Global #CHAMPAGNEDAY 2019 – Friday, 18th October 2019
Hooray! It’s Global Champagne Day! Time to get those bottles chilled and pop a cork! Relax and emerge yourself in a feeling of wealth and luxury. Champagne Day is a global online event that celebrates Champagne (all social posts with the bubbly drink should contain #ChampagneDay). But did you know that Champagne is often used as a generic for all types of sparkling wines including Prosecco and Cava as the name can only really be given to those bottles produced in a small region of France 150 kilometres from Paris called Champagne?
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This region produces over 300 million bottles a year and Champagne sales top $5 billion a year. Impressively, these figures have been rising since the 1950’s. Champagne grapes are all hand harvested by 120,000 pickers that descend upon the area during the harvest, selecting only the best grapes from the crops. This terroir in this area of France is made of clay and chalk and really is the best quality for growing grapes of this type. The production process however, is much the same for many types of sparkling wines that cannot be called Champagne, hence the many other names for this type of wine with bubbles – Cava, Prosecco, Crémant, English Sparkling Wine, Russian Shampanskoe, Californian Champagne. Those actually using Champagne in the name are constantly challenged by the officials.
Champagne production originated in the 3rd Century when the Romans planted the first vineyards but it wasn’t until the 17th Century, when bottled fermentation was available, that Champagne became an elevated beverage – served to the King Louis XIV and in his court. The bottles often exploded until thicker glass and better corks were developed and much effort was afforded to ridding the wine of its bubbles during this time (an oxymoron to us at AVINA, as we work so hard to preserve the fizz!).
Once the Champagne Houses were able to safely produce the golden beverage, it became more desirable to royalty and the rich and the modern Champagne Houses were born – miraculously even producing the beverage during World Wars I and II! As 40% of the vineyards were destroyed in these wars, understandably Champagne prices hit an all-time high and continued to do so due to its affiliation with wealth, luxury and royalty. Now we even have celebrities with Champagne brands, like J Zee, who partnered with the Cartier family to produce Armand de Brignac, aka Ace of Spades, which sold for $1000 a bottle!
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Did you know that:
Once open, how do we care for our expensive beverage:
We all know that the bubbles don’t last and that the cork doesn’t fit back into the bottle as it has expanded after opening. Will you open the bottle and throw the rest away? Would you believe that according to an online study produced by Laithwaite’s Wine, 24% of customers waste sparkling wine because they opened more than they could drink and 30% of them were unable to close the wine in some way. That is over half of the consumer population!
Consumers simply do not know how to keep the fizz in their bubbles and they are unsure about how long a sparkling wine can be consumed after opening. In the Laithwaite’s study, 31% thought that the longest amount of time a sparkling wine could be left open was one to five hours!
The good news is that according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA), UK Champagne, non-Champagne and sparkling wine sales hit a record number in 2018. The combined sales of sparkling wines topped out at 311 million bottles within 12 months, creating an industry worth £1.5 billion and more than doubling national expenditure since 2013.
AVINA manufactures and produces a premium quality and ergonomically designed Champagne and Sparkling Wine Stopper that can preserve any sparkling wine for up to 5 days! With the stopper, that one glass of sparkling wine at lunch or after work becomes more of a reality instead of a wish.
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Latest reviews of the AVINA Wine & Champagne Stopper:
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AVINA Champagne Guide Give-Away:
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One copy of:
Tyson Stelzer’s The Champagne Guide 2020, a fantastic 560-page hardback book which provides assessments and insights into the top 120 champagne houses, with regional maps and beautiful photography – this book is a treasure for any champagne lover.
In it he mentions the Avina Champagne Stopper and says, “Avina ranks among the best champagne closures in the market for creating a reliable seal. Undisturbed and refrigerated, a near-full bottle can hold strong pressure for weeks.”
For more on Tyson Stelzer
25 Avina Wine Champagne Stoppers
The Avina Champagne and Wine Bottle Stoppers is 100% Leakproof and can lie flat in the fridge. It is simple-to-use, easy to lock in place and is strong. The saver cap fits all bottles by expanding like cork.
For more on Avina Wine Accessories
And the Avina Wine and Champagne Stopper
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SPARKLING BLUE
If your budget does not stretch to a bottle of Champagne from Champagne ($50-100/average bottle), you do want to spend that much or are looking for an alternative sparkling beverage, there are many other countries and regions producing excellent wines with bubbles!
Did you know that the Barcelona region of Spain produces phenomenal bubbles? 95% of Cava is produced in El Penedès, near the coast. SKYFALL produce sparkling Blue Cava which is not only a delight to see in the glass but also tastes great. Jaume Amigó Lopez, founder of SKYFALL, joined me to answer the following questions about his iconic brand:
Firstly, let’s begin with a brief introduction about yourself and how long you have been working with wine.
My name is Jaume Amigó and I have been working in the world of wine for more than 30 years, specifically in the world of sparkling wines. I have always been very restless since parallel to my work in the world of sparkling wines, I am a great lover of the world of the cocktail bar and about ten years ago I began to investigate how to merge both worlds.
Next for the big question on everyone’s lips, why does SKYFALL produce blue Cava? What was the intention and motivation behind making it blue?
As I said before, one of my great passions is the world of cocktails. My curiosity worked alongside my desire to innovate. My modest contribution and intention was to reinvent the world of sparkling giving the world a change that would be different from other sparkling. I researched and tested until I developed this stunning sparkling turquoise blue.
What do you use to make the Cava BLUE? Is it a natural product?
Yes, it is a natural product. As you will understand, it is a secret formula, based on infusing certain flowers with the expedition liquor.
We know that your product is suitable for vegans, a current ‘buzzword’ in the wine industry, what other current trends are you aware of in the wine industry?
Indeed, it is a product suitable for vegans. Other trends I’m aware of include how certain types of sparkling are also styled to drink with ice rocks, adorned and flavoured with mint, red fruits, etc.
You are located in the Barcelona region. Please tell us why the region that you are in is so great for producing Cava.
El Penedès, an area where more than 95% of the Cava produced in Spain is produced, has a great diversity of microclimates, due to its coastal proximity and its altitude. The weather is specifically Mediterranean -that is, soft and warm. The Penedès Marítimo area (Baix Penedès and Garraf) is more temperate due to the influence and proximity of the sea. The Penedès Superior (Alt Penedès, Alt Camp, Anoia and Baix Llobregat) enjoys more frequent rainfall and greater contrast between maximum and minimum temperatures. The Penedàs Central (mainly Alt Penedès) is the compendium of both microclimates.
The diversity of our sparkling wines is born from the uniqueness of the terroir. A thousand flavors and aromas are the result of climatic differences, landscape and the variety of its soils – here dyed the green of its mountains, there the blue of the Mediterranean waters.
We at Avina produce wine accessories with a big focus on wine preservation. This is a huge worldwide problem with just over 624 million bottles of wine being thrown down the drain each year in the UK alone! Do you get asked about wine preservation? Are you aware of the different types of wine and champagne stoppers on the market?
Yes, I am asked more and more frequently how to keep wines at home in the best way, sparkling wines once opened, due to their carbonic content they are extremely difficult to preserve since they tend to quickly lose once their main characteristic of bubbles once open.
There are different types of corks for the capping of sparkling – natural, synthetic corks, with granulated cork in SKYFALL. All our products are covered with agglomerated corks with two natural cork washers for a double security so the product will not lose even the most minimum quality.
What is your favourite way to relax on the weekends? And if with wine, what do you do?
As I said before, one of my passions is the cocktail bar and one of the magic moments for me is to take a Boada’s Imperial (cocktail with a stroke of a bell, sparkling and adorned with a twist of orange peel) in the mythical cocktail Bar “Boadas” in Barcelona.
For more information on SKYFALL
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Would you like to learn more about Champagne?
Here are a plethora of related videos from champagne and wine expert Julien Miquel.
Julien was a recent guest on AVINA’s Wine Business Podcast to talk about all things wine.
To listen to the Podcasts: PART ONE, PART TWO, PART THREE, PART FOUR
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CHAMPAGNE RELATED EVENTS and courses:
Taste Champagne – the biggest Champagne Event Series held Worldwide and presented by Tyson Stelzer, International champagne and wine expert, multi-award winning author, event host and tv presenter. Tyson recently published The Champagne Guide 2020,a fantastic 560-page hardback book which provides assessments and insights into the top 120 champagne houses, with regional maps and beautiful photography – this book is a treasure for any champagne lover.
The Champagne Expert – an online Champagne course by ‘Mad About Bubbly’ Jiles Halling who recently PODCAST with AVINA about all things Champagne. Listen to the podcast here.
“Learn more about Champagne in a few week than most Sommeliers will learn in a lifetime.” – Jiles.
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FOOD&BEVERAGE: Focus on selling wine by the glass rather than by the bottle with our preservation solutions, and raise the average bill per customer. Increase customer experience and raise brand standards.
Interested in trading Avina Accessories? Read this article on how Wine Accessories can help your bottom line…
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CHAMPAGNE Music Videos:
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