Bubbles and bling

WINSTON CHURCHILL was a Pol Roger man. Madonna and Gérard Depardieu are devotees of Krug. James Bond drank Dom Pérignon in the novels, although he had switched to Bollinger by the time he made it to the silver screen. The Russian tsars adored Louis Roederer's Cristal, a taste that is shared today by rap singers Sean “P.Diddy” Combs (Puff Daddy) and Snoop Dogg. Welcome to the world of prestige cuvées—the very best and most expensive of champagnes, which go for anything from $100 to over $600 a bottle.

When ordinary mortals want to celebrate, the question is less likely to be Cristal or Krug, than whether to drink champagne or sparkling wine. Once the choice is made in favour of real champagne—produced only in the Champagne region of north-eastern France—it becomes a question of brand. Should you go for one of the big reliable names like Moët & Chandon or Veuve Clicquot; or maybe something a bit cheaper or more adventurous from a lesser known grower? If you feel like splashing out, you might plump for a vintage champagne. But for a select band of people—a mixture of champagne fanatics and the super rich—only the very best will do. Thus the need for “prestige cuvées”.

Just who these ultra-fancy champagnes are aimed at is a slightly sensitive issue. Cristal was originally created exclusively for the Russian tsars. Jean-Claude Rouzaud, who managed the Louis Roederer winery until his retirement earlier this year, once said: “We make our champagne for that 3-5% of consumers who really know wine, and who take the time to taste it correctly.”

Unwelcome attention

The reality is rather different, at least in the United States. Today, the most high-profile consumers of Cristal are rap artists, whose taste for swigging bubbly in clubs is less a sign of a refined palate than a passion for a “bling-bling” lifestyle that includes ten-carat diamond studs, chunky gold jewellery, pimped up Caddies and sensuous women. In his number one hit “Hard Knock Life”, Jay-Z raps, “Let's sip the Cris and get pissy-pissy”. Cristal has been so visible at Mr Combs's concerts that onlookers have wondered whether the venerable champagne house was sponsoring the event.

In fact, the attitude of the house of Roederer to the unexpected popularity of Cristal among rappers is considerably more circumspect. Frédéric Rouzaud, who took over from his father as managing-director of the winery in January, says that Roederer has observed its association with rap with “curiosity and serenity”. But he does not seem entirely serene. Asked if an association between Cristal and the bling lifestyle could actually hurt the brand, he replies: “That's a good question, but what can we do? We can't forbid people from buying it. I'm sure Dom Pérignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.”

The attitude of the house of Roederer to the unexpected popularity of Cristal among rappers is considerably more circumspect.

Both Dom Pérignon and Krug have had their share of unwelcome attention, too. The late President Mobutu of Zaire, a notoriously profligate dictator, was said to be a devotee of Dom Pérignon's rosé champagne. Naturally enough, Rémi Krug, the chairman of the champagne house, prefers to emphasise the more cultured devotees of Krug—drinkers, like the late Ernest Hemingway or the painter Francis Bacon, who are “creative individualists who never follow the crowd, and have strong tastes of their own.”

As is the case with other luxury brands, some consumers are nevertheless motivated more by the sheer ostentation of the product. For many years, the most famous consumer of Krug in Britain was Jeffrey Archer, a novelist, politician—and, ultimately, prison inmate, after being convicted for perjury. His insistence on serving Krug, and nothing but Krug, to guests at his summer parties was regarded as a tad flashy—a little like his reported instructions to guests about how to find the lavatory (“Past the Picasso, left at the Matisse”).

Sanctified by history

Along with certain other luxury items, the prestige champagnes can afford to shrug off this kind of thing, because they are sanctified by an aura of history and tradition. But actually the idea of a prestige cuvée is a relatively recent one. Champagne was being made from the early 18th century, but it was not until 1876 that Tsar Alexander II hit upon the idea of having a special champagne made for his own exclusive use.

The tsar was annoyed that his champagne looked and tasted identical to that drunk by his courtiers. He wanted a wine that was made with particular care, in a flashier and more distinctive packaging. And so Cristal was created, a particularly fine champagne in a clear bottle of crystal glass with a gold label. The design, which made Tsar Alexander one of the earliest exponents of bling, had a practical advantage: the clear crystal glass made it easier to check whether the champagne had been poisoned.

The tsar wanted a wine that was made with particular care, in flashier and more distinctive packaging. And so Cristal was created.

Because Cristal was made for the exclusive use of the tsars, it disappeared after 1917, along with the Russian monarchy. The first prestige cuvée to reach the general public was Dom Pérignon, which was produced by Moët & Chandon, and went on a sale in 1936—in the midst of the Depression (hard times have rarely been an impediment to champagne sales). The champagne was named after the legendary monk, who is thought to have done most to invent the sparkling wine that became champagne. To underline its historic past, Dom Perignon is bottled in a dark green replica of an 18th century bottle. Then, in 1945, Roederer started to re-make Cristal, and this time to sell it to the public.

In recent years, most of the bigger champagne houses have felt moved to produce a special prestige cuvée, using their finest grapes and vintages, and usually looking for some link to history that makes their brand stand out. Probably the most beautiful bottle is produced by Perrier Jouët. Its Belle Epoque champagne comes in a glass bottle, painted with white, gold and green anemones. The bottle was created as a one-off in 1902 by Emile Gallé, a great art nouveau glassmaker. A sample bottle was rediscovered after the second world war, gathering dust in a cupboard at Perrier Jouët, and it has been used as the packaging for the house's prestige offering since the first vintage was launched in 1964. An even more recent creation is the cuvée launched by Pol Roger in the 1980s called Winston Churchill, after the house's most famous customer.

There is now a plethora of prestige cuvées. Others include Gosset's Celebris, Taittinger's Comtes de Champagne, Veuve Cliquot's La Grande Dame, and Salon (a cult wine produced in minute quantities and prized by devotees of “blanc de blancs”, a champagne produced only from white chardonnay grapes). Each of these champagnes has their devoted followers, and most will cost you comfortably more than $100 a bottle.

The big three

Louis Roederer

Simon Field of Berry Brothers & Rudd, Britain's oldest wine merchant, says that when you get to the top of the price list, five names tend to predominate: Bollinger, Dom Pérignon, Krug, Pol Roger and Roederer Cristal. The presence of Pol Roger and Bollinger on Berry Brothers hit list may reflect the popularity of these champagnes in Britain. (The glass-smashing aristocrats in Evelyn Waugh's “Decline and Fall” were members of the Bollinger Club.) In the Champagne region of France, it is generally reckoned that there are only three names at the very top: Cristal, Dom Pérignon and Krug.

Each has their own distinctive qualities. Louis Roederer is still family-owned and takes particular pride in the fact that, while other houses have to buy in most of their grapes, Roederer produces two-thirds of its champagne (and every bottle of Cristal) from its own vineyards. Dom Pérignon stands at the apex of the Champagne district's biggest house (Moët & Chandon) and makes much of its connection to the hallowed vineyards of Hautvilliers, where the great monk himself once worked. Roederer and Moët produce a range of champagnes, starting from a “basic” non-vintage costing around $30 a bottle; followed by vintage champagnes that are produced in a single year and aged for longer, and are commensurately more expensive; and, at the top of the tree, their prestige cuvées, Cristal and Dom Pérignon.

Krug has its own way of doing things. For instance, Mr Krug insists that all his firm's champagnes are prestige cuvées. “You cannot say the vintage is better than the non-vintage, any more than you can say that a symphony is better than a concerto.” Actually, Krug's “no hierarchy” policy is more than mere marketing. Unlike other houses, Krug does not hold back its best grapes for the vintage or special cuvées. But that's because its entire production—including vintage, non-vintage and rosé champagnes—is tiny by comparison. All told, the house produces around 600,000 bottles a year, just 0.2% of the Champagne region's production, and only a third more than the amount of Cristal (the apex of the Roederer range) produced.

As a result, Krug's non-vintage costs far more than other houses' “standard” champagnes. And all the bottles produced by the house share the distinctive “Krug style”—a rich, dry, long-lasting taste that makes Krug as much like a fine white Burgundy as a champagne. All the prestige cuvées like to emphasise that they are fine wines that can be enjoyed with food, rather than mere aperitifs. (In Reims, your correspondent drank a bottle of Krug rosé that was robust enough to go well with beef, let alone the fish or poultry dishes that are normally thought to match champagne.)

MEPL/Kobal Collection/Getty Images/Retna/LFI

Tsar Alexander II enjoyed Cristal, originally made exclusively for the Russian royal family; in “Goldfinger”, James Bond (Sean Connery) always drank Bollinger; Winston Churchill favoured Pol Roger, while rap artist Jay-Z sprays Cristal around; Madonna is said to be a devotee of Krug

Can you afford it?

For most champagne drinkers with less than million-dollar incomes, the intriguing question about the Krugs and the Cristals is whether they are sufficiently different from more mundane champagnes to justify their extraordinary prices. And the prices certainly are stellar. At Berry Brothers, down the road from The Economist, a bottle of 1996 Cristal goes for £192 ($336) and a 1996 rosé for £332. The merchant's 1979 Krug was on offer at £660 a magnum, while a much less scarce non-vintage Krug Grande Cuvée is a snip at £85 a bottle. At La Cave Se Rebiffe, a little wine shop around the corner from Roederer and Krug in Reims, you can find 1999 Cristal for €120 ($145)—hardly cheap, but half the price you would pay in London or New York.

So, are these champagnes worth it? Back in London, your correspondent served Krug blind (that is, with its label covered up) to some dinner guests, along with a vintage champagne from another house called Nicolas Feuillatte and Pelorus, the finest sparkling wine made in New Zealand. Gratifyingly, they all much preferred the Krug—although none regarded it as utterly different from the other champagnes they had tasted.

Previously, in Maison Roederer in Reims, your correspondent was able to taste Cristal for the first time since graduating in 1984. For a comparison, it was tasted alongside Roederer's standard non-vintage champagne. Both were delicious, but the Cristal did seem better—with a taste that was simultaneously both purer and longer lasting. Whether the Cristal is so much better that it justifies the extra £100 depends on your passion for champagne, not to mention the depth of your pocket.

CONSUMER WATCH

Although most wine retailers stock a selection of champagne brands, people wanting to try the prestige cuvées may need to look further. In London, Berry Brothers & Rudd at 3 St James's Street offers a fine selection. You can also pick up a bottle of Krug or Cristal at the more exclusive department stores, such as Harrods or Selfridges. In New York, try Park Avenue Liquor at 292 Madison Avenue. In Paris or Madrid, head for the poshest new wine store, LaVinia (www.lavinia.fr and www.lavinia.es).