- so I was told when I first moved to Singapore… Whilst I appreciate the convenience of the country club of which we became members, I am not certain that membership ranks among my top five aspirations in life. Reflecting on the things that bring me pleasure, however, I came to the conclusion that the best things in life do indeed begin with “c” - champagne, chocolate, caviar, Cartier, cunning linguists! … and not necessarily in that order! To appreciate the best of the best though requires time and dedication - weeks, months, years of passionate research, sleepless nights, exhausting days, depleting funds…
It is with great commitment and gravity that I have dedicated such resources to the pursuit of knowledge in these areas and now that I have the knowledge, it would be a shame not to share it so we can all delight in the finest of what is on offer.
We all know what to look for when buying our diamonds – carat, cut, colour and clarity. It follows therefore that if you are looking for the best possible rock to adorn your body, you should certainly look for the best possible champagne to fill it. Asking for “a glass of champagne” is like going to a restaurant and asking for a plate of food. You simply wouldn’t do it and there is a vast difference between a glass of Mumm and a glass of Dom Perignon 1990. It is not for nothing that the latter is priced at 8 times the former. We are talking about the difference between a beef burger and beer-fed, daily-massaged Kobe beef! If, like me, and I presume you must be a little bit like me if you are reading this, your palette can distinguish between the two then I am going to let you in on a secret: Champagne Jacquesson…
“Jacquesson? Never heard of it!” Well you have now and high time. As Marvin Shanken says, it is “the champagne for those in the know.” Welcome to the world of “bespoke,” just that little bit beyond designer, beyond premium and beyond prestige even. If that’s too hard to grasp then imagine the difference between Armani Couture and Emporio Armani, Rolex and Parmigiani, Mont Blanc & Montegrappa. I think you get the picture.
Think champagne and you might think Moet, Veuve Cliquot, Taittinger or even Krug. That is all very well and good – it’s like thinking cars and thinking Mercedes, BMW, Porsche or Jaguar - perfectly good cars. But say Jacquesson and we’re talking Aston Martin – conceived in simple purity, crafted with ingenuity, nurtured with expert devotion and cherished with discreet but smouldering passion. I have been shown the way and I’m not turning back!
Champagne Jacquesson was founded in 1798 by Memmie Jacquesson and is the oldest independent champagne house. To say “in France” would be tautology because we all know that champagne is produced only in France, specifically in the region of Champagne which lies 146km east of Paris. The area is not exceptionally pretty but on a beautiful evening in July, looking out from the terrace of Jacquesson at the lovingly tended clos, heady from tasting Ay Vauzelle Terme 1996, Dizy is Elysium.
Today the house of Jacquesson proudly follows in the footsteps of its illustrious founders, and how positively sparkling they were! In 1837 a 37-year old emigrant from Mainz called Johann-Joseph Krug took over the running of the Jacquesson cellars at Chalons. He subsequently married Adolphe Jacquesson`s sister-in-law and went on to found the House that today bears his name. Memmie`s son, Adolphe Jacquesson was a visionary and responsible for hoisting the Champagne House to the highest levels. Amongst his many inventions was the cap and muzzle which today holds in place the cork of every bottle of sparkling wine in the world.
In 1863, Adolphe Jacquesson was created a Chevalier of the Legion d`Honneur by Napoleon III. In 1809 Napoleon I visited Jacquesson & Fils and presented Memmie with a gold medal in recognition of “the beauty and richness of its cellars”. If Napoleon were around today, Laurent & Jean-Herve Chiquet and Michael Mackenzie, the current proprietaires of Champagne Jacquesson would be presented with a small mountain of gold medals.
There are many reasons for this, aside from oodles of Gallic charm – oh another wonderful “C” word - but one particular reason is their non-vintage champagne, currently the Cuvee 729, a revolutionary product. The weather conditions of Champagne mean that frustrating compromises often have to be made in order to achieve the desired consistency expected from a non-vintage champagne. In an attempt to escape these limitations, Jacquesson decided with effect from the 2000 vintage to privilege excellence over consistency by producing the best wine possible from the main vintage in the assemblage.
Fifty-eight percent of the current non-vintage Cuvee 729 comes the 2001 harvest and forty-two percent of reserve wines. One hundred percent of the assemblage is derived from Grands and Premiers Crus in the Grande Vallee de la Marne, the Cotes de Blancs and the Montagne de Reims. In layman`s terms, the grapes are like posh boys from Eton – excellent grounding, raised in sexual confusion (I know what you’re thinking but this is genuinely a process which protects the grapes, and maybe the boys too, from nasty pests which will destroy them), with just the right balance of discipline and freedom and a little arrogance of being born of the “right” stock to enable them to fulfill their potential.
During the spring of 2002, Jacquesson bottled 259,545 bottles, 7,875 magnums and 300 jeroboams of Cuvee No. 729. Some of the better known champagne houses produce this quantity in just 3 days. When this runs out, you’re out of luck. Making champagne is farming and you cannot produce the same grapes every single year because some years it’s hot and some years it’s cold, some years it buckets down and others it's dry as the Sahara. It follows therefore that you cannot make the same wine every year because your basic ingredients differ.
The good news is that when the Cuvee 729 runs out - and it will soon, so get out there and buy every bottle you can get your hands on (it is disrespectfully inexpensive) - our clever friends in Dizy will have made the Cuvee 730 based on the 2002 vintage. Like its predecessor, it will offer the best of what was harvested in that particular year. I might have been dizzy with delight after a few glasses of Jacquesson Grand Vin Signature 1995, their deluxe champagne produced in quantities of between 10,000 and 30,000 per vintage, but I could have sworn that those Chiquet boys and their vineyard manager, Sylvain Leblanc were out there amongst the vines, talking to their crop. “Alors, mes petits delicious raisins, you grow big and luscious and ripe for us and we promise you an illustrious future, globe-trotting in a beautiful bottle, elegantly clad and gratefully sipped, adoringly swallowed, bewitching all whose lips you shall tenderly kiss and there will be many… and you will be famous throughout the world!” Whatever they said and did, it seems to have worked a treat. Jacquesson should consider teaching courses in seductive persuasion!
Brillat-Savarin said “Burgundy makes you think of silly things; Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them.” If you’re going to do something silly, you owe it to yourself to do it fuelled with nothing but the best. Champagne Jacquesson is poured by the glass at Iggy’s and at the Four Seasons Hotel. For sales and distribution, please contact Derek Lee / Alice Wee at Grand Vin Pte. Ltd. On 6465-3080/1.
