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

 

 

The Best & Worst Bottles Of My Life

Jiles Halling

Tasting-at-Roger-Brun225One of the most colourful characters I have met in Champagne is Philippe Brun of champagne Roger Brun In Ay. Going to a tasting at his place is always an experience to remember, not just because of the excellent champagnes – which he serves in very generous measures – but also for the great stories he tells; proof once again that it’s stories that sell, not just a list of all the technical qualities of a wine

I have a couple videos of Philippe in full flight; the first is about the worst and the best bottles of wine he has ever enjoyed ( and neither were champagne!)

The second, which I’ll be posting a a few days, is about a wee joke he pulled on an audience of journalists and other members of the wine trade when he gave a tasting of his champagnes.

I love Philippe’s mischievous sense of fun. The wine industry is full of very knowledgeable and likeable people, but there is a tendency for some ‘experts’ to get carried away with their vocabulary and analysis of the wine, so it’s no bad thing occasionally to make sure they keep their feet on the ground.

Here's the first video. If you have any stories about your best or worst bottle of champagne or other wine, then do leave a comment here on on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/MyManInChampagne

 

New Ideas In Grower Champagnes

Jiles Halling

Chardonnay-and-Pinot-Noir-for-web-siteOne of the most interesting parts of my work is the consulting I do for the SGV (Syndicat Général des Vignerons de la Champagne) which is the body that represents many of the small grower champagnes.

I get to meet all sorts of little-known champagne makers all needing help to improve their marketing and increase their sales. Although there is certainly an increasing interest in Grower Champagnes amongst wine lovers who are looking for something other than the big brands, the issue for the producers is that there are hundreds of them, all trying to find a place in the market for their products.

That why I'm always encouraging them to think of what it is that makes their champagnes special enough to stand out from all the others. Many of the smaller producers struggle to find this point of differentiation but every now and then I meet someone who immediately stands out from the crowd and recently I met one who fitted straight into that category.

The Only Way To Spend Sunday Morning

Jiles Halling

In The Cellars At Hure Freres for MMIC web siteThe beauty of visiting the small champagne makers is that you're never sure exactly what's in store and that certainly proved to be the case last Sunday morning.

I'd been out on Saturday guiding a group of customers on one of my Insider's Tour Of Champagne days and when we got back we'd had such a good time that we didn't want the fun to end so we decided to call round to visit my neighbour and champagne-maker, Christophe Corbeaux, at his home on Sunday morning.

There's Gold In 'Tham Thar' Vineyards

Jiles Halling

Vines For SaleI always used to tell people that a hectare of prime vineyards in Champagne -  in a Grand Cru village - would set you back about a million euros.  It seems I'm way behind the times.

I was chatting to a prominent vigneron the other day, who has a very substantial estate, and he told me that he had recently been offered a hectare of Grand Cru at 1.8 million euros! That's a lot of money and it fact it's so much that you'd never get your money back from making champagne - or to put it another way, starting a champagne business these days is simply doesn't make economic sense.

To underline the point, so my source told me, here's what's happended to a few prices over the opast 10 years:

  • the price of a hectare of vines has gone up  72%
  • the price of a kilogram of grapes has increased 20%
  • but the selling price of a bottle of champagne has gone up a mere 1.5%

Who'd be a champagne maker eh?

Never mind, it's much easier being a champagne drinker!

Stay Bubbly

Jiles

Walking The Environmental Walk

Jiles Halling

Francois explains the soil for MMICHere's a story about a champagne maker who not only 'talks the talk' when it comes to looking after the environment, but 'walks the walk' as well.

It's François Huré at Huré Frères in Ludes and if you don't already know his champagnes, do be sure to taste them whenever you see them in a wine shop. or on the internet. You won't be disappointed.

Mind you, you don't have to take just my word for that: François has recently had a great write up from Brad Baker aka 'The Champagne Warrior' in his newsletter.

Brad's a leading authority on champagne and if he is impressed by something the chances are you will be too.

Air bubble in the bottle for MMICAnyway, François has recently announced that from next January he is changing the colour  of  the bottle for his rosé from clear to amber.

You may wonder why he's doing that when many people put more emphasis on a clear bottle to show off the colour of the wine inside.

You probably know already that one of the reasons that coloured glass is used is that it protects wine from ultra violet light which can give it an unpleasant 'goût de lumière'. That's one good reason for moving away from clear glass even though,  from a marketing point of view, clear bottles for rosé are more 'sexy'.

It seems however that although clear bottles may be easy on the eye, they're not so easy on our good 'ole Mother Earth.

HURE ROSE for MMICWhy not? Well for a start clear bottles aren't re-cycled, at least not as clear glass.

Used clear bottles get mixed in with green and brown glass and all sorts of other colours and once that happens you can't get clear glass out at the end of the recycling process. That means that all clear glass bottles are made from scratch - not the most efficient use of resources.

For another thing, to make clear glass you have to hear the furnace to a few hundred degrees more than for green and brown glass - again more energy needlessly going up in smoke.

I suspect that there are not many champagne makers who have gone to the trouble of researching the production of clear glass to the same extent as François Huré and probably even fewer who would actually take action on what they found out.

That's one more reason, if you still needed one, to discover Champagne Huré Frères as soon as you get the opportunity.


Do come back soon for more news and comment from Champagne and meanwhile....

Stay Bubbly

Jiles