made by Liz and Bertrand Jusset. So they are located in Mont Louis, Loire. So this is 100% Chenin Blanc.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. Yeah, sure. Makes sense. Makes sense. So we were not that wrong.
- Speaker #0
It's nice because I think we don't need to wait too much, you know, in the glass. It's wine for sharing with people too. And it's great sparkling wine, but you need to drink it. Yes,
- Speaker #1
exactly. You can drink a lot of it, so we better be careful. And let's go for the third one. So by elimination, it should be André Berger, but the question is which one? I hope it's period because I...
- Speaker #2
Okay, guys, so... I think you're right. Max, you know your champagne, you know your wine.
- Speaker #1
We tasted a lot yesterday.
- Speaker #2
So this is like Les Peignottes, Auger Grand Cru 2018. So, of course, 100% Chardonnay.
- Speaker #0
Yeah. Yeah, from old, old vines. The majority of this plot, of this beauty, was planted in 1990. So more... more of androgynous so with the structure it's yes for me it's a very intense wine it's on the vintage 2018 so yeah it's I'm happy to that's that's great news that we found this one but you can you can feel for me it's by the sparkling from and after from the the structure and the intensity it's a long taste like you told during the podcast it's a it's very long taste with a lot of minerality so very good job Adrien it's absolutely
- Speaker #1
amazing and I could drink this also we better be careful with the bottle because it's it's an amazing one thank you very much guys it was amazing to record this here this morning I think we covered a lot of topics about Berger and about what you're doing. Yes,
- Speaker #0
but we have a surprise for you.
- Speaker #2
Yes, I'll try. Yes, yes, yes. Last but not least.
- Speaker #0
Yes, because we're in the States, we have now in the DNA of Berger. Ooh, red wine. For sure.
- Speaker #2
Yes. Maybe you're not used to it.
- Speaker #0
We don't do like a blind tasting. and we're It's a surprise from Aurélien and me. It's Coteau Champenois because now we have a different possibility. So Coteau Champenois. Coteau Champenois is now one point of the DNA of Berger. Adrien started to produce some still wine in Champagne in 15 for white. on 16 for red. And now it's a real place in the production of Berger. So it's a Ferbriange Rouge on the vintage 21. It's very now important for Adrien to promote this type of wine. So it's still wine from Champagne. We have now the possibility with the climate change, with the warm summer, we have more and more. 21 was not in this vintage. This vintage was not like this. Yes, yes. But when you just choose the best wraps from the beginning and the production is 1,400 bottles for this vintage, it's only the pure Pinot Noir from Ferbriange. from one plot to the other. We have 139 plots, only four for Adrien, we can produce still wine. So it's a very interesting wine and it's for remember to the people before to produce champagne, we produce wine and it's with the second fermentation we obtained the bubble, the sparkling wine. So it was very important for him. And yes, it's just a great wine for me. Good Pinot Noir with a tipicity of champagne. What do you think, Aurélien? Because you know the wine too.
- Speaker #2
I really like this one in a way of like, first of all, they don't try to copy Burgundy.
- Speaker #0
Yes.
- Speaker #2
Of course, they are using like a similar method. They have like dedicated vineyards. It's not the case of like... every producer in Champagne like doing Coteau Champenois and they have like dedicated cellars as well so they use like the best method to produce this red wine from Champagne so I think in a blind tasting it's really not easy because I feel like we are we are used to drink like sometimes some Coteau that can be a bit like with green flavors a bit more acidity not fully right yes and I think this is like a a big success especially for 2021 which was like a very complicated vintage in uh in champagne to produce a ripe uh ripe wine and like yeah it's pure it's elegant uh you don't really feel the aging
- Speaker #0
uh which i like so you have like the freshness and the purity of pinot noir but at the same time you don't taste burgundy you know yes and we have the chance to to choose when the vintage one we we can produce uh you know we are not in burgundy so we need to to respect the the soul and the terroir from champagne but the work for produce it's definitely inspired from from other regions where they produce wine. a B&D but you can take another one so we have a vibrating table we have everything for doing the real job Adrien it's at the end of the vibrating table for to be sure we have only the best grabs for doing the maceration and I think he's passionate about wine and passionate and it's something different but now make really sense with the climate change and everything for Adrien to produce and to show what we can do for some plots in Champagne if we have the right exposition, the right soul, and the right method for produce.
- Speaker #1
It's very nice. For me, it's the first time I try Coteau Champenois. Yeah, Coteau Champenois. So it's the first time. But what I would have guessed when you talk about Coteau Champenois or still wine from Champagne is that, yeah, basically we make Champagne first and then, you know, we make Coteau Champenois with whatever is left. And I can feel that for you is the other way around. Like it's really, it's an amazing wine. Like I told the people,
- Speaker #0
we can do, we need to not do a good wine. We need to do a very good wine from Champagne because people don't wait for a still wine from Champagne. And we continue on the philosophy of champagne stay sparkling wine. But when you have the possibility to produce great wine, still wine from champagne, you need to do. For present, it's not a huge volume. It's a very few bottle. But I think it makes sense now for the consumers to understand this approach. Yeah,
- Speaker #1
100%. Thank you very much, guys. I think it's the end of this episode. It was an amazing show. Thank you very much, Aurélien, for welcoming us at Le Silen. Thank you, guys.
- Speaker #2
It's always a pleasure to have you.
- Speaker #1
Of course, put the link in the description, but if you need a place to come drink wine in Hong Kong, it's obviously at Le Silen that you need to come. You will find amazing bottles, amazing staff, good cuisine. So, it's the right place for wine lovers. Maxime, thank you very much for taking the time here in Hong Kong.
- Speaker #0
It was a big pleasure. Yeah, it was a very interesting format for a podcast and, yeah. Thank you very much to welcome me.
- Speaker #1
It was a pleasure. And if you are looking for sparkling wines for a different moment of your life, you know that Aberger now exists. If you need still wine from Champagne to trick your friends into a blind tasting, you know that it exists. If you like this episode, don't forget to share it and subscribe to the channel. Thank you very much and see you soon. Bye-bye. Cheers.
