Jiles's Blog

Who Am I?

17 years spent living and working in Champagne has allowed Jiles to build up a vast amount of knowledge about all things bubbly as well as a very extensive network of contacts, especially amongst the smaller and less well-known champagne makers whose champagnes will probably amaze you with their quality and diversity.

A job as area manager for Asia and Australia with Moët et Chandon was what first drew Jiles to Champagne after completing an MBA in Luxury Brand Management at ESSEC, a prestigious business school just outside Paris.

After nearly 9 years at Moët Jiles moved back to the UK where he started one of the first online businesses promoting and selling grower champagnes,

However the draw of ‘The King of Wines and the Wine of Kings’ once again proved irresistible and another 8 year stay in Champagne was the result. During this second stay in Champagne Jiles worked with the Syndicat Général des Vignerons de Champagne as an accedited consultant for small, independent champagne makers before setting up his own consultancy.

Jiles now spends his time between England and Champagne.and puts his knowledge and contacts to work helping wine lovers everywhere learn more about champagne and helping businesses and individuals to create their own private champagne brand.

He is the author of two books on champagne, several concise guides to champagne and is the creator of an online champagne study course called My Champagne Expert

Cuvée Champagne - What is it?

Jiles Halling 11 November 2013

I should start with a confession. I called this article Cuvée Champagne because I wanted to get it noticed on search engines and there appear to be an awful lot of people who search on-line for the term Cuvée Champagne.

Now that’s rather odd because there’s really no such thing as Cuvée Champagne, at least it’s certainly not a commonly used term.

Of course the word cuvée exists, but even that has two different meanings. So, perhaps a few lines on the subject will help everyone get a better understanding of this confusing term. Here goes then…

To pick or not to pick?

Jiles Halling 03 November 2013

Grapes-left-on-the-ground225 A short while ago I posted a short video on my Facebook page My Man In Champagne) showing lots of bunches of what looked like perfectly good grapes that had been picked and just left lying on the ground.

I was puzzled as to why anyone would do this and I promised to find out and let you have an explanation. Well, you can discover the reason below and whether you are someone who just wants to learn more about champagne, someone who is in the wine trade or perhaps someone who is studying wine, even with the WSET or another well-known wine school, this it will give you another insight into the intricacies of champagne that you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.

2013 Champagne Harvest - Bulletin 7

Jiles Halling 11 October 2013

Moet1953-225 I’ve always thought that the issue of declaring a vintage in Champagne should be treated differently than in other wine regions.

In most other wine regions there is usually a consensus about which years are good vintages and which years are not. Many people will tell you that there are also a few great years in Champagne that you really must seek out and discover. This means that some years become hugely popular but it also implies that the other vintages are a bit second rate. I think this is too simplistic. Let me explain why and at the end of the article you’ll find two short video interviews to show you what I mean…

2013 Champagne Harvest - Bulletin 6

Jiles Halling 08 October 2013

LansonTanker225 We’re about half way through the harvest in Champagne.

Down in the Aube things are drawing to a close and in La Côte des Blancs too some people have already finished and most others will be done in another couple of days. La Vallée de La Marne vineyards have several days picking in front of them yet, whilst on La Montagne de Reims, picking has only just started in some villages.

There will be plenty of time to bring you up to speed on the picking, pressing and fermenting in future blog posts, so today I wanted to bring you some of the less obvious sights and sounds of harvest time in Champagne.

2013 Champagne Harvest - Bulletin 5

Jiles Halling 04 October 2013

No Time To Waste

Lovely-ripe-grapes225 It rained most of last night. Early this morning the sky was still very threatening and the grapes were still moist from the overnight downpour.