Would you admit to liking demi-sec Champagne?

Have you ever tried demi-sec Champagne? If so, would you ever admit to liking the semi-sweet style? Champagne Jacquart’s chief winemaker Floriane Eznack doesn’t think so. Speaking to the drinks business at a tasting lunch at Chrysan in London last week, she told the magazine demi-sec has become the elephant in the room in Champagne.

“Our demi-sec sales are growing, but it’s the wine we don’t talk about. There’s still a prejudice surrounding the style. In the past people would add sugar to their Champagne to hide faults so it has a negative connotation. No one likes to talk about demi-sec in the region, but a lot of people like to drink it. The style isn’t going out of fashion, if anything it’s getting more popular,” she said.

Us Brits are notorious for having a sweet tooth and happily sing the praises of sweeter Sherry styles such as Oloroso, so why the hang up about demi-sec? There’s an implication that sweetness levels correspond to intellect, and the drier you like your wine the higher your intellect and more rapier-like your wit. Nonsense! Demi-sec has its place in both the Champagne arena and on the dinner table. It makes for a sensational food match with desserts like tarte tartan.

My taste tends to veer towards the drier end of the Champagne spectrum, but I’m staunchly against the idea of snobbery towards demi-sec for snobbery’s sake – it suffers the same prejudice as still rosé. Having spent a few glorious days in Provence this summer and witnessed first hand the time, care and attention top-end producers like Château d’Esclans and Domaines Ott put into their rosés, I find the narrow-mindedness of those who fail to take it seriously as a style hard to swallow.

All wine styles should be given a chance to prove themselves on their individual merits. As an aside, the aforementioned Eznack also revealed to db that sales of Jacquart rosé are booming in Japan due to the positive associations with the colour pink in the county. “Pink is a very important colour in Japan – it signals the coming of spring and cherry blossom, so our rosé sales have always been high there. I also think it pairs really well with Japanese cuisine, particularly sushi.”

Brad Pitt to serve own rosé wine at wedding

Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt is to serve one of his own wines at his wedding to actress Angelina Jolie this September, db.com reports. Among the wines hand-picked by Pitt for the reception will be Provençal rosé Pink Floyd, produced at Pitt and Jolie’s Château Miraval in Côtes de Provence, which dates from pre-Roman times.

The wine is so named as rock band Pink Floyd recorded part of their iconic album The Wall at the château, and reportedly became fond of the pink drop during their stay. The estate was home to Studio Miraval in the ‘70s, created by Jazz pianist Jacques Loussier, where everyone from Sting and Sade to The Cranberries came to record music.

The regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne will also feature in the wedding wine line-up, along with one wine from Germany. A source told The Sun: “Brad’s cellar boasts some incredibly rare wines and rivals those of some of the best connoisseurs in Europe. He’s always had a keen interest in wine and did his wine steward’s course this year.”

The Oxford Wine Company website describes the 2011 vintage of Pink Floyd as “a complex rosé with red berry, strawberry and red cherry fruit underpinned by crisp minerality and tight structure. The 13.5% wine, a blend of old vine Cinsault and Grenache, is bottled under cork.

Château Miraval is set among 400 hectares of land, 75 of which are planted with vines on a mixture of clay and chalk soil. In addition to Pink Floyd, the estate produces a white made from Rolle and a red made from Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. The château has certified organic vineyards in Côtes de Provence and Côteaux Varois.

Pitt and Jolie plan to tie the knot in September with only close family and friends present. Pitt has been left to do the majority of the wedding planning. In May, it was reported that Brad Pitt is to star in the film adaptation of The Billionaire’s Vinegar, a book by Benjamin Wallace on the fake Thomas Jefferson bottles affair.  

La Coste commissions Shard architect Renzo Piano

It's not only Rioja that boasts wineries designed by world class "starchitects", Château La Coste in Aix-en-Provence has commissioned The Shard architect Renzo Piano to create an eco-friendly building integrated into the landscape of the 120-hectare estate. “The building will have a grass roof, so it will be hard to tell where the landscape ends and the structure begins,” La Coste winemaker Matthieu Cosse told the drinks business. Owned by Irish property tycoon Paddy McKillen, projects by world-renowned architects Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers and Sir Norman Foster are also in development at La Coste.

Gehry is working with painter Tony Berlant on a sculpture pavilion, while Rogers is developing an exhibition room. La Coste already features the deconstructed wood and glass pavilion (above) Gehry exhibited at the Serpentine Galley in 2008, which is used to host concerts during the summer. McKillen has also commissioned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei to design a photography pavilion, and American light artist James Turrell, who has his own museum at Donald Hess-owned winery Colomé in Argentina, to create a tunnel of light.

Weiwei recently collaborated with internationally acclaimed architectural duo Herzog & de Meuron to create this year’s summer pavilion at the Serpentine Galley made predominantly of cork. McKillen put Japanese architect Tadao Ando in charge of pulling in the big name artists and architects at the estate, which also features work from the late Louise Bourgeois (above), Sean Scully, Richard Serra, and R.E.M frontman Michael Stipe. Work on the ambitious estate began in 2003, which opened to the public last summer, with Cosse reporting a huge amount of interest from UK, American and Japanese tourists.

A 29-room luxury hotel-spa designed by Tangram Architects is currently in development and scheduled to open in 2013. The winery itself is designed by Jean Nouvel, one of France’s most revered modern architects. The 120-hectare, 100% certified organic estate produces an extensive range of wines, along with its own organic olive oil. Unusually for Provence, red wine accounts for 40% of its production. McKillen part-owns luxury London hotels Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Berkeley, all of which are part of the Maybourne Hotel Group.

Domaines Ott

In my second of two tasting videos from a recent trip to Provence, The Wine Bird, Helena Nicklin, and I taste Domaines Ott Clos Mireille Blanc de Blancs 2011 with Ott's export manager Christophe Renard on the beach near to the estate in Côtes de Provence. Renard talks through the history of the iconic Ott bottle, while Nicklin recommends some food matches for the wine. The Mistral wind cheekily tried to steal the show, so please bear with us...

Chase swaps vodka for rosé

William Chase, founder of Herefordshire-based Chase Vodka, is to move into wine, having recently bought a vineyard in Aix en Provence. Speaking at the launch of the Chase Terrace at Harvey Nichols in London last week, Chase told the drinks business: “I’ve been keen to do a wine for a while and rosé is the perfect fit for us, plus Provence is a lovely part of the world.” 

“I’m really impressed with whay they’re doing at Château d’Esclans and Domaine Ott, and would like to do a similar thing in terms of launching a top end rosé,” Chase added, admitting he was drawn to making rosé for its easy drinking aspect. “Most rosé is made to be drunk within a couple of years, which appeals to me,” he said. 

Asked what he is to call his new estate, he said: “I’m toying with the idea of Domaine Chase, but I might call it something completely different.” Chase also revealed that he is experimenting with different bottle shapes at the moment, keen to do something distinctive to give the wine a signature. Bottling laws are relaxed in Provence, with a number of different shapes and sizes permitted, though Domaine Ott’s signature amphora shape is patented.

Château Routas

During a recent trip to sunny Provence with Vins de Provence, I paid a visit to Château Routas in Côteaux Varois, inches away from Brat Pitt and Angelina Jolie's Château Miraval, where I was greeted by affable, baseball cap-wearing Scotsman and friend of Sean Connery, Grahame "Haggie" Haggart. Pairing up with Helena Nicklin, aka The Wine Bird, in the following video we taste the award-winning Wild Boar Rosé 2011 and an unusual Viognier/Chardonnay blend, Coquelicot 2008, the former of which is available from TheDrinkShop.com. Salut!

Saignée method rosé “not true rosé”

François Millo, president of the Provence Wine Council, has slammed saignée-method rosé as “not true rosé.” Speaking to the drinks business at the London International Wine Fair, Millo said: “People who make saignée rosé are opportunists. In their mind they are making red wine – the rosé just happens to be a by-product. The saignée method is a bad way of making rosé. The wine is more of an afterthought, very few people in Provence use it.”

“85% of the wine we produce in Provence is rosé, so it’s at the top of our priority list – our grapes are grown for rosé,” Millo added. The saignée method (meaning “bleeding” in French), involves making rosé as a by-product of red wine fermentation, where a portion of the pink juice from the grape must is removed at an early stage, which is then fermented separately to produce rosé.

Millo favours the skin contact method, where black grapes are lightly crushed and the skins remain in contact with the juice for 1-3 days. The must is then pressed and the skins discarded. Millo said that rosé producers in Provence are aiming for the lightest colour possible without compromising the flavour profile, in response to consumer demand. 

“There’s a strong demand for the signature pale onion skin colour assocaited with Provence. Consumers see a lighter colour as a sign of quality,” he said, adding, “We’ve worked really hard recently on methods which allow us to extract the maximum flavour while keeping the wine as light in colour as possible. Techinques like night harvesting and macerating at lower temperatures have helped.”  

Millo has seen exports of Provence rosé surge in the US, up 20% on last year, with China and Brazil also proving lucrative markets. Despite its recent success, he feels the rosé category is still lacking both a recognised vocabulary and a world expert. “Rosé is the hardest wine to taste – there is no specific vocabulary for the flavours and aromas and no world expert specialising in rosé,” Millo admitted. 

Asked whether he is keen for rosé to be taken more seriously as a wine style, Millo warned of the dangers of naval gazing. “We want our wines to be taken seriously, but we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously. Bordeaux started taking itself seriously and it got boring,” he said. 

Blanc: English fizz a contender for world’s best

French celebrity chef Raymond Blanc OBE has got behind English sparkling wine, dubbing it “a serious contender for the world’s best sparking wine.” Speaking at the launch of Brasserie Blanc in Covent Garden, Blanc told the drinks business how the recent leap in quality of English sparking wine could pose a threat to Champagne.

“I visited Camel Valley in Cornwall six months ago and was really impressed, they are making some seriously good sparkling wines and winning a lot of gold medals in the top international competitions. The climate in England is still not quite right yet, and I’ve yet to taste a good Pinot Noir or Merlot from England, but it will come. England is reconnecting with its land – there’s a curiosity there. It’s a young country in terms of winemaking, but it’s steadily building its reputation – it’s exciting,” he said. 

English sparkling wine took centre stage on BBC TV show The Apprentice last week, where contestants were tasked with creating an online advert and website championing English fizz. Shortly after the programme screened on Wednesday night, English Sparkling Wine was trending worldwide on social media site Twitter as a result. 

In terms of Michelin stars, Blanc, the chef patron and part owner of two Michelin-starred country house hotel Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford says he’s never been bothered about them. He said: “I’m not mercenary, I don’t work for stars or ratings, I work for excellence. A star is simply a by-product of the quality, service and consistency you’re giving to your guests every day. Being the best and number one has never been my motivation, there’s more to life.” 

Blanc also revealed that he will be opening up his loos to the public during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend. “We’re having a big street party down my road in Oxford and I’ve been asked to provide all the patisserie. I’ll also be opening up my loos to the public as they’re big,” he joked. 

Blanc is keen to push wines from small vignerons in South West France in his Brasserie Blanc chain. “Everyone associates Provence with rosé, but there are some excellent Cru Classé reds coming out of the region, which I’m keen to promote. I also want to promote my region – Franche-Comté, so will be pushing Vin Jaune from Jura,” he said.

Raymond Blanc

Last week, I was lucky enough to interview ebullient, bow tie-clad celebrity chef Raymond Blanc OBE at the launch of his latest restaurant – Brasserie Blanc in Covent Garden, about the importance of food and wine matching, his ambitious expansion of the Brasserie Blanc chain in 2012, why he's never been bothered about Michelin stars and opening his loos to the public during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Cigalon

With Christmas now a distant memory, we're midway through the bleakest month of the year – a time of abstinence, detoxes, pretoxes and rain. A time when our minds are permitted to wonder and dream of blue skies, as we trudge through the daily drizzle.

What better way then to escape the gray, than at Cigalon, a slice of sunny Provence in London's legal throbbing heart. Opening its doors on Chancery Lane late last November, the former auction house shares street space with the College of Law and King's College London, and is a heartbeat away from the Royal Courts of Justice. A strange setting for somewhere so serene, but the juxtaposition serves to heighten the sense of escape.

Entering Cigalon's ethereal white space you feel truly transported, to a land of light and lavender, of cloudless climes and star anise. From the Tomette tiles paving the entrance and the white shuttered doors, to the high mirrors, lilac honeycomb trellising, and cicadas trilling through the speakers, the environment is almost a trompe l'oiel trick to fool you into thinking you're in Southern France. And I'm all for the illusion. It reminds me of the restaurants in Morocco, when, at the opening of a door, you can escape the snake charmers, tooth pullers and soothsayers of Marrakech's mad main square, and enter into the walled, fountain-filled, rose petal strewn bliss of a palatial pleasure dome.

I digress. Bypassing the City suits, my guest and I are seated in a plush lilac booth velveteen to the touch. Above us is a glass-domed ceiling, from which hang curious, white, birdcage-like fixtures filled with foliage. Our helpful waiter, sporting a fetching pair of lilac braces and a mauve tie, informs us that the restaurant is named after a 1935 film by Marcel Pagnol about a Provençal chef with delusions of grandeur. A Pagnol cocktail dutifully appears in a wide circular receptacle not unlike the Champagne glasses famously modeled on Marie Antoinette's breasts. Candy floss pink, it contains lychee, St Germain elderflower liqueur, pastis, vodka and cranberry, finished with a sprig of rosemary. Smooth, sharp and refreshing, it proves a delightful way to begin.

We continue with chunks of peasant bread dipped in olive oil and lashings of salty tapenade. Reading through the menu, I'm surprised at how sparse it is – just six starters, five mains and four specials. Simplicity seems to be key, with head chef Julien Carlon (of Comptoir Gascon fame) striving for authentic Provençal fare. I opt for the braised beef cannelloni in a red wine and bone marrow sauce to start, and am impressed by its tender, melt-in-the-mouth texture, paired with the rich, almost balsamic-like sauce. My companion's polenta with wild mushrooms and rocket is anything but boring – creamy and pleasantly grainy, it marries well with the earthy mushrooms and peppery rocket.

The main event is slightly more hit and miss. Not quite brave enough to order the lamb tripes and trotter stew, the waiter suggests the salt cod in a vegetable broth with aioli. It arrives Colgate white on a silver platter, atop a liferaft of vegetables in a sea of broth. The cod is well cooked, and made more interesting by the aioli, but I'm left deflated by the dish. My guest's rib of veal in Mentonaise sauce (a lemon and black olive dressing) provides more excitement. Perfectly pink, the veal sings with citrus, while the accompanying peppery chickpea fritters are fluffy and fun. The highlight is the unassuming black olive mash. Soft, creamy and comforting, I find myself scraping the bowl and craving for more.

The wine list is impressively weighted towards Provence – the first wine region in France to be cultivated – with cameos from Corsica. We're poured a biodynamic Viognier, L'Analepse, from Domaine Les Terres Promises. Having dined at Brawn the night before, I'm beginning to detect a thread weaving through natural wines. They're wonderfully unpredictable and frustratingly fickle. Deeply golden in colour, it neither smells nor tastes like a Viognier, but more like a slightly fizzy Fino, with oxidized aromas and a savoury finish.

And so to pudding - my moist cheese and lemon cake is lifted by the accompanying blackberry and lavender sorbet, while my guest's aniseed bitter chocolate tart arrives on a black slate next to a swash of goat's cheese curd. The rich chocolate paired with the salty curd makes for a curious, almost Heston-like combination of sweet and savory.

After adorable mini madeleines and mint tea, my companion and I retire to the Baranis bar below, which comes complete with an indoor petanque course. The subterranean space is all exposed brickwork, Pernod posters and stripy topped waiters, one of which whips up a Castaña cocktail for us - a creamy, chestnut concoction that sends us happily back into the rainy January night, after a blissful few hours cocooned in the lavender-scented bosom of Provence.

Cigalon 115 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PP, Tel: +44(0)20 7242 8373. A meal for two with wine, water and service costs around £100.

Wickham Vineyard harvest

In my three years at Decanter, I've yet to pick a grape. Until last weekend. With English sparkling's star in the ascendancy, I was keen to get out to one of our local vineyards and muck in with the picking.

Wickham Vineyard in Hampshire invited me to take part in their harvest last Saturday, along with members of WineShare - a vine sharing scheme that offers vine rentals in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Provence, Chianti and Hampshire.

Picking starts predictably early, so I have to board the train in London, bleary-eyed, at 7.30am, in order to be there for the 9.30 start. The early start is made bearable by the beautiful weather. It's one of those perfect autumn days - bright, crisp, and full of sunshine. Looking out of the train window, the leaves on the trees burn bright with jewel-like hues - copper, ruby and amber – in their final blaze of glory before death.

A short taxi ride from the station and I'm at the vineyard, being ushered into a garden full of WineShare members huddled together in their wellies, clutching cups of coffee for warmth. Gulping down a coffee (it's too early for bubbles, even for me) winemaker William Biddulph hands round a bucket of pruning sheers and explains our mission for the morning - to pick as many grapes as humanly possible.

Biddulph, who looks like a foppish Jason Donovan, started life at Berry Bros, then spent the mid '90s in Gisbourne, New Zealand, taking the helm at Wickham five years ago as winemaker on the seven hectare estate planted with six white and four red varieties, including the epically named Triomphe d'Alsace; the grape we're about to pick, which will go into their Row Ash Red 2010 and Row Ash Rosé NV.

We're split into three groups and given a row each to work on. Basket and sheers in hand, I stand at my alloted spot and get picking. There aren't many rules, we just have to avoid unripe and over-ripe bunches. Apprehensive of the sheers at first, I soon find my rhythm and pick up picking speed. Seeing everyone else frantically picking around you helps spur you on. It feels a bit like a competition, but the more you pick, the quicker your basket gets emptied.

Mid pick, I pop a couple of the grapes in my mouth. They're small, round and inky blue-black like blueberries. They're lovely and sweet but incredibly tannic. I decide not to eat any more, and take to peeling one open instead. Behind the blueberry skin, the flesh is red and pigmented like Dornfelder. I squidge it between my fingers and ruby red juice squirts everywhere.

After a couple of hours, the sun is high in the sky and warming our backs. It's hard work, and I find myself looking at my watch and wondering when we might be rewarded with lunch. Every now and then a quad bike roars up my row and zooms away with the contents of my basket. Flagging a little, I wish were picking to music. I run through a picking soundtrack in my head of high octane tracks to keep my momentum up.

Snipping off the final few bunches on my vine, I scan the row and realise it's naked of grapes. Lunch beckons. I bound back to the garden and am treated to a banquet of a buffet. Famished from my morning's work, I ask for a bit of everything and the food seems to taste especially good having laboured for it. In three hours our small group stripped the vineyard of two tonnes of grapes. We toast our success with a glass of Wickham Special Release Fumé - a blend of Bacchus and Reichensteiner aged in French oak. I'm looking forward to the Row Ash Red being bottled, and to drinking a wine I helped make.