THE CHAMPAGNE CHICK

This is going to be a bit of a rant post because I am so tired of the predictable champagne selections available at hotels, restaurants and bars in South Africa.  It’s always the same old, same old that we are being dished up.

If you drink and dine out you will know which same olds I’m referring to.  I have been known to challenge sommeliers and servers about the limited selection available, and I always get the same answer “We have to sell what people want”.  Yawn … that is such a crap, stock standard reply for which I don’t even have words.  If you’re offering a limited selection, then yes that is what people will buy, because you are offering them nothing else on the wine list to choose from.  You can’t sell what you don’t have.

As a champagne drinker, I am not going to not order champagne because I can’t find a specific champagne on the wine list. I for one will happily try something different and as far as I know most champagne drinkers are not going to walk out the door because they can’t find that bottle with the yellow label … sorry, I mean their favorite champagne … on the wine list.

And don’t even get me started on the limited selection of small grower/producer champagnes on wine lists. Having just returned from a trip to Champagne and Paris, I was truly amazed at the available selection in even the smallest coffee shops and bistro’s. And yes, I know it’s easier for them to access a wide variety of champagnes, however having done some research there are a number of importers and distributors in South Africa that import and offer grower/producer and lesser-known champagnes, and yet we are not seeing these on our wine lists.

The 2 wine lists above are just an example of what I found almost daily in Champagne and Paris, these were at regular, every day restaurants, nothing fancy or 5 star.

I find in particular the big hotel chains and restaurant groups have the most boring of champagne selections, the same brands being offered over and over again.  And I am also aware that as much as these establishments will deny the fact, money/product does change hands to keep these big name champagne brands on the wine lists and keep the smaller houses who obviously have smaller budgets out.  They simply stand no chance at all.

And while we’re bitching, let’s bitch about pricing.  I could easily in Champagne and Paris afford to drink champagne every day, even with our crap exchange rate, often paying around €10 per glass and sometimes as little as €40 per bottle.  And yes I know, shipping, import duties, taxes … blah, blah, blah.  However, I noticed that I could often find a bottle in a restaurant/bar for not much more than it sold for in a wine shop in France, yet in South Africa you will be lucky to find a bottle in a restaurant at double liquor store price, it is more than likely going to be three times, sometimes even 4 x, liquor store price.

Champagne-by-the-glass is also completely over priced, I have been challenged to find anywhere offering champagne by the glass for less than R250.  Usually it’s more in the region of R300 per glass, and that’s just for a non-vintage brut, rosé by the glass is way more, and very seldom vintage or prestige cuvées by the glass.  The price a restaurant/hotel charges for a glass of champagne is often an indicator of what they have paid for the bottle, the reasoning being that they recover their cost with the 1st glass sold.

Something else I noticed on my recent travels, that besides having a great champagne list, restaurants/bars would often have a Champagne-of-the-Month, rotating brands not featured on their wine list, that way offering an even bigger selection.

I am not saying don’t offer the well-known big name brands, I would just like to see more SA establishments start thinking beyond these usual brands and in addition include more lesser-known champagnes on their wine lists.  It is definitely possible, there are a great many champagne brands available in our market that are not making it onto wine lists.

Pop, Fizz, Clink
The Champagne Chick
xo