Description
Moët Ice Impérial: the most refreshing of sacrilege
When the most prestigious Champagne House encourages you to commit the ultimate sacrilege, that of drinking its champagne « on the rocks », with ice cubes, to better savor the summer and discover a more relaxed experience around the king of bubbles, you raise your eyebrows.
However, from the first sip, you are convinced. And for good reason, behind the Moët Ice Impérial cuvée specially dedicated to this use, lies a goldsmith’s work. Benoît Gouez, the cellar master of Moët & Chandon, reveals the subtle mechanics. How did the concept of the Ice Impérial cuvée come about
The starting point for this adventure was to find a way to develop champagne consumption outside the end of the year. It was curious to see that we were so underperforming in the summer, a time when people are relaxed, want to have a good time, and which should be the “champagne moment” par excellence.
We then realized that champagne was perceived as too formal, not relaxed enough for the “summer mood”. We knew that in Champagne, some people, often members of the profession, did not hesitate to put ice cubes in their champagne. But we considered that this was not a good proposition. If you use a classic champagne from the range, which is supposed to be balanced on its own, the wine quickly becomes watery, insipid…
This led us to wonder if we could not create a champagne that would offer a better experience with ice cubes. The idea was to ensure that once the ice cubes were added and the dilution had taken place, the wine would be harmonious.
Hence the need for a champagne that was in some respects excessive.
If you taste Ice Impérial on its own, you will have a very aromatic wine, with a marked exotic and vegetal side. As it is a rather dosed champagne, we need a proportion of size to bring a little shoulder, structure, and bitters that will balance the sugar.
At the same time, the acidity is also a little more advanced than that of the classic brut, so as to give a sensation of refreshment and thirst-quenching, like when you add a slice of lemon to sparkling water. So, once you put ice cubes in the Ice Impérial, under the effect of the drop in temperature and dilution, things fall into place and you have an experience where you retain an aromatic signature and a real presence in the mouth.
How do you obtain the acidity
By selecting certain chardonnays during tasting. They generally come from the lower Côte des Blancs: Vertus, Bergères les Vertus.
These wines are more incisive than what you can find in the Sézannais or the upper Côte des Blancs, where you will have rounder and richer wines. To keep this lively and refreshing side, do you reduce the share of reserve wines? The proportion is equivalent to that of the Brut Imperial (30 to 35%). On the other hand, the aging on lees is a little shorter. Instead of twenty-four months, we are closer to twenty months. Indeed, to the extent that there is a fairly intense aromatic signature on the fruit to which is added the dosage in semi-dry, the richness does not justify a long maturation. We are not looking for toasted, grilled aromas like in the bruts. It is a question of remaining more on the primary fruitiness. As for the maturation that we carry out, it is intended to coat the mouth a little, to refine the bubble, but not to bring reductive characters.
You were talking about the dosage, what level are we at? On the white, we are at 45 g, which is the dosage of a classic demi-sec. As for the rosé, we are at 38. It is a little lower on this second vintage, insofar as the red wine brings an additional fruit that already suggests a sensation of sweetness. In some way, the Ice Impérial is a return to the fundamentals of champagne.
Among the very first consumers, didn’t the Russians drink it chilled, very dosed and when the harvests sometimes struggled to reach maturity, with very high levels of acidity? Indeed, I hadn’t thought about it, it mimics a consumption of yesteryear, even if we want to address modern consumers rather than nostalgic ones.
Most consumers of the Ice are rather young and new consumers of champagne. The mode of consumption is more relaxed, the beach, the terrace, outdoors. What’s great is that this product has broadened our fan base. There has been no cannibalization. These are not people who were drinking Brut Impérial who are suddenly drinking Ice Impérial.
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