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Beyond "Grower Champagne": Caroline Henry's U.S. Book Tour for Her Book, Terroir Champagne

Matt Cirne (Verjus and Quince), Caroline Henry (author) and
two fans at her book signing event at Verjus in San Francisco

Caroline Henry was in San Francisco this weekend on the tail end of her U.S. book tour, promoting her book Terroir Champagne, which has become the definitive guide to a category that people sometimes call "grower champagne." But is grower the right word?

"I was always intrigued by the idea of terroir in champagne," Henry said, over a light lunch of omelets stuffed with Boursin cheese at Verjus, where we dined before her afternoon tasting there. A book signing and tasting, hosted by Verjus somm Matt Cirne, featured wines from nine producers.

Champagne's major houses have traditionally blended their wines, growing estate grapes and purchasing significant amounts of fruit from local growers. 

Terroir champagne turns the game on its head. The subtleties of grapes and varying blends from tiny plots, grown by vignerons, has reinvigorated the industry and given the little guy independents - usually families - a voice for their soil and winemaking styles.

Eco-luxe is another part of the indie picture. Many of these tiny producers are practicing organic or biodynamic farming and/or have certified organic and biodynamic vines (all of which are listed in Terroir Champagne).

Henry regaled me with her insider stories about Champagne, from its major houses to its tiniest producers. She lives in a small village there (population 750). Her exploration of the vineyards in Champagne began when she took her dog on daily walks.

There, she could see the blue bits of plastic in the ground from the compost routinely exported from the cities to the countryside until 1998. And she could see the spraying and the tell tale yellow strips left by Roundup applications in the spring.

"It wasn't just in Champagne," she said, "that the French garbage compost was applied. It was in all the wine regions." Governments later decided to burn the compost.

While some producers strive to reduce pesticide use, which is part of French government mandates, the region is still among the heaviest users of herbicides and fungicides in France. (See map - the red spots show the heaviest pesticide regions.)

In the Champagne region, there were two valleys that suffered from water so polluted that residents didn't have drinkable water, Henry said.

Overall, Champagne's markets have shifted from France to export markets.

I asked her about the recent Seralini studies on the taste of pesticides in wine and whether or not they had had any impact on the industry.

"The 30 glorious years, from 1970-2000, in Champagne were the time of chemical farming," she said. "And at the same time, that was when the wine expert degrees like the MW and WSET program, grew more popular. Those flavors (of pesticides) became the benchmarks, so people are used to tasting the wines grown with chemicals."

Henry herself teaches English at the business school in Reims. "That allows me to stay neutral," she said, as opposed to being beholden to the wine industry and its marketing muscle which often makes it hard for writers to share the stories they want to write about.

Many of the wineries in Terroir Champagne are certified organic or biodynamic.

Some of the big guns - like Roederer - have decided to pursue biodynamic practices and certification. The reason?  "They want to make better wine, and places like DRC have convinced them that is the only way," Henry said.

Roederer's Crystal is now sourced entirely from organic or biodynamic grapes, she said.

During her SF visit, Henry also appeared at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco, where she said many consumers attended the tasting (but didn't buy the book). "The trade did buy the book," she said.

Before the tour, she'd sold roughly 2,000 copies. During the tour, she sold 1,500 more books, proving there is interest in this topic in the U.S.

WINES

Here are two of the wines from organic or biodynamic vines.

The Reasonance champagne from Champagne Marie-Courtin, made by Dominque Moreau (page 52 in the book), was crisp and precise, with a generous amount of frothy mousse. 

The fresh Thomas Persaval Tradition (page 143 in the book) offers up bright citrus notes and packs in some pucker power to boot.

I've left out a lot of the information about herbicide and fungicides in Henry's book as that's covered in Gwendolyn Alley's blog post about Henry here.

To order the book (available in hardcover or as an ebook), click here.

Mendocino Wine Competition: Double Gold + Organic Winners

An esteemed panel of judges awarded medals this weekend in the 2019 Mendocino County Fair Wine Competition held in Boonville. Judges included Dan Berger, Laura Ness, Mark Bowery, John Sverko, Mike Dunne, Chris Sawyer, Greg Richtarek, Debra Del Fiorentino, Melanie Mann and Donny Sudthisa.

Photo credit: Chris Sawyer

One wine has been a standout year after year, consistently beating out bigger competitors (like Roederer Estate). The McFadden Cuvee Rosé, which has been unavailable for several years, is back and took Best of Show in Sparkling.

From a field of 264 entries, the judges selected 33 Double Gold winners. Ten were from certified organic vines.

Most of these wines (with the exception of the sparkling wine) are on the market for $25 or less.

Cabernet Sauvignon - Double Gold

• Girasole 2017 - Best of Class

• Yorkville - 2016

Chardonnay - Double Gold

• Barra 2018

• Blue Quail 2018

Gewruztraminer - Double Gold

• Handley Cellars - Estate 2018 - Best of Class

Italian Reds - Double Gold

• Chance Creek - Sangiovese 2014 

Other Whites - Double Gold

• Girasole - Pinot Blanc 2018

Rosé - Double Gold
• Boonville Road 2018 

Sparkling Wine - Double Gold

• McFadden Vineyards - Best of Class and Best of Show in Sparkling

Zinfandel- Double Gold
• Bonterra 2017- Best of Class

Dashe Cellars Makes Its Move: Big City Vistas from Alameda

Dashe Cellars, one of the best urban wineries in the Bay Area, packed up and moved from its long time home in Oakland (not far from Jack London Square) to the wilds of the Alameda shoreline.

The views from the new site are stunning -- incredible to see the SF skyline from their "edge land" setting on the Alameda coast. But that's not all - there's also a bird sanctuary right there so you can watch the nesting big birds there in their day to day lives.

Winemakers Michael and Anne Dashe source several wines from organic vines in Mendocino. Their McFadden Riesling is always a standout.

The winery had to move when its landlord decided to rent their old space to a cannabis operation, willing to pay way more in rent -- a common cause of warehouse space "cannabizisation" in Oakland.

Visit soon!

My Article on Winery POS (Point of Sale Systems) Is Out In the August Issue of Wine Business

While my main passion in wine circles is organic and biodynamically farmed wines, I also come to the world of wine having spent 25+ years in Silicon Valley.

So therefore, when I went to Wine Business IT conference last year, I was wowwed.

Here's the result - an in-depth piece on winery POS vendors and the stories of wineries who use them. POS systems seem like a mundane category until you realize they are the digital nerve center of every winery's direct to consumer marketing ecosystem - i.e. their life blood.

Here's the link. (Free to read, free registration required).

I'll also be moderating the panel on POS systems at the 2019 WBITS.com Conference with panelists who were interviewed for the story -- so you can get the real life lowdown on their user experiences. More info about that here.