Affordable Elegance

There is a fallacy that gracious living is more expensive than most people can afford. I maintain that this is reducible to a distinction between savoring and gulping. Elegance always involves savoring!

When one hears the word champagne one tends to think of expense beyond reach or rotgut beyond comprehension but nothing in between. The average gulper, who treats champagne like soda, wouldn't know the difference Moet & Chandon and 7-Up.

A lady friend challenged me. She gave me a thousand dollars and said that within a month I could not find ten decent bottles of champagne. I laughed. I told her that not only would I exceed the number but also do so in a much shorter period of time with one stipulation. She may taste any and/or all of the champagne purchased but not know precisely what it was until she told me whether or not it met with her approval.

She agreed. One week later, I returned not with ten bottles but with twenty and, as was proven over the course of the following year, she approved of all of them. The bottles averaged somewhere between forty and fifty dollars.

Granted, for a struggling family, forty or fifty dollars is a considerable amount of money, but champagne isn't to be enjoyed every day. It is to be savored on special occasions.

Moderately-priced champagne often comes down to a balance of grapes. A Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow label consists of two-thirds black grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and a third Chardonnay. The black grapes provide balance. The Chardonnay provides a touch of elegance. The result is a consistently full-bodied, dry and bright champagne perfect for celebrations.

A comparably-priced Moet & Chandon Imperial is more complex with 35% to 40% Pinot Noir, 40% to 50% Pinot Meunier, and only a hint (10%) of Chardonnay. The result is fruity, seductive, and very bright.

I, personally, prefer a Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve, because of its incredible balance: 34% Pinot Noir, 33% Pinot Meunier, and 33% Chardonnay. This is a fully-developed wine. It offers a wide variety of flavors from a hint of warm bread on a cool Autumn morning to the tropical fruitiness of Midsummer. Its bouquet is astounding. Somehow its variation is blended in complete harmony and subtlety.